Are You Bitter?
Here is a guest post from Zatfig Redhead…
Much has been made about Barack Obama’s now apparently infamous “bitter” comments about rural Pennsylvanians. The candidate made them at what was supposedly a closed-door fundraiser in San Francisco — which just goes to show the concept of “private” doesn’t exist in the political lexicon.
Much ado has evolved around the statements — pro and con, wrong and right, and Obama has clarified and re-clarified his remarks and completely eliminated the word “bitter” from his vocabulary. Meanwhile, his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, called him elitist and downed a shot with voters to show how simpatico she was with the common man. Of course, John McCain is using the whole thing to fundraise and further capitalize on the disarray of the Democrats and their marathon intraparty bashfest — a.k.a., primary.
As a result of all this fuss, I’m compelled to tell you — to share — that I, too, am bitter. I admit it.
I’m bitter about gotcha politics that delight in tearing down rather than building up and making progress.
I’m bitter about ready-fire-aim rhetoric that blows away the possibility of productive debate on policies that might actually improve the lives of working Americans.
I’m bitter about 24-hour news outlets that gnaw on the latest “fill-in-the-blank-gate” story like a Rottweiler with a juicy bone, overlooking real news stories in the process.
I’m bitter about how these same 24-hour news outlets amplify and elevate these empty, manufactured controversies in order to feed their insatiable appetites for more — and more base — content.
I’m bitter about talking heads that gleefully dissect the mundane details of inane incidents, puffing up their own importance with their pundit hot air.
I’m bitter about tabloid-style reporting that denigrates the public discourse so thoroughly that good people disengage in simple self-defense.
I’m bitter about a primary that has devolved so completely that Democrats vilify other Democrats, jeopardizing the party’s chance to win the White House and putting the entire country in jeopardy of four more years of narrow-minded Republican leadership as a result.
I’m bitter about a Democratic Party that often takes some of its core constituencies — women and African Americans — for granted, trading away or simply folding like a house of cards on our issues, always based on the cynical calculus that we’ll stick with them because they’re the lessor of two evils.
I’m bitter about the shamelessness of one political party and the spinelessness of the other.
Yeah, I admit it, I’m bitter — sometimes. But I’m not giving up — and I’m not going to quit bitching about what’s bad, either. Sometimes, the bitterness is what gives us the courage to speak truth to power — which in turn fuels the drive to make change. We need that now more than ever.
Comments
Comment from jacilyn
Time: April 16, 2008, 11:27 am
So here’s what I am hearing: those of you who agree with whatever Obama claims he said, you don’t care if Obama says we’re xenophobic bigots and too dumb to know what’s good for us. We’re overreacting (if we exist at all).
And here’s another thing I am hearing: I am supposed to believe that what I heard doesn’t matter, because my betters will tell me what I am supposed to hear, and anything other than that, I should just forget. And it’s not up to me to decide when or whether I’m offended.
I personally cried when I read all the hateful commentary following his snide, hateful, hurtful remark, as everyone praised him for speaking truth, and the truth as they heard it sounds a lot like the same insults I heard - that working class people living in the rust belt are xenophobic and bigoted and superstitious and primitive and backwards and don’t deserve the right to vote ‘cuz we are too ignorant to do it right.
And not just anonymous comments but people like Bob Herbert in the New York Times.
And some would go so far as to say we do not deserve to be called Americans. We are not real Americans.
I never knew, before this election, just how much the Democratic party hated people like me before. Call me naive; I really believed the party stood for democracy and worth and dignity and was a friend to the working class person. I never realized the extent of the contempt…or shall I say, “antipathy toward people not like themselves”.
I read the Michael Lind article in Salon and I followed the links in it and I read all of that and I cried again. My whole life, I have been a Democrat, and that was part of my identity. I feel like I’ve been kicked out of my family or something, because unlike apparently the rest of you, I really believe in democracy, even if some of us are too stupid to deserve it (as I now realize the Democratic party apparently sincerely believes).
After eight years of Bush, I was really hoping for a return to something like the Clinton years - jobs plentiful and wages rising. And instead of restoring what Clinton built, the Dems would rather be as hateful as the worst Republicans.
And I have no doubt that when they lose in November, everyone will be astonished - that the xenophobic typical white people voted Republican, that it made a difference, that after everything WE could still be so dumb.
Comment from cooper
Time: April 17, 2008, 12:18 am
Great post.
To make one point on the comment above, if you listen carefully, and I did you won’t hear Obama calling anyone xenophobic bigots. I have spoken to many people from both PA and Indiana, many of them bloggers, Democrats and hard working. They feel what he said is true, people feel they have no control over their government except for those smaller things which are insignificant when compared to things like economy, war and education,so they vote on things they can control and feel the candidate are not lying about like their stands on gun control or abortion. It is unfortunate you felt the remarks hurtful.
The media, including columnists and pundits, who hold six figure or more paying jobs, who probably do not make their own restaurant reservations or even grocery shop for themselves, are not the Democratic Party, the people should be the party, and I feel it will come back closer to that if Obama is elected .
The people also need to vote, this country has a paltry record on voting. They need to vote locally where the election turn-out is even worse. By starting locally the people can weed out the candidates who are not doing what they want and take back control - something I think the people should have been doing all along and wonder why they were not.
Republicans have destroyed this country by fear, and by telling people what they want to hear in the way they want to hear it - only it was all lies.
I’d rather be told the truth.
I think your interpretation of it is unfortunate.
I talk to people everyday who vote on foolish issues, who will vote for the gender, or the race, as opposed to the issues because they have realized at this point in time our legislators have too much self interest and aren’t going to do anything about the issues which really affect us . I believe that is what Obama was trying to get across though he did it poorly.
I desperately hope people do not vote on emotion like the last time around. Last time it was fear, this time it may be because they are upset by a poorly articulated truth.
Comment from Susan Kaiser Greenland
Time: April 16, 2008, 1:42 am
Thank you for this post.