Sunday, October 3, 2010

"A Romney vs. Palin primary would be out-and-out class warfare." When Blind Prejudice Makes Good Sites Go Bad

At  electoral-vote.com for example, a site which I have found very useful and informative as it presents a thorough analysis of polling. The site has substantial historical references and up to date maps. Although it, self admittedly, slants left  (and to his credit the blogger suggests an alternative site for those who slant right) his analysis has generally been more straightforward number crunching and descriptive than overtly partisan.


However, in a phenomenon I have seen increasingly apparent, for many on the left, who have only known a run of positive election results throughout the latter Bush years, there appears to be a confusion as how to handle the sudden and dramatic turn in fortunes for the Democrats. One aspect of this confusion, bordering on despair in some quarters, is to turn their frustration at the Obama administrations failure to deliver the unicorns, into a sharp stridency-particularly from those on the intellectual left.


This is rather sad to see, but is instructive to view human failings from an ascendancy on ones side of the spectrum, and to hope that when the wheel turns one does not descend into the intellectual and moral abyss that some are delivering themselves into-it is not a pretty sight.


One example of this stridency turning into irrationality is this latest posting on Electoral-vote.com;


"A closer analysis of Thursday's Gallup poll of Republicans about the 2012 GOP presidential nomination reveals a striking class division. Overall, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney leads former Alaska governor Sarah Palin 19% over 16%. However, among Republicans with postgraduate degrees, Romney leads Palin 3 to 1. Among Republicans with a bachelors' degree he leads over 2 to 1. But among those Republicans without a college degree, they run about even. It has been clear for a long time--and apparently continues to be true--that much of Palin's support comes from poorly educated voters who resent various elites running their lives. Romney's supporters come from those elites. A Romney vs. Palin primary would be out-and-out class warfare."


During the latter Bush years I would believe that this paragraph would have ended at "poorly educated voters". I would find much to disagree with even at that conclusion-for example are all who have not attended college "poorly educated'? That is a statement which I do indeed find elitist . How can he conclude that all of what he describes as poorly educated voters (some of whom may be accomplished autodidacts) "resent various elites running their lives." They may be unhappy with the moral direction of the country, with abortion, with unemployment, and ascribe those aspects of their concern to the Democratic Party as a whole and not to some amorphous "elite'. Again, he is taking an elitist stance in ascribing feelings and emotions to a great mass of individuals.


That the left has historically had a class warfare mindset is beyond any denying-the whole socialist structure going back to the founding fathers of Marx, Lenin, The Fabian Society etc, is based categorically on class warfare and redistribution. It is no accident that a liberal mindset would  pit different  groups in the Republican Party against each other in some sort of  Götterdämmerung  primary battle. That there is absolutely no discussion of this Wagnerian scenario amongst any commentators on the right seems to have escaped the liberals who anticipate it.

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