[excon]

What is this "elite" american type that you guys refer to? I never got that. Anyone have a good definition for me?

Hello NK:

It's the educated. I don't use the term because I'M educated and I certainly don't think I'm elite. Otherwise I would have picked a more elite name. But, I suppose I could be wrong. I think bluesong described it pretty well. There's the elite, and there the common sense folks.

Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with education.

excon

[tomder55]

The common sense folks are the ones the elites think are stupid because they don't buy into the Gramscian indoctrination that passes as public education.

[NeedKarma]

I've never seen the "elites" call common sense people stupid, where has this happened?
I wasn't aware that your educational system was so terrible. That explains many of the posts on this board.LOL!

[tomder55]

I've never seen the "elites" call common sense people stupid, where has this happened?

I posted an example on comment #2

[NeedKarma]

I posted an example on comment #2

So I researched the book on Amazon and got to its page: Amazon.com: What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (9780805077742): Thomas Frank: Books
So is that what happens when someone writes a critical view of the constituents of your party? It makes you go into attack mode and you feel the need to label anyone who might have enjoyed the book as a group that should be reviled for being educated? A bit thin-skinned, no?
The book has 4 stars based on nearly 400 reviews, does that mean you now view Amazon as a bastion of elite progressive? Damn those people that read, they are a threat to you.

Oh wait, one can find many conservative books that are critical too:
Amazon.com: Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies (9781596986206): Michelle Malkin: Books
Amazon.com: Conservative Victory: Defeating Obama's Radical Agenda (9780062003058): Sean Hannity: Books "The "candidate of change" is threatening to change our country irreparably, and for the worse—if we don't act to stop him now."
Amazon.com: To Save America: Stopping Obama's Secular-Socialist Machine (9781596985964): Newt Gingrich: Books "Exposing the mortal threat now facing America"
Republicans doing what republicans do - fear mongering and creating divisiveness. And your reaction to the Kansas Conservatives book is to revel in your lack of education. I'm not sure that's a healthy reaction, it will have unintended consequences that won't benefit your country.

[Catsmine]

NK,

I don't know if you've seen Prof. Codevilla's article. It describes these "elites."

The American Spectator : America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution

[tomder55]

And your reaction to the Kansas Conservatives book is to revel in your lack of education. I'm not sure that's a healthy reaction, it will have unintended consequences that won't benefit your country.

You are mistaking elitist attitudes with reality . It is their perception that we are a mass of rubes I am critiquing. Most major Republican in the last 30 years have been smeared with the label 'stupid' . The strange dicotomy is that they also get tagged as manipulative evil geniouses.

[NeedKarma]

Interesting article. Did you read all of it? The author takes amazing leaps of logic and makes interesting assumptions without facts to back it up. It basically reads like a Tea Party Manifesto.
It seems the word "elite" is being hijacked for party purposes. The definition (Elite - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary) should not be politically motivated since there are people from both parties that fit the description - don't you agree?

[NeedKarma]

It is their perception that we are a mass of rubes I am critiquing.

Who? Who is this group of people that call you a mass of rubes?

Most major Republican in the last 30 years have been smeared with the label 'stupid' .

Have you not read smoothy posts? Your fellow conservatives calls liberals much worse things repeatedly.

[tomder55]

Smoothy is entitled to his own opinions with or without my endorsement . Where I have disagreed with him I have not been silent .

Why don't you stick to the things I call liberals ? This isn't about our name calling .

This thread calls out Palin for using the terms 'elite' and Excon made the leap to connect it to people's education. It is that perception I have been addressing.

The charge is made that Republicans want to keep the populace dumb ,and I counter that the indoctination that begins in the education system and in 'popular culture' is rigged by the 'elites' to favor the 'liberal' viewpoint. What conservative backlash you see is reaction to that.

[NeedKarma]

So if people stayed out of the education system they'd be smarter because they would be less liberal?

[Catsmine]

there are people from both parties that fit the description - don't you agree?

This much I'll agree with. I'd much prefer Franklin's "Citizen statesman" that goes to Congress for one term, unpaid by anybody, and returns home. The professional politicians and their diplomat cronies are the prime but not the only "elitist" offenders.

[tomder55]

One of the biggest growth industries in this country is private tutoring . Even in this economic environment people are willing to shell out additional money to try to make up for the poor education the public system provides. Another trend is the increased use of home schooling as an option.

None of this would be happening if the public system was providing a quality product.

[excon]

None of this would be happening if the public system was providing a quality product.

Hello again, tom:

Which brings us back to the beginning... Bleusong was singing your tune... YOU view a quality educational product as one that equates creationism with evolution... In MY view, that dumbs down the students, not the other way around..

In terms of civics, our most recent discussions should tell you that MOST Americans don't understand the Constitution... As an example, the oath of office says that a presidents FIRST duty is to "preserve, protect, and defend the CONSTITUTION". Most Americans think a presidents FIRST duty is to protect the country...

That's a MAJOR misunderstanding, and I mean MAJOR! I don't know WHERE it comes from. You, yourself, tom, don't agree with that assessment... To this day, I don't know why.

excon

[tomder55]

Before the stuff about the defending the Constitution the President swears to 'faithfully execute' the office .

Article 2 Sec 2 defines the 1st and foremost duty of the President .The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;
Article 2 is no where's as specific as the enumerated powers in Article 1 .However the writings of the founders made it clear that to defend the country was to defend the Constitution. If you disagree with that then you disagree with every President since Washington.

[excon]

However the writings of the founders made it clear that to defend the country was to defend the Constitution. If you disagree with that then you disagree with every President since Washington.

Hello again, tom:

I don't mind disagreeing with them, IF I am... To me, it's clear that defending the Constitution DOES defend the country... If you did OTHER stuff first, you'd find yourself doing UNCONSTITUTIONAL things like torture, kidnapping, and black sites.. Then, of course, you'd have to do some Constitutional jury rigging to make that stuff OK...

Nahhh... I'm right, and you're wrong.. I got MY Constitutional viewpoint in 8th grade and it hasn't left me. Do you think that viewpoint is "elite"?

excon

[tomder55]

It's OK to have your viewpoint . I have history on my side.Unless every President has violated that oath then your viewpoint doesn't agree with the historical record . Mt Rushmore honors some of the worse offenders.

[excon]

Hello again, tom:

Here's another viewpoint... This country is going to elect an uneducated fool to the presidency, who thinks she can see Russia from her house. Then we'll have some fun - if we survive the wars she's going to start.

excon

[tomder55]

most major republican in the last 30 years have been smeared with the label 'stupid' . The strange dicotomy is that they also get tagged as manipulative evil geniouses.

#87

[tomder55]

Thomas Wolfe ;author of 'The Right Stuff' and other novels has explored American culture his whole life.
His commencement address to the Boston University Class of 2000 says it better than anything I've read on the subject yet.

I'll quote some and link the rest .

The truth is that there is a common bond among all cultures, among all peoples in this world... at least among those who have reached the level of the wheel, the shoe, and the toothbrush. And that common bond is that much-maligned class known as the bourgeoisie—the middle class.. . and wherever they are, all of them believe in the same things. And what are those things? Peace, order, education, hard work, initiative, enterprise, creativity, cooperation, looking out for one another, looking out for the future of children, patriotism, fair play, and honesty. How much more do you want from the human beast? How much more can you possibly expect?.

And we writers spent the entire 20th century tearing down the bourgeoisie! The great H.L. Mencken, probably the most brilliant American essayist of the 20th century, started it with his term "the booboisie." Then Sherwood Anderson in Winesburg, Ohio presented us with the oh-so proper, oh-so twisted mid-western preacher who in fact is a Peeping Tom. That formula has now been ground out and ground out and ground out until it takes the form of movies like "American Beauty." We in the arts have been complicit in the denigration of the best people on earth. Why? Because so many of the most influential ideas of our time are the product of a new creature of the 20th century, a creature that did not exist until 1898: and that creature is known as "the intellectual."

Now, we must be careful to make a distinction between the intellectual and the person of intellectual achievement. The two are very very different animals. There are people of intellectual achievement, who increase the sum of human knowledge, the powers of human insight, and analysis. And then there are the intellectuals. An intellectual is a person knowledgeable in one field who speaks out only in others. Starting in the early 20th century, for the first time an ordinary story teller, a novelist, a short story writer, a poet, a playwright, in certain cases a composer, an artist, or even an opera singer could achieve a tremendous eminence by becoming morally indignant about some public issue. It required no intellectual effort whatsoever. Suddenly he was elevated to a plane from which he could look down upon ordinary people.

Tom Wolfe Commencement Address

"The booboisie" as Mencken described them were the general public composed of uneducated, uncultured persons.
Urban Dictionary: booboisie t-shirts, mugs and magnets

I did not know the word until today .But a quick net search reveals that the common folk are still mocked with that word by lefty journalists.

You speak of Palin the rube and champion of the rube . Meanwhile ,the President has surrounded himself with the intellectual elites who never stray far from the Ivory Towers. They think a lot but have no practical experiences to apply their thoughts to.

Take Geithner as an example. He will survive the purge coming . Here is a guy with all the great economic ideas who can't figure out Turbo-tax(that's giving him the benefit of the doubt in lieu of charging that he is a tax cheat) .


These theorists remind me of a guy jumping out of a plane without a parachute who says "But we are heading in the right direction" .
I'll gladly take my chances with Palin (although I doubt she will get the nomination) .