Post a Comment On: Internal Monologue

Here's an excerpt from Ferraro's Boston Globe editorial:
[Reagan Democrats] don't identify with someone who has gone to Columbia and Harvard Law School and is married to a Princeton-Harvard Law graduate.Yet she expects them to identify with Clinton, someone who went to Yale Law School and is married to a another Yale Law graduate. Oh, and he's also a former two-term President of the United States. That's so much more down to earth. I guess Yale is now the school of regular old workin' class white folk. Who knew. Next time someone accuses me of being a an elitist snob, I'll just say, "No way, dude! I went to Yale! That makes me a regular guy with whom even a Reagan Democrat could identify." Except I probably wouldn't use the "with whom" construction, as it might sound effete.

It amazes me how divorced from reality these comparisons about who is "elite" and "out of touch" are. Does Ferraro really think that Reagan Democrats would flock to Obama if he had gone to a public university?

Different groups of people identify with different candidates to varying degrees. It think Democrats fetishize the working class white voter a bit too much. Yes, it's an important demographic. And, yes, I wish Obama performed better among Appalachian while voters. But other people are just as important. And they're votes count just as much. And Obama does very well among lots of groups of people. Including non-rich white people in many states.