Mayhill Fowler over at the Huffingtonpost has been following Obama and wonders why he can’t connect with the working class people of PA and Indiana. Perhaps it is because he tells wealthy Californians why the “they” get bitter. Read on please.
And when he spoke to a group of his wealthier Golden State backers at a San Francisco fund-raiser last Sunday, Barack Obama took a shot at explaining the yawning cultural gap that separates a Turkeyfoot from a Marin County. “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,” Obama said. “And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”The entire article is here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama…
I think he's right
Having been born and raised in one of these old mill towns and now coming back and seeing and hearing people, I’d say Obama’s analysis is spot on.
pd
I live in rural America.
I live in rural Indiana. I have read nothing and heard nothing that Sen. Obama said that was not true.
I was in a gym in Terre Haute, and heard him speak about this, there were no boos from the crowd. These were working class folks. The crowd agreed with him, we are all bitter.
Why shouldn’t we be. We have been lied to for 7 years. Our children are dying in foreign wars. Our jobs are gone and our bills are up.
Many people here do cling to one or two things which override all others and fog the big picture. Loss of faith in elected officials is part of it but how they are portrayed by the media plays a role. We have lots of FOX and religious programing. There are no cable lines. Can’t afford satelite.
In my area “family values“and “war on terror” are used.
Tee-shirts saying “My mommy is a woman, my daddy is a man” were passed out during the last election. Fear tactics.
Those gays will destroy marriage. LOL
Those terrorists are going to blow up your school. LOL
People here are working for a living, there are no jobs. If you get part time work , you need at least 2 jobs to pay the bills.
When I say “they”, I mean my friends, my family, pretty soon, me. My husband just lost his job of 13 years.
These folks have no time to worry about government. They hear sound bites on the news. If the news spins, they don’t have time or energy to sort it out. If they do vote, they vote for what they believe in. “family values” or “war on terror”. Never mind it is an empty concept. Never mind that it means different things to different families. Never mind we have had no “terrorists” here.
People here are concentrating on survival. The government is not helping. Role backs in food stamps, red tape and pride keeps people from getting assistance. Forget about heathcare.
They don’t have time to worry about it. The baby needs milk, gas is $3.50, and your job is 40 miles away.
I live here.
Rural Indiana is no better off than rural Pennsylvania or Ohio.
If Obama can’t even tell the truth without getting slammed, what kind of politician do you want? We had better wake up. The neg. spin is on. It will take all of us to win the GE.
He told the truth, I know because I live here.
peace to you all,
marsha
Voice of reason
Come on America!! It’s just politics to take a select few words of anyone in order to persecute that individual. I had the opportunity to hear the words of Obama in it’s entirety on MSNBC. He did depict how the people have been let down by our government that promised much. He said that he didn’t blame people for being bitter. I am.. I lost my job and at the age of 50, I am not likely to be hired too quick. While I am still undecided on whom I will vote for, I will not let he said.. she said.. drama dictate who get my vote. Don’t make up your mind based solely what you hear on television. We all know that the media can build you up.. but it can also tear you down just as fast. Selecting a president is too important
Bitter? Oh Yeah...
When the wealthy take your jobs away in the name of “free trade” and nothing comes in to replace your job – you get bitter, and sad and depressed… McCain and Clinton, Fox, and CNN would have you believe Obama is an elitest because he said the people of Pennsylvania and Indiana get bitter and cling to things they know and can believe in – but he left out Ohio, Michigan, and New York.
Working people have been cut loose by Washington and pretty much told to go fend for themselves. The rich had a better idea – cheap offshore labor, no pesky environmental laws to follow, no medical to pay, no safety concerns for the workers, or the products themselves. American workers were just too expensive – cut into the profit margin. The government allowed steel dumping (didn’t bother to enforce our trade laws – say goodbye steel industry) and then the Clintons (both of them) got Nafta passed to begin the death of the middle class. I guess we’re all supposed to be delighted to buy cheap goods from WalMart and not be concerned that the only jobs left are service oriented, even though you can’t keep a house and feed a family on wages earned in most service jobs.
Obama wasn’t looking down his nose at working people, he was saying what happens to people when their livelihoods are taken from them. McCain and Clinton don’t know and don’t care about the working class – they have repeatedly hurt the working people and are now pandering to the middle class only for votes. Obama does care about the working people – he cares about America and he is the only one who can bring this divided country back together again. Don’t be fooled by the liars and spinners.
He was being insulting.
Just not to those who most people think should be insulted.
I have an unusual perspective in that I live in a poor rural area with plenty of bitter people. and I attend events in that SF neighborhood with many of the same people.
He was asked for advice by someone wanting to go campaign in Pennesylvania. If it had been my response wouldn’t have been nearly as polite- I’d have said “Don’t, please don’t. You are so out touch with these people and their concerns you can only do us damage.
In that audience were people who think starting a chainsaw is the equivalent of rape, and who assume that only neanderthals disagree. The aren’t bad people but they live in a bubble of wealth. It is excruciating to think of the ways they could unintentionally insult and enrage.
But Obama tried to be a bridge, to build understanding. It was an insult to the people of Pacific Heights, but a deserved one.
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