The New York Times: What Has Barack Obama Accomplished That Entitles Him To Look Down On His Fellow Americans?
14 Apr 2008 13:36 Africa/Lagos
RNC: The Mask Slips, From The New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --
The following is an op-ed by William Kristol and is being issued by the Republican National Committee:
I haven't read much Karl Marx since the early 1980s...
My occasion for spending a little time once again with the old Communist was Barack Obama's now-famous comment at an April 6 San Francisco fund-raiser. ...
This sent me to Marx's famous statement about religion in the introduction to his "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right":
"Religious suffering is at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of a soulless condition. It is the opium of the people." ...
[I]t's one thing for a German thinker to assert that "religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature." It's another thing for an American presidential candidate to claim that we "cling to ... religion" out of economic frustration.
And it's a particularly odd claim for Barack Obama to make. After all, in his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, he emphasized with pride that blue-state Americans, too, "worship an awesome God." ...
But Obama in San Francisco does no courtesy to his fellow Americans. Look at the other claims he makes about those small-town voters.
Obama ascribes their anti-trade sentiment to economic frustration -- as if there are no respectable arguments against more free-trade agreements. ...
Then there's what Obama calls "anti-immigrant sentiment." Has Obama done anything to address it? It was John McCain, not Obama, who took political risks to try to resolve the issue of illegal immigration by putting his weight behind an attempt at immigration reform. ...
As for small-town Americans' alleged "antipathy to people who aren't like them": During what Obama considers the terrible Clinton-Bush years of economic frustration, by any measurement of public opinion polling or observed behavior, Americans have become far more tolerant and respectful of minorities who are not "like them." ...
Gun ownership has been around for an awfully long time. And people may have good reasons to, and in any case have a constitutional right to, own guns...
What does this mean for Obama's presidential prospects? He's disdainful of small-town America -- one might say, of bourgeois America. He's usually good at disguising this. But in San Francisco the mask slipped. And it's not so easy to get elected by a citizenry you patronize. ...
[W]hat has Barack Obama accomplished that entitles him to look down on his fellow Americans?
To View The Entire Article, Please Visit: The New York Times.
A Product Of The RNC Research Department
Paid for by the Republican National Committee.
www.gop.com
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Source: Republican National Committee
CONTACT: Republican National Committee, +1-202-863-8614
Web Site: GOP
RNC: The Mask Slips, From The New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --
The following is an op-ed by William Kristol and is being issued by the Republican National Committee:
I haven't read much Karl Marx since the early 1980s...
My occasion for spending a little time once again with the old Communist was Barack Obama's now-famous comment at an April 6 San Francisco fund-raiser. ...
This sent me to Marx's famous statement about religion in the introduction to his "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right":
"Religious suffering is at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of a soulless condition. It is the opium of the people." ...
[I]t's one thing for a German thinker to assert that "religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature." It's another thing for an American presidential candidate to claim that we "cling to ... religion" out of economic frustration.
And it's a particularly odd claim for Barack Obama to make. After all, in his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention, he emphasized with pride that blue-state Americans, too, "worship an awesome God." ...
But Obama in San Francisco does no courtesy to his fellow Americans. Look at the other claims he makes about those small-town voters.
Obama ascribes their anti-trade sentiment to economic frustration -- as if there are no respectable arguments against more free-trade agreements. ...
Then there's what Obama calls "anti-immigrant sentiment." Has Obama done anything to address it? It was John McCain, not Obama, who took political risks to try to resolve the issue of illegal immigration by putting his weight behind an attempt at immigration reform. ...
As for small-town Americans' alleged "antipathy to people who aren't like them": During what Obama considers the terrible Clinton-Bush years of economic frustration, by any measurement of public opinion polling or observed behavior, Americans have become far more tolerant and respectful of minorities who are not "like them." ...
Gun ownership has been around for an awfully long time. And people may have good reasons to, and in any case have a constitutional right to, own guns...
What does this mean for Obama's presidential prospects? He's disdainful of small-town America -- one might say, of bourgeois America. He's usually good at disguising this. But in San Francisco the mask slipped. And it's not so easy to get elected by a citizenry you patronize. ...
[W]hat has Barack Obama accomplished that entitles him to look down on his fellow Americans?
To View The Entire Article, Please Visit: The New York Times.
A Product Of The RNC Research Department
Paid for by the Republican National Committee.
www.gop.com
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Source: Republican National Committee
CONTACT: Republican National Committee, +1-202-863-8614
Web Site: GOP
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