The intellectual contempt for different opinions is well captured in the recent rush to prophylacticly ascribe any Obama loss to racism. AFL-CIO official Bill George was quoted saying that his members weren’t “educated” enough to support Obama, but that he’ll “educate” them. What an exceptional expression of contempt for one’s own, or for the possibility that there exist other legitimate viewpoints about who would best lead the country. Telling, too; it assumes that such Americans are too stupid to notice.
But they are not; the phone lines were jammed at the Capitol this past week by many of those same Americans who had had it with putative elites getting us into a mess, then foisting the cost on the taxpayer, while having the very same people supervise the clean-up operation. To the left, that meant President Bush and Secretary Paulson; to the right, that meant financial “experts” like Cong. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd, who vehemently and repeatedly denied any problem at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and stymied attempts at reform. How’d that work out? To many people, it was one more example of self-serving elites deciding they knew best. Right or wrong, a lot of congressmen who wanted to be re-elected listened to this public roar.
Intellectual contempt also showed itself in some of the reaction to the Palin/Couric interview. Kathleen Parker sniffed that Palin was “out of her league,” and Fareed Zakaria similarly hopes she’ll decide to “spend more time with her family.” But what was singularly stupid was the economic question Couric asked-as though spending $700 billion on a long wish list of economic subsidies and transfer payments was an alternate proposal to restore liquidity and confidence to credit markets and accurate valuations to illiquid toxic securities. While many scoff about Palin’s lack of foreign policy “experience,” weren’t we told we’d had enough of that with Cheney? And do we recall how derided that ignorant cowboy Reagan was? It’s good to remember that judgment trumps mileage. For many voters, someone with a long history of bad calls may be less appealing than someone with good sense.
Palin was a little stilted in her recent media interviews – like Clarence Thomas in this initial confirmation hearings, she seemed to have been coached too much on what to say and not to say. As with Reagan, one hope’s McCain’s people will let Palin be Palin, particularly during Thursday’s debate.
It may not be visible to those whose noses are too high in the air to see their fellow citizens, but to many the uncoached Gov. Palin is attractive precisely because she reminds them of the virtues of plain speaking, decisive action, and a certain moral clarity where actions have consequences, people of goodwill have different views, and no Americans are more equal than others. The modern elitists may not like it, but for many, that’s the change we deserve.