The Reading Blog

The Philadelphia Inquirer Karen Heller’s July 21, 2008 on-the-mark, nicely sarcastic column “Hard to Define, Harder to Shake” talks about how the Republicans are using the label ‘elitist’ to attack Senator Obama and his presidential campaign.

As a reference point, the WordNet 3.0 online dictionary defines elitist as “someone who believes in rule by an elite group” or “the best or most skilled members of a group” and lists ‘egalitarian’ (“a person who believes in the equality of all people’) as its antonym. And just to be complete, according to the American Heritage College Dictionary (4th edition), elite is “a group or class of persons or a member of such a group or class, enjoying superior intellectual, social, or economic status.” It would never have occurred to me to call Obama elitist, in the same way as I could never think of Senator McCain and the Republicans as egalitarian.

Here are some excerpts from Heller’s column,

In recent years, especially during political seasons, elitist has become the ultimate epithet, far worse than racist, sexist or wrong. People are elite or they aren’t. It’s an absolute, an indelible tattoo. Barack Obama, the son of a single mother, a man who paid off his law school loans only in his 40s, has somehow become elite. Yet John McCain, the son and grandson of four-star admirals, the son and husband of heiresses, is not….

Today, there are only two parties: Republican and elitecrat.

Throughout time, elitism has been associated with birthright, breeding and wealth. Now it refers to education. Scratch that. Bush the Sequel turns the notion on its head. He went to elite schools. He just chose to ignore what they offered. Now, it’s being smart or, heaven forbid, appearing smart that’s elite.

Any challenge to bad policy, poor governance or faulty reasoning is now dismissed with charges of elitism. People don’t want to debate intelligently, consider divergent opinions and experiences, or listen and learn. Instead, they respond with closed ears and name-calling. Being labeled elite is akin to being told to shut up. How can you respond to that?

… Why so many people are proud of knowing so little and learning less remains perplexing, as does slamming anyone who doesn’t agree as elite. Isn’t this whole anti-elitism business empty, hollow, tired and, when it comes down to it, stupid?

Also, check out Peter Hart’s “Sidebar: An ‘Elitist’ by Any Other Name” and “Obama the Snob? Hanging the ‘Elitist’ Label on Another Democratic Candidate” posted at FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting).

Personally and optimistically, I don’t think that the American voters will be fooled by this latest juvenile political name-calling ploy.