>Ratatosk
Are you serious?
Obama was not delivering a paper to the ASA on economic change and in-group/out-group sentiment in rural Pennsylvania. He was giving a campaign speech at a private fundraiser. He was trying to elicit (or cement)the support of his audience, not gain their assent to some sociological truth. He did this by flattering these wealthy and urbane elites from San Francisco. The point that Obama’s critics are making is that this piece of flattery was made at the expense of folks who live in rural America.
Now, I don’t think that there would be much of an uproar if he had merely said that rural Pennsylvanians were bitter because their region was economically depressed. Nor would Obama have angered many, perhaps, if he had merely avoided using the word “cling” when he asserted that impoverished and bitter Pennsylvanians “cling” to religion (etc.). To argue that members of a community “cling” to a belief in the face of economic adversity, and to the point that they ignore the real causes of their misery (in Obama’s view, the administrations of Bush I, Bush II, along with those of Hillary Clinton’s husband), is to say that those folks are being irrational. Irrational in the sense of suffering from “false consciousness.” Now, most folks don’t like to be called irrational. Thus, the (parlor Marxist) insult.
Another point that may be worth expressing is that part of the uproar over what Obama said is that underlying his assertions about rural Americans is a stereotype. It is a stereotype of several parts. One reason that this may be an important point is that Obama’s defenders have been excusing his remarks by focusing on the relationship between bitterness and “religion.” However, they leave out too much. It’s obvious that Obama casts his net wide: he connects bitterness to “guns” OR “religion” OR “antipathy to people who aren’t like them” OR “anti-immigrant sentiment” OR “anti-trade sentiment.” Let’s see, what do you call a person who typifies these traits? A populist-redneck? A theocratic “Christian crazy”? Whichever label you choose, it seems obvious that Obama is using a fairly common stereotype here. And, last I heard, people who live in rural areas tend to feel such stereotypes are essentially demeaning, and that to use them rude. Thus, the (Ivy League elitist) insult.
