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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Clarence Page
In her continuing effort to distance herself from her own beliefs, Delaware's Christine O'Donnell is trying her level best to convince the world that she's a genuine, regular person. If she can fake that, as an old saying goes, she's got it made.
In her first television ad as the state's Republican Senate nominee, the youthful 41-year-old famously announced, "I am not a witch." I'm glad so that she cleared that up. This may be the first time since the 1692 Salem witch trials that an American candidate has felt compelled to make that disclaimer.
Having set a low bar of achievement for herself, her more recent television ad slides even farther down the socioeconomic ladder of one-downsmanship. "I didn't go to
He is Democratic Chris Coons, the New Castle County executive and holder of two post-graduate degrees in law and divinity -- from
O'Donnell, by contrast, has been awash in more proletarian disputes, such as whether she exaggerated her own educational credentials and used campaign donations to pay rent. If she's calculating that people who hold
With that O'Donnell's story illustrates the larger theme of the
Even fellow conservatives are not immune. Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle, for example, called Sen. Bob Bennett, a Utah Republican, an "out of touch" elitist after he pointed out something obvious about the Tea Partiers: They have no identifiable strategy.
Bennett's comment came after he lost his renomination because he wasn't conservative enough for his party's
With that, Angle shows herself to be a Tea Partier who does have a strategy after all: Redefine "elitist" as anyone who disagrees with you.
That view appears to be shared by Carly Fiorina, California's Republican Senate nominee. In an April fundraising letter she didn't let her past as a CEO of
Sharing this partisan view of who an "elitist" is, conservative activist Virginia "Ginni" Thomas recently rallied a cheering
That's why O'Donnell's desperate attempt to devalue
It saddens me to hear other conservatives -- many of whom quite properly denounce black kids who ridicule academic achievement as "acting white" -- ridicule high-achieving college graduates as "elitists."
What kind of message does that send to our children? Work hard, get a good education and maybe you, too, can become successful enough to be denounced as an elitist?
That's why, when I hear Obama's critics knock him with the E-word, I take it as a sign of social progress. As recently as two or three decades ago, it would have been inconceivable for a black man to be portrayed as out of touch with the working class -- unless perhaps he was a member of the underclass. We've come a long way as a nation, haven't we?
Obama should wear his achievement proudly, but not too proudly. Somebody might think he's stuck-up.
Available at Amazon.com:
The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama
The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
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