“Country estates for all!”
One of my favorite writers is former Uruguayan exile, Eduardo Galeano. His historical-ish books on Latin America (he claims he is no historian but he makes the past come alive like no other) are filled with the absurdities and the small joys that make up the upside down world we live in. Like Galeano, I sometimes feel the logic of the world we live can become so twisted that it simply ceases to make sense. The current spectacle of electoral politics is an example. From today’s Los Angeles Times:
Obama Elitist, Says Lady Rothschild
Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild is an ardent Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter who raised scads of money for the New York senator’s failed presidential campaign. She and her husband, Sir Evelyn Robert Adrian de Rothschild of the prominent Rothschild banking family of England, split their time between New York and a British country estate.
It’s not a bad life, she says, and she’d like you to have one just like it. Which is why she’s backing Sen. John McCain for president, not her party’s nominee.Sen. Barack Obama? He’s an elitist, she says.
More on Lady Rothschild here.
Wait, I thought it was cool to be 1337, at least that’s what the kids in my computer class tell me. I’m glad to hear that Ms. Lady is one of the common folk though, I’m gonna see if she’ll lend us her lawn for a car-wash fundraiser. I’m sure she’ll understand.
I truly thought this was a joke, until I went to the link. A descendant from one of the richest families in the world a family that pretty much founded the banking system says she is supporting McCain, because Obama is elitist.
This is fucking unbelievable, fucking unbelievable and the comments. I’m still not getting this elitist Obama thing and what does that mean when people say…is elitist a sneaky way of saying uppity.
Obama is know more elitist than Gore or Kerry was…WTF…
Browne
The “elitist” charge is the silliest political diversion tactic of the past years. It completely disregards the accomplishments, policies, and stances of the person and simply makes them into the embodiment of some word meant to push people away. Had Rothschild said, “I prefer McCain’s plan for the economy or increasing access to capital so people can live like I do,” it would be a fine statement because it focuses on the policies, not the “personality.”
Some of the “supporting evidence” that’s used to call him (or other politicians) “elitist” is because he attended two Ivy League schools (Columbia College & Harvard Law) and having his daughters attend a private school. First off, the Ivy League is an athletic association formed in the 1950s between traditionally rival schools that also have (really) large endowments and have low acceptance rates. So what? Pursuing an education is not an “elitist” thing to do, it’s an individual choice that shouldn’t be denigrated.
Education serves to create productive members of society (some become social deviants) and increases their economic stance, specially from those who come from a working/lower-middle class background. Let someone choose to attend a university, just like I say let someone choose to leave high school directly to a job or the armed forces. It’s their way of achieving stability and using their skills.
“Obama is an ‘elitist’ because he sends his children to private schools.” A lot of those who level these barbs against him share that very same aspect with him. Look at McCain; his daughter Meghan graduated from Columbia (Obama’s alma mater, if you’re keeping track). Michelle Malkin has pulled her children out of schools and they are home schooled. Elitism applies to them, too, because they have the money (the ability) to send their children to private schools or have them home schooled, something that many Americans are not able to do. Why aren’t they being called elitists, too?
During the AB 1381 fight, was Villaraigosa called an “elitist” because his son attended a private Catholic school (Loyola High School in L.A.) and is currently a sophomore at Princeton, another Ivy League institution? I don’t remember, really.
In this election, the usage of “elitist” is slowly evolving into a codeword for “uppity” and I don’t like that one bit because it’s reminiscent of racism (Jesse Helms attacks from beyond the grave!). Attack the candidate for their stance on issues, not what they choose for their children.
One of the more interesting aspects of the usage of “elitist” is that it is always used against those running for office, but never applied to other areas, such as who is approved for the Supreme Court, Council of Economic Advisers, the Treasury Department, or the Federal Reserve. If those who attended Ivy League institutions (or any other institution of higher learning) are elitist, why is it that professors from many of these institutions (and others at the same level as the Ivies) are typically chosen for the Supreme Court, the Fed, and the Treasury Secretary? If we don’t like the elitist who got an education for themselves, let’s fire Bernanke, Paulson, Greenspan (when he was head of the Fed), Mankiw, Feldstein, Milton Friedman, John Roberts, et al who attended these institutions? They’re elitists, too, for attending an institution of higher learning, correct?
Please, these are all diversionary tactics. Judge a politician on their achievements, policies, and plans, not on where they received their degree.
This is a website I found today that I enjoyed reading. http://www.ivyleagueelitists.com/about
The endorsement by Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschaild will be among McCain’s most valued. Here’s why.
if hillary was fine having the rich lady on her side then mccain should be thrilled…
obama is elitist for the following reasons:
1) he’s never had a job
2) his granny was a bank executive permitting obama to study and travel and not work a day in his life
3) He’s never worked a day in his life
4) he’s never worked a day in his life
5) campaigning does not qualify as “work”
Rosie,
I totally get the reasons why people might view Obama as elitist, but how is he MORE elitist, which is what is being implied by people. He is more elitist than Kerry, Gore, Bush and any of the Rothchilds? One of the richest families in the world. One of the top three of all richest families in the world. How dare she call anyone elitist. It’s not just the term elitist, but if you looked into history and understood exactly why it is so utterly outrageous that a Rothschild would have the nerve to call anyone elitist.
If some working class person would have said it I would have gone after this comment in a different angle the way some of the prior people who commented here did, but Rothschild calling someone elitist…that is really rich and insane.
Is it that you’re not allowed to live a life of privilege if you are black? I think this obviously goes to the uppity comment by others in the Republican party.
And I’m not going to even ask what the never had a job comment meant. If teaching and community organizing isn’t a job then probably the vast majority of people who think on a higher level than, “What’s on TV tonight?” Would probably be viewed as people who have never worked.
And I’m not going to even ask what the never had a job comment meant. If teaching and community organizing isn’t a job then probably the vast majority of people who think on a higher level than, “What’s on TV tonight?” Would probably be viewed as people who have never worked.
Are you voting for McCain or are you just being a contrarian?
That’s an unfair question. I am assuming you have no principles, maybe you are an idealist and you are voting for the Green party, I can respect your Green Party vote Rosie and I am going to assume the best about you until you tell me otherwise.
Browne