Ignorance & Pride
Lee on Aug 05 2008 at 5:46 pm | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008
Obama might be giving McCain more ammunition for the contention he is a condescending elitist. Denouncing Republican attacks on his energy plan as lies, he countered that “these guys take pride in being ignorant.”
Huffington Post and the leftblogs are naturally eating it up (boom, boom, boom, boom). But it probably won’t play as well with Middle America, where partisan conceit of this sort is typically unwelcome.
Or perhaps anywhere where the allegations of ‘Paris Hilton celebrity’ –which could be described as a combination of vanity and vacuity in itself– have done real damage to Obama. Obama’s suggestion might have a certain flavor of irony there.
At any rate, behold a nastier campaign of a very old sort. Credit goes to both men.
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boom boom boom boom
That baby talk!
I like it like that
A-haw haw haw haw
John Lee Hooker makes an unexpected appearance.
Obama is different first his is a crack dealer, his slick teleprompter conversation will not play in Middle America, he is from Illinois, he knows better I guess. Mc cain do not need to jump in the ditch with Obama and let Obama destroy himself by opening his mouth. He is either flip-flopping or saying something noone understand or is just plain ignorant. How did a canidate so ill prepared get to be this far along the election process? What kind of behind the scenes deals were made? Why has President Clinton making himself an issue? Mc Cain better watch out for Slick Willie, this dummying down Barrack could all be a ploy for the debates, put nothing past the Clintons.
It’s not pride in ignorance. It’s much more nuanced than that.
For instance, Obama should not assume that those hicks he denigrates do not understand the difference between knowledge, intelligence and wisdom.
When Obama says “ignorance” there are people like myself who have the reaction of, “Yeah, so?”
Because there most certainly is an element of pride, not in ignorance, but in NOT valuing knowledge, particularly formal knowledge, over intelligence or wisdom. In other words… those hicks who “value their ignorance” actually consider themselves wiser and quite likely smarter (or every bit as smart) as Obama. They look down (they really do) on the formally educated who presume to come into their world and tell them that they know better.
“I know better than you” is not respectful of other people’s lives.