An Open Letter to the Elites Who Think They Know Better Than the Rest of Us

To: Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Chris Matthews, Aaron Brown, Judy Woodruff, Al Hunt, Mark Shields, George Stephanopolous, Keith Olberman, Tim Russert, Margaret Carlson, Juan Williams, Terry McAuliffe, Tom Harkin, Tom Daschle, Nancy Pelosi, Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Kofi Annan, Hans Blix, Wesley Clark, Merrill McPeak, William Crowe, Ann Lewis, Tad Devine, Bob Schrum, The Entire NPR Staff, Mary Mapes and the staff of 60 Minutes, Gwen Ifle, Molly Ivans, Katie Couric, Laurence O’Donnell, Maureen Dowd, Barbra Streisand, Bill Mahr, Al Franken, Michael Moore, Rob Reiner, Martin Sheen, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, George Soros, Dennis Kucinich, Nicholas Kristof, Richard Cohen, Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, and all the other "superior," lefty/lib, socialist, hand-wringing, one-worlder, redistributionist, race-baiting, class-envy types who disgracefully used Iraq bad news and rejoiced as the numbers of casualties mounted to fuel their drive for power, and who think they know better than the American people:

We, the patriotic American people, won the election yesterday and defeated the treasonous John Kerry despite the most fervent, unethical, illegitimate, and illegal efforts of all of you, and leftist academics, limousine liberals, Hollywood traitors, politically-ambitious lefty generals, the ACLU, socialist crazies, and other America-haters. Now shut the f*** up and let the PEOPLE run the government without being lectured by the likes of you whiners.

For your information, I have arranged a wide selection of non-stop flights to Paris, Pyongyang, Tehran, Moscow, Berlin, Madrid, Mexico City, Ottawa, Hanoi, Havana and the other locales you favor, where the uneducated, uncultured, unsophisticated, flag-waving, gun-toting, Bible-clutching rubes that refused to listen to your considered wisdom cannot be found.

If none of these capital cities meets with your approval, connections to many wretched, third world hell-holes are available (like Maputo, Mozambique, ancestral home of the would-be First Lady, African-American Ter-ay-za Heinz), where you can mingle with the kind of people you love, and for whom you would empty America's treasury if you were ever to ascend to power.

PS: Although Waziristan is lovely this time of year, I'd advise against traveling there. As you well know, Mr. Bin-Laden is the most noted resident of the region, and while he hates all westerners in general, he has particular scorn for those that espouse the liberalism, atheism, secularism, abortion, hedonism, and socialism you all adore. So, don’t go losing your heads by traveling there.

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Living Poor, Voting Rich
NY Times ^ | November 3, 2004 | NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Posted on 11/03/2004 10:07:07 AM PST by neverdem

OP-ED COLUMNIST ****** I don't think this guy gets it. I think this is the liberalMSN take on who votes Republican and it is partly right. First: the "POOR" are not poor, at least not the ones who care to vote. They have food, shleter, and most important: prospects. If you have no prospects you might be a democrat. Second: you can't possibly avoid denigrating religion and religious thought if you DON'T believe ! Sorry, just doesn't work. You can't walk the walk and talk the talk if you don't believe. If it isn't in your heart you smell 'funny' and we eat you. Elitist ivory tower socialist Hollywood values don't play well when people have prospects and faith in God. You need a hopeless population willing to believe in a Stalin (or Michael Moore) as God in order to really build the numbers to a majority.******

In the aftermath of this civil war that our nation has just fought, one result is clear: the Democratic Party's first priority should be to reconnect with the American heartland.

I'm writing this on tenterhooks on Tuesday, without knowing the election results. But whether John Kerry's supporters are now celebrating or seeking asylum abroad, they should be feeling wretched about the millions of farmers, factory workers and waitresses who ended up voting - utterly against their own interests doesn't get it- for Republican candidates.

One of the Republican Party's major successes over the last few decades has been to persuade many of the working poor to vote for tax breaks for billionaire****billionaires create jobs.**** Democrats are still effective on bread-and-butter issues like health care, but they come across in much of America as arrogant and out of touch the moment the discussion shifts to values.****Yes****

"On values, they are really noncompetitive in the heartland," noted Mike Johanns, a Republican who is governor of Nebraska. "This kind of elitist, Eastern approach to the party is just devastating in the Midwest and Western states. It's very difficult for senatorial, Congressional and even local candidates to survive."*****Dashle lost when it finally became evident that he was one person in Washington and another in South Dakota******

In the summer, I was home - too briefly - in Yamhill, Ore., a rural, working-class area where most people would benefit from Democratic policies on taxes and health care. But many of those people disdain Democrats as elitists who empathize with spotted owls rather than loggers.****With more than adequate reason*****

One problem is the yuppification of the Democratic Party. Thomas Frank, author of the best political book of the year, "What's the Matter With Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America," says that Democratic leaders have been so eager to win over suburban professionals that they have lost touch with blue-collar America.

"There is a very upper-middle-class flavor to liberalism, and that's just bound to rub average people the wrong way," Mr. Frank said. He notes that Republicans have used "culturally powerful but content-free issues" to connect to ordinary voters.

To put it another way, Democrats peddle issues, and Republicans sell values. Consider the four G's: God, guns, gays and grizzlies.

One-third of Americans are evangelical Christians, and many of them perceive Democrats as often ****yes****contemptuous of their faith. And, frankly, they're often right. Some evangelicals take revenge by smiting Democratic candidates.****go figure****

Then we have guns, which are such an emotive issue that Idaho's Democratic candidate for the Senate two years ago, Alan Blinken, felt obliged to declare that he owned 24 guns "and I use them all." He still lost.****** We use our guns. We make sure they are in working order. We like the feel. We like the result of a properly placed hole in a distant target. We like the smell of gun oil and the sheen of well preserved rifling in a pitless barrel. We like dawn and sunset in the woods. We like to know we have a chance against anyone who would take away our lives, our homes, our families, our prospects. It is a hot button issue.*****

As for gays, that's a rare wedge issue that Democrats have managed to neutralize in part, along with abortion. Most Americans disapprove of gay marriage but do support some kind of civil unions (just as they oppose "partial birth" abortions but don't want teenage girls to die from coat-hanger abortions).****I happen to agree ****

Finally, grizzlies - a metaphor for the way environmentalism is often perceived in the West as high-handed. When I visited Idaho, people were still enraged over a Clinton proposal to introduce 25 grizzly bears into the wild. It wasn't worth antagonizing most of Idaho over 25 bears.****or spotted owls****

"The Republicans are smarter," mused Oregon's governor, Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat. "They've created ... these social issues to get the public to stop looking at what's happening to them economically." ****What's happening is that anyone who is willing to work has PROSPECTS. Not handouts, PROSPECTS!****

"What we once thought - that people would vote in their economic self-interest******If being KEPT in one's present 'blue-collar' or 'no-collar' position is self-interest, I'll eat my hat***** - is not true, and we Democrats haven't figured out how to deal with that." *****The attitude of: "You work your little heart out and I'll bring your kids a lollipop" just goes nowhere if one has the prospect of a 401K, a little fishing place on a lake, a kid in college, or a comfortable retirement playing with grandkids after church.*****

Bill Clinton intuitively understood the challenge, and John Edwards seems to as well, perhaps because of their own working-class origins. But the party as a whole is mostly in denial.

To appeal to middle America, Democratic leaders don't need to carry guns to church services and shoot grizzlies on the way. But a starting point would be to shed their inhibitions about talking about faith, and to work more with religious groups. *****If you don't smell right we'll eat you!!! *****

Otherwise, the Democratic Party's efforts to improve the lives of working-class Americans in the long run will be blocked by the very people the Democrats aim to help.*****People with their own prospects do not need to be IMPROVED by elitist snobs who know what is best for the rest of us.******

*****papadoc1945*****

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