And before book deals became a factor, most of the Obamas’ income was from Michelle’s job as a hospital administrator. Paid much better than the Illinois State Senate.

The problem that people who charge Obama with elitism have has nothing to do with what Obama “thinks.” Thats shorthand for what they fear, for what they perceive. Calling Obama an elitist is akin to saying “He’s better than us and he doesn’t even have the humility to pretend he isn’t so we don’t feel so inferior!” Its expressing outrage that someone would make them uncomfortable, that someone would make them feel small.

The charges of elitism from his detractors are the other side of the messianic sense you get from some of his supporters. Obama is someone who sits comfortably in the 99th percentile, looking back at the mean from three standard deviations away. He’s a human outlier, and people can see that. Some people look at a person like that and decide they want him to save them, some look at him and become angry because he has something they want but can’t have.

I think it’s rather obvious what she and other white folk mean when they call Obama ‘elitist’ or ‘arrogant’ or ‘cocky’–and it’s spelled U-P-P-I-T-Y.

amandaw-its all a dog and pony show for the “low info voter”, a lot of people actually do vote on their perception of this kind of shit, I have coworkers that still think of mccain as the dude in 2000 with his straight talk and he makes them feel better about themselves. the issues dont seem to matter much and somehow the repubs can get tens of millions of people to vote against their own interest, its amazing. that and a lot of people just assume what mccain is for platform wise based on being a republican, they dont change their opinion much and they sure as heck dont go and try and find the information. One nugget of anecdata, i was talking with 4 of my friends, all republicans, about what the republican party is now (its not all bad, there are factions within it i can agree with some of the time) and i brought up goldwater…none of them knew who goldwater was, they have their idea of what the republican party is, what it does and what it stands for and they just wont change it an iota, fascinating.

Lady Lynn de Forester Rothschild calls Obama an ‘elitist.’

Seriously. What on earth does this extremely rich aristocrat mean when she says Obama is an elitist?

WORD

That attitude sucks for everyone and all situations. It’s not just about sympathy for the non-elite. It’s about sympathy for anyone! Absolutely no one deserves to be a football between somebody else’s war to attack or preserve self-image. Racism, sexism, ablism, ageism, classism; none of these should be slung at a slur at other people when the argument’s really about something else. It’s hard enough to get a frank discussion about these topics. It’s even harder to truly lighten the burdens of these ‘ism on the individuals afflicted. Let’s not make it harder.

Affecting a cheesy accent from a place that’s truly not your home, being seen to drink cheap beer of the masses, showing an accordance of belief in the erroneous morality of the petit bourgeois and their religious hangers-on, all of that enfranchises an ugly dynamic of appealing to the self-loathing of the lower classes. Instead of being elite, in the sense that anyone can become elite, we must cover that up such that the ones who are less might have a curdled film over their gelatinous discontent.

Shorter amandaw: Even their “caring” about us is really about them.