FRIDAY 12 SEPTEMBER 2008Fire on the Elites!
Thursday 11 September 2008
by: The Chronicles of Favilla, Les Échos
"Favilla" writes, "In the Middle Ages, when things went wrong they burned a few witches; today, we open fire on the elites." (Artwork: anamorfosis.net)
The Republican convention's cheers for Sarah Palin surprised Europeans. How is it possible that the great party of the right and center right could choose a person so identified with the extreme right as a potential vice president of the United States? How can a militant against abortion and for firearms possession represent a large part of America? The answer is that foreign observers are on the wrong track. Certainly, John McCain's new running mate is a typical product of the neo-conservative religious current influence, which is as significant among Catholics as among Protestants and which has played a major role in the Bush administration, with the calamitous consequences everyone knows for foreign policy.
But it's not on these grounds that Sarah Palin was greeted with wild applause. It was because she presented herself as an entirely ordinary mother and wife whose political and social ascension in an Alaska isolated-from-everywhere owes absolutely nothing to the Washington and New York elites. Her five children, including one who is handicapped and a pregnant minor daughter, end up convincing people that she personally lives the problems of the ordinary citizen. Her first speech at the convention played that cord for all it was worth, while she accused Barak Obama of being a product of the establishment. Seen from Europe, you've got to pinch yourself to believe that the son of a Kenyan immigrant, who lives in an ordinary Chicago neighborhood, belongs to the elite. But that's a new mistake in perspective. Obama is a graduate of one of America's most prestigious universities; he is an exceptionally brilliant orator and Hollywood stars are at his feet: that's enough to make you a privileged insider from the perspective of Alaska or Iowa.
Moreover, this angle of attack is not new. During the last election four years ago, George Bush got himself elected by endlessly going on about the fact that his Democratic competitor, John Kerry, belonged, like the Kennedys, to the East Coast Catholic "upper class," in other words, the aristocracy. Nor is this discourse anything new either in ... Europe! Berlusconi has made it his own political gold mine with a vulgarity and a success, each as disconcerting and distressing as the other. And during the last presidential election in France, the two candidates also played on this register: Nicolas Sarkozy, by presenting himself as the candidate of those who get up early - implying, unlike the technocrats who rule us - and Sègolëne Royal, by holding forth compassionate discourse. Everything is happening as though the course of the world and its social and economic difficulties were produced by some inaccessible elites who victimize the real people. In the Middle Ages, when things went wrong they burned a few witches; today, we open fire on the elites. It's not certain that attests to much cultural progress.
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Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.
But it's not on these grounds that Sarah Palin was greeted with wild applause. It was because she presented herself as an entirely ordinary mother and wife whose political and social ascension in an Alaska isolated-from-everywhere owes absolutely nothing to the Washington and New York elites. Her five children, including one who is handicapped and a pregnant minor daughter, end up convincing people that she personally lives the problems of the ordinary citizen. Her first speech at the convention played that cord for all it was worth, while she accused Barak Obama of being a product of the establishment. Seen from Europe, you've got to pinch yourself to believe that the son of a Kenyan immigrant, who lives in an ordinary Chicago neighborhood, belongs to the elite. But that's a new mistake in perspective. Obama is a graduate of one of America's most prestigious universities; he is an exceptionally brilliant orator and Hollywood stars are at his feet: that's enough to make you a privileged insider from the perspective of Alaska or Iowa.
Moreover, this angle of attack is not new. During the last election four years ago, George Bush got himself elected by endlessly going on about the fact that his Democratic competitor, John Kerry, belonged, like the Kennedys, to the East Coast Catholic "upper class," in other words, the aristocracy. Nor is this discourse anything new either in ... Europe! Berlusconi has made it his own political gold mine with a vulgarity and a success, each as disconcerting and distressing as the other. And during the last presidential election in France, the two candidates also played on this register: Nicolas Sarkozy, by presenting himself as the candidate of those who get up early - implying, unlike the technocrats who rule us - and Sègolëne Royal, by holding forth compassionate discourse. Everything is happening as though the course of the world and its social and economic difficulties were produced by some inaccessible elites who victimize the real people. In the Middle Ages, when things went wrong they burned a few witches; today, we open fire on the elites. It's not certain that attests to much cultural progress.
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Translation: Truthout French language editor Leslie Thatcher.
1 opmerking:
En dan is Obama ook nog in de zak van zijn sponsors en de Israel lobby. Obama is McCain light en dat is nog niet goed genoeg.
Nog Palin's interview meegekregen?
Interviewer:
Wat vind u van de Bush doctrine?
Palin:
In welk opzicht?
Maar ja voor de mensen die uit plichtsbesef gaan stemmen en alleen maar kijken of ze iemand aardig vinden maakt dat toch niet uit.
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