U.S. politics

Obama’s an Elitist? Who Knew?


So Obama  stirred up a bit of a problem for himself  in the recent past with his painting of the working class as “bitter” though in truth he is about half right. People do not cling to religion or guns or bigotry out of frustration over their ejection from the American Dream race. They were already evangelical or NRA card carriers or Archie Bunkers. The loss of good jobs or the decimation of their small towns magnified traits that were already not so healthy into obsessions. Is small town America bitter? Disillusioned? Jaded? Yes. Have they all become right-wing talk radio aficionados? No. Anyone who is over the edge now was pretty close before, in my opinion as someone who grew up in a union town that lost its jobs to company union busting policies for the most part. 

What’s interesting is that Obama should show his elitist nature now with the Democratic Convention still so far in the future. Not that Clinton has a chance to derail the “juggernaut for change” that is Obama but because it gives all the people who don’t want to vote for him more reason to believe that he is as phony as any other politico who cries in the wilderness, “Vote for me. I’m different!” You can’t be different and be a politician. At least not an electable one.

Obama is just like the rest of us who escaped our middle or lower class roots. We look down back and see the people and places we have left behind and think – “Man are those people stupid.” And why not? They are. They are the ones who thought high school was the best years of life and that college was a waste of time when good jobs were to be had right out the front door of the high school at whatever the local factory was. And that was when? 1950’s? ’60’s? ’70’s? Maybe the ’80’s still, here and there. But not for long and certainly not now. Sad thing is that there are still people foolishly believing that an education is something to waste and that a person can still make a living out of the high school door. I see evidence of that here in Alberta where there are young people job hopping in hopes of finding work that isn’t work or isn’t the mind numbing/soul withering suckholes that those of us who busted our guts getting degrees already knew. When the economy is job heavy, employers tiptoe softly and throw as much money into wages as they can but booms do not last and here in Alberta the first signs of a softening are already beginning. It won’t be long til the owners have control again and the little guys who haven’t any choice but to work the minimum wage part time jobs will be under thumbs again. And that is what Obama is talking about. People who live and die at the pleasure of the economy, and they know he is right when he calls them “bitter” and points out that the guns, church and bigotry are the things they use to distract themselves from their own responsibility. People never like it when you see through them. It will cost Obama in November.

 

What would Master Po Think?


Do you remember the old television Kung Fu? David Carradine played a half Chinese/half American Shaolin priest named Kwai Chang Caine who was a wanted fugitive in China traveling through the western part of the United States searching for his half-brother, Danny. I loved that showed. I even liked the cable revival of it with Carradine, again playing a Shaolin priest but the descendant of the original Caine and this time with a son who was a San Francisco cop. But I digress, sort of. I was reading MSNBC and ran across a link to an article about a Shaolin Temple in Beijing that just upgraded it’s tourist restroom facilities to the tune of $3 million yuan (that’s $430, 000 U.S. dollars). The biggest of the restrooms is 1,614 square feet and boasts a changing station, uniformed cleaners and an LCD television in the foyer – to watch the Olympic torch wind its way serenely to the Summer Games no doubt. Wow, the Shaolin must draw some serious travel traffic. I am impressed with the concern for the elimination comfort of tourists though as it is a definite step up from the one unisex washroom per store that Safeway promotes up here in the Great White North, and a whole lot better than those holes in the ground with a metal hole topped with a toilet lid that the National Park System in the U.S. calls tourist adequate. 

It’s Still a Man’s World


 

It irks me when I read that I should be thrilled by the Democratic presidential race because the leading contenders for the nomination are black and woman. When I see that in print what I read is “women should just be happy to have had the shot but should realize that voting for Obama is best”. And why is that what I see? Because it’s still a man’s world. Here we are in the 21st century and women are still literally descended from Adam’s rib. There was a MSNBC article not long ago where Obama is quoted as saying that Clinton should stay in the race as long as she wants. It implies that even he thinks she is a token. The quote made me dislike him, and I haven’t disliked him up until I read that, because it was so condescending. Like “Look, the cute little girl is tilting at the White House windmill while the big boys watch.” I loathe that kind of crap.

 

I know that I am a minority in my belief that women are only free on a fairly superficial level and then only in westernized civilizations. Because we aren’t being forcibly circumcised en mass or imolliated by our husbands when our families can’t pay larger dowries or by relatives who feel burdened by the care of  old widows (or simply lust after their inheritances) – then we are liberated and equal. But we aren’t. Hillary and Barack are virtually indistinguishable on issues but for piddling details, so the issue should be who is more experienced not who is more charismatic (and strong women will never win this game). And is that the case? It doesn’t feel like it. 

 

Young women in France are being expected to provide sex for accommodations. They are being sold for opium in Afghanistan and here in the enlightened West, they rent their wombs and consider themselves equality pioneers for getting naked on their way to the top.