Media Curmudgeon

Bil Grimes writes:

"Myer makes the same point I have been making but much more articulately. In last paragraph he really nails it. The snobby elites--Clooney, Soros, Sprinsteen et all--contributed significantly to the Gore and Kerrey defeats. As I have pointed out, if the Democtats cannot win West Virginia (whose people dislike very much East and West Coast Ivy league and Hollywood elitism) with 55% of the registered voters Democrats they can not beat McCain."

Nick Kotz writes:

"Berlow makes a moving argument for the common man and makes it well. But, the problem runs very deep and its gravity--for Democrats--is underscored when one looks at how the Democratic party has fared with ALL WHITE VOTERS in elections going back to Truman. I used to know those statistics-propounded by the late Horace Busby, an LBJ aide, but they slip my mind. The gist is that in the last 60 years, the times in which the Dem presidential candidate captured a majority of the white vote have been very very rare. In the whys, there is a book."

Michael Weiskopf writes:

"I have to defend my friend Charlie Warner. If poor, intolerant and uneducated people do not have to apologize for their plight, why should bright, affluent and tolerant people need to?) Mr. Berlow ignores the political shift that occurred in the post-Civil-Rights South. The Democratic Party that held a national majority for so many years is nothing to wax nostalgic about -- it was the party of Jim Crow and that remnant from the original sin of slavery is what held the party together. It wasn't Stevenson, or Dukakis, McGovern or Kerrey or elitism that cost the democrats national political power, it was Lyndon Johnson pushing through the Civil Rights Act followed by the southern strategy of Richard Nixon.

If you examine the success of the Southern Strategy, it is rooted in stoking the fear and prejudice of uneducated poor white people along with the continuation of disenfranchisement of black voters through a variety of tactics including gerrymandering.

There is nothing "elitist" about recognizing that fact. The Clinton candidacy is failing partly because the Clintons believed that they had succeeded in building a centrist coalition of moderate rural white voters and minorities. What they seemingly forgot is that Bill Clinton was twice elected with a minority vote and, in fact, he would not have been elected at all had Ross Perot not been in the race.

Smart, rich people like Roosevelt and Kennedy joined the Democratic party mostly because it was their best path to power; their progressive beliefs were incidental, and, in fact, were defined more by the times that they lived in and their intellect rather than philosophy.

The problems of the Democratic Party may or may not be remedied by an Obama candidacy, but it is a hopeful alternative to the predictable politics of division and pandering."

Bruce Braun writes:

"I see Myer's comments from a different perspective.

The issue is not one of just the Democratic Party leadership. It is an attitude of the "political class" and what I believe is perceived as that of liberals or progressives, if you will. The attitude I refer to is that of "we know what is best for all of you". The Democratic Party embodies that mentality and the Republicans are adopting it as well. Depending upon your point of view, some, might call it paternalism but most would see it as elitism. And politicians pander to that posture of being our saviors of all things seen as bad or evil. Obama has a great story to tell of how he has accomplished what he has in his life. Do we hear that story on the campaign trail? No. We hear big business demonized and how the solutions always getting back to the same old bromide of taxing the wealthy because they supposedly don't pay enough taxes.

There is not one candidate running for president that extols the virtues of hard work, education, persistence, with personal responsibility and accountability as the primary solution to our problems. Instead, we hear all the candidates shouting how voting for them is a vote for change, progress, etc.

The plans for that change are all essentially the same: more government programs to "Help you" without any real plan to pay for these programs. Does anyone really believe that if the war in Iraq ended tomorrow and we stopped spending any of that money, it would somehow be diverted to worthwhile domestic programs here at home? Not a chance! Earmarks, Baby! Pork!....anything to buy your votes to re- elect all of those folks in the congress.

Whatever happened to aspirational political leadership? Roosevelt, Churchill, Kennedy, even Reagan all understood the value of getting people to look at themselves as a personal genesis if change were to take place or obstacles overcome.

Has anyone heard a bold and lofty goal being proposed by any of the candidates, along the lines of JFK challenging us to put a man on the moon within a decade?

Have you heard any one of these folks doing the same with a similar challenge to wean us off oil dependence? "I'd take that trillion dollars we have been spending and put it into green technology research, a massive program along the lines of the WPA, with the goal of....." How about Ike's national highway system? More efficient new public transportation? No, nada, nothing! What we hear is just more demonizing. They all need to create bad guys to make themselves look good.

I remember Al Gore as VP was charged with ways to cut waste out of government spending. How far did that get? Are any of the candidates running on a promise of cutting Federal spending by even 10%? Don't hold your breath.

You think Bush was out to invade your privacy? Better check with the congress and all the power they have given to the IRS. Look up what a total comprehensive tax audit involves. The IRS knows more about every aspect of our lives than any one wants to think about. Do you hear any proposals to strip the IRS of the power it has and just go to a VAT type tax in lieu of our current system?

Politicians want to and are creating a new class of slaves in this country. The slaves this time are colorless. They want us to see ourselves as victims of abuse from anyone who offends us on any level. If we buy into that BS, then politicians and big government as saviors can ride to our rescue with more spending programs (the free- lunch concept) and paid for by more taxes, fees, charges, etc., (the no free-lunch reality). If big spending programs don't get your vote, then they will enact yet more laws that duplicate current ones and slap names on them that make it sound like it for us. You can always see these bogus laws coming whenever they have "children" or "people" or "protection" in the name of the bill. These people want us to be dependent upon them for everything. Every election cycle we hear all they "did" for us and how their opponent did little or nothing for us. Is slavery not the exploitation of the helpless by the powerless for their personal gain?

Politicians break us down into all of these sub groups of race, education, income, jobs, geography and anything else they can think of so we don't see ourselves as one group of united people with a national agenda for a collective benefit. Politicians want us balkanized so they can avoid accountability and responsibility for their actions. Divide and conquer."

Marilyn Keenan writes:

"Myer is so right. Those of us who have done so well see "the light" in many ways, but often forget the basics. The vast majority of Americans do not see the world the way we see it...they have no idea how to see it our way. They just want justice, fairness, decency, security, etc. None of them bad things. Those of us who have benefited from this amazing country sometimes forget what others fail to receive. They all work hard, too. And we must always honor them for their service to this great country. They are the first to sign up to go fight for us. They do the hardest work the rest of us don't want to do. So our largesse must be shared with them . The party who gives only to the wealthiest among us totally gets it wrong. But the Democrats must get it right. Our future depends on it--for all Americans. Once again, Myer has a great vision."