Among the many insufferable nuances of Obama’s condescending remark was this: that if a group of people don’t embrace the statist philosophy, they must be “bitter.” A lot of people, in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, have many reasons other than “bitterness” to reject the sour old Progressive/New Deal/”Great Society” whine even when it comes in a shiny new Obama bottle.

The reference to clinging to guns and religion, while extremely annoying, was, to me, less offensive than the underlying assumption that there must be something wrong — bitterness, xenophobia, ignorance, racism, whatever — with people who does not salivate whenever a Democrat tries to buy their allegiance with promises of bigger and “better” government programs and/or handouts.

Obama is merely the latest Progressive/Marxist to snark about the “false consciousness” of America’s working classes. He cannot question the statist “truth” that government regulation of people’s lives is an unalloyed public good (and thence the derivative “truth” that more government regulation is always better) — such a thought crime, in addition to riling the left fringe where Obama has made his home, would have far-reaching effects. It would negate the premises of his candidacy, of his political career, and, perhaps, of his personal identity.

Therefore, like the soviet state psychiatrists of the 20th Century, Obama instead declares those who do not see socialism as the answer to be insane.

To hell with him.