Confessions of an Elitist

by Sherman Yellen | from the Huffington Post

I'm an unrepentant elitist. I must report that I even read the New York Review of Books and the London Times Literary Supplement. No kidding. I enjoy them. Not bragging, just confessing. I should have been out more playing in the fresh air when I was a kid. And most of all I deeply admire literacy and rationality in others. See, I have enough guts to start a sentence with an and? Only an elitist would do that. It's the confidence that allows us (or is it we?) elitists to toss out the rules and live by our own notion of what makes a good life or a good sentence. But what I don't have this week is patience with those who have come down hard on Barack Obama by calling him an elitist (read: snob) for making a clumsy but rational and compassionate statement about those people who cannot escape the crushing misfortune of unemployment with its debt and despair; a statement of concern for people who lack health care, and who are forced to live by the first rule of George Bush's America which states, "get rich quick or get out of sight and die quietly."

If you don't believe that small-town America is suffering from despair take a drive through some of those quaint old New England villages with their iconic white churches and their moribund Main Streets that were killed years ago by some massive Kmart mall a few miles away, a mall in which almost nothing is sold with a "made in the USA" label. It's hard to find a town without a storefront that carries the ubiquitous sign "Drug Rehab Center." It's a sign more frequently seen than "Fresh Apple Cider and Maple Syrup sold here." Small-town America is hurting. And when Obama pointed that out it was a humane judgment about the cramped and desperate lives of so many people who live far from the more prosperous cities and their opportunities. His rivals, Clinton and McCain, have tried to turn his somewhat awkward observation into a fatal political blunder. And they are doing a good job of it, word twisting is a highly competitive Olympic sport in which Republicans excel, but a gal like Hillary can easily compete. The rip snortin' gun totin', beer guzzlin' Hillary Hell Raiser, trained to shoot straight during her heroic counter-insurgency exploits in Bosnia, also knows best what the poor feel and need. Didn't she go to Wellesley College and take Miss Witherspoon's Compassion 101 course? This elitist charge about Obama has been picked up and treated with the usual intellectual shabbiness by a mainstream press, and its right wing pundits. The conservative press really wants us to believe that the world is made up of the caring rich (Bush, and McCain) and the happy poor, so that nobody does anything to alter the way things are.

John McCain -- no elitist he -- but a world class opportunist -- has picked up Hillary's song and is singing it loud for all the world to hear. He once did a lousy imitation of Barbra Streisand, but his attempt to impersonate Hillary is far better, he gets the scolding, self-congratulating tone just right. Listen to his new commercial which attacks Obama for his elitism, so filled with the glee of gotcha politics, with the bully boy chuckle scarcely concealed underneath. McCain, who succeeded in financing his ambitions by divorcing one wife and marrying upwards to his rich Cindy doesn't think that Obama has a clue about the white, rural poor. After all, how can a poor black kid ever know what poor white people feel? Hunger, fear, and desperation obviously have different DNA in black and white folks.

Yes, I've had my own problem with Obama's cool demeanor in the past but I see it now for what it is; the careful manner of a man who occasionally puts up a protective shield between himself and the world. And well he should. Let's cut to the chase, as they used to say in Hollywood. What the elite-mongers are actually doing is calling Obama an uppity ni**er and he knows it. What they are saying is "How dare this black man who was raised by a single mother on food stamps and managed to make his way through Harvard pass judgment on those poor whites who didn't have his good fortune in being born black and poor?" Why can't he be more like that decent Colin Powell who took his orders from Bush and spread his lies before the United Nations and then went home to choke on them? Or more like Condi who does a little tap dance with the truth every time she is called before Congress to testify about her egregious failures of judgment? That's the way decent black folks are supposed to behave in government these days.

If elitist means that you were against the Iraq war from the start because you were informed enough to see the horror ahead, then I am an elitist, as were so many in this country, particularly Barack Obama. For me being elitist means making intelligent judgments and rational distinctions and trying to understand the dilemma and the concerns of those who haven't gotten the breaks. Okay, I'm an elitist. But I'll sock anyone in the nose who dares to call me a snob.

Sherman Yellen, screenwriter, playwright, and lyricist, was nominated for a Tony Award for his book for the musical, The Rothschilds. Sherman's plays include Strangers, a biographical drama about Sinclair Lewis which was produced on Broadway, and most recently the drama December Fools, produced by the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex in New York in January-March '06. His new musical, Josephine Tonight!, tracing the early life of Josephine Baker from Jim Crow America to Paris in the twenties, was produced in Chicago in February '06, and praised by the Chicago Sun-Times: with its "pure musical comedy style, and its funny, sexy, exuberant score, it has hit written all over it." Sherman's screenwriting has won him two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award, first for his drama John Adams, Lawyer in the PBS series The Adams Chronicles, and later for An Early Frost, a groundbreaking drama about AIDS in America. His Beauty and the Beast with George C. Scott was nominated for an Emmy and won the Christopher Award. Yellen received a lifetime achievement award in Arts and Letters from Bard College. Growing up in New York under FDR, Sherman has watched with great sadness the Bush administration's dismantling of social programs and social progress in this country. He has been appalled by the heartlessness and greed that now passes for government policy. As an observer of contemporary American life, Sherman believes it is the obligation of artists to speak out against the erosion of our democracy during these troubling times.

'Bitter' Sweet Symphony, Day 4

Posted: Tuesday, April 15, 2008 9:19 AM by Mark Murray

Obama told the Philly Inquirer that people find stability in their traditions and are vulnerable to politicians exploiting wedge issues. “‘As a wise old woman who was talking to me the other day said, “You misspoke, but you didn’t lie,”’” he said.”

The Washington Post checks in with two undecided superdelegates to get their reaction to Obama's comments. “Looking for any possible edge, the Clinton campaign has pressed uncommitted superdelegates to view Obama's remarks as a major debacle that could harm him in November. But as of yesterday evening, there was little evidence that the electability argument is resonating. “Rep. Mike Doyle (D), an undecided superdelegate who represents Pittsburgh and surrounding towns in the Monongahela Valley, said yesterday that he was not particularly troubled by Obama's comments. ‘I don't disagree with a lot of what he said. My dad was a mill worker. My grandfather was a steel mill worker, and when the steel industry collapsed, nobody's family was hurt more than mine,’ Doyle said. ‘It's not inaccurate to say a lot of politicians have come through these towns, made a lot of promises and failed to deliver. I thought he was spot-on when he said how people feel.’”

“He added that Obama's unexpected endorsement yesterday by Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney ‘carries a hell of a lot more weight’ than the blowup over his comments about small-town residents. Rep. David E. Price, an uncommitted Democrat from North Carolina, which holds its primary May 6, said his frustrations are with Clinton, for the potential damage she has inflicted. ‘Senator Obama could have chosen better words, but it seems to me that he's stating the obvious,’ Price said. ‘People are feeling a great deal of economic stress, anxiety, and there is a certain amount of anger out there… I think it's most unfortunate that opponents simply pounce, particularly opponents in his own party.’”

The LA Times: "Obama … struck back at his rivals Monday by saying that voters were tired of politicians who fanned ‘fake controversies" for their own advantage.’” More: "Obama said Monday that he would ‘never walk away from the larger point’ he was trying to make.”

“Obama argued that politicians had fostered a legacy of cynicism by continually pledging to address what he called ‘the downside of globalization’ and then going back to Washington to fight ‘over the latest distraction of the week.’”

The Boston Globe notes the irony in Obama getting caught up in the “elitist” controversy. “The irony of Obama playing into those very suspicions is that he often argues forcefully that the Democratic Party must broaden its appeal ideologically and expand its base of support beyond the coasts to build a ‘governing majority’ and bring true change to the country. Obama, who wants to prove in Pennsylvania he can draw working-class votes key to winning swing states in November, often cites his primary and caucus wins in rural red states as proof he can lead the party in that direction.”

The liberal intelligentsia (a.k.a, America's op-ed writers) seems to side with Obama. Bob Herbert: "But there is something perverse in the effort to portray Senator Obama — who has tried hard to promote a message of unity and healing — as some kind of divisive figure. He has spoken with great insight and empathy, most notably in his race speech in Philadelphia, about the anxiety and frustration of middle- and working-class Americans. In his San Francisco comments, Senator Obama fouled up when he linked frustration and bitterness over economic hard times with America’s romance with guns and embrace of religion. But, please, let’s get a grip. What we ought to be worked up about is the racism that still prevents some people from giving a candidate a fair chance because of his skin color."

The L.A. Times profiles the citizen-journalist who taped Obama at the San Fran fundraiser and wrote about it.

The San Francisco Chronicle wonders if Obama's remarks are getting more negative traction because he uttered them in liberal bastion San Francisco.

109 MILLION Points of Bitterness

April 13, 2008

Robert A. Kezelis

Dead-Eye Hill announced that she was incited that Barack had the audacity to suggest that some people might hang on to guns and god, while they are bitter about their future prospects. In her most haughty, I am Queen voice, she called Barack Obama, truly a self-made man, that nastiest of comments ever heard - Elite. What an attack, intended to be heard by Pennsylvanians whose jobs are gone forever. Elite? Oh, my, the horrors!

Last night, between anti-Elitism attackes, Dead-Eye Hill went out for some boilermakers and downed a few brews, while exchanging hunting, and presumably fish stories. I suspect that if fishing did come up, word will leak that Hillary caught the whale that swallowed Jonah, saving his life, (using flyweight #3 line, on a custom, handcrafted, Strato-caster pole, using two ounces of lead, a stainless leader, and a barbless hook - because Hillary practices "catch and release" when she concocts biblical tall fish stories. Hillary has ALL the details down pat.) before having to admit that she lied about that, too.

How sweet. "Pour beer, Hill, smile now. OK, you in the blue collar shirt, smile and give Hillary a toast. Camera ready? ROLL IT. ACTION." Making sure the camera gets the perfect lighting of Hill rubbing elbows with the common beer-drinking man is not an easy task. It is almost as hard to catch Hillary choking up on cue. Damn, that takes practice, practice, practice. You can only do it in one take, you see.

So Obama is the one tagged with the elite label, all the while that Little Miss Inevitable chartered a private plane to avoid rubbing shoulders with the media (at least until she ran out of money). Her husband earned a cool $800,000 in future bribe money from pro-Colombian trade pacts lobbyists, half of which she can use for her campaign. Instead of firing Mark Penn for double dipping with Colombia, she merely changes his title. And all the while, she attacks Obama for no being strong enough on trade issues. Worst of all, Howard Wolfson also takes Colombian trade money, leaving Hillary as the only individual in her entire campaign that seems to have missed out on free money.

But she is against the trade agreement. Honestly. Trust her. Really. This is no fish or Nafta story.

Between her Bosnian sniper attacks, her lies about Obama and the Canadians on NAFTA, her pretending that her staff did NOT spread lies about Obama being a Muslim, then attacking his christian preacher, Hillary has shown just how low she will go. Finally, I can understand why Mark Penn is dining with Karen Hughes (Bush's former right hand man), why Bill respects Karl Rove as a political genius, and why Hillary's acquaintance with truth and veracity is not just passing, but she crosses the street against the lights, just to avoid running into it again.

$109,000,000 since 2000. That is the Clintons' income. Not including unreported large sums from Qatar and other middle east sources. (of course, mentioning these will make Obama anti-semitic, somehow). And what of his library funding, exceeding $150,000,000 from FOREIGN sources? It sure looks like his friendship with papa Bush certainly has paid off.

Obama recently paid back is school loans. Hillary turned $1000 into a magical $100,000. Obama worked the streets in poverty and crime ridden areas of Chicago, seeing first hand the hopeless and the damage they have suffered. Hillary's family had a summer cottage where she spent her summers. Instead of a Wall street firm (easy to do for a Harvard Law Review editor) Obama worked for a small local firm. With her husband as governor, Hillary worked for the Rose Firm, the biggest corporate firm in that region. Obama donated his time, Hilalry sat on the Wallmart Board of Directors, making anti-union and anti-worker decisions. Obama writes books, Hillary hires others to write them for her.

It just begs the question: JUST WHO THE HELL IS ELITE HERE, DEAD-EYE HILL?