So Michael Gerson decries “liberal arrogance” in the wake of the Obama victory. That some non-conservatives see in it a defeat of “yahooism” and “jingoism” and “flag-pin shallowness” and “religious zealotry” and “anti-intellectualism” somehow means that Bush-era conservatives have been looked down upon in humiliation as “inferiors”. But that seems like such a disingenuous and, I suspect, desperate diversion from the actual issues raised by the use of those terms.
Granted, “yahooism” is a slur, but what of the charges of anti-intellectualism? It has been a common complaint of late. Most of us recall the kinds of episodes that “flag-pin shallowness” refers to (I include the Dixie Chicks affair in that) and the “jingoism” has been relentless. And there has been no shortage of religious expression on the Right that can fairly said to have crossed the line to “zealotry”.
Even if were arguable that these impressions are false or stereotypes due to the kind of bad apples that can be found in any political faction, but don’t just ignore the substance of the issues in order to play the victim, or take specific criticism as general condescension. And don’t dwell upon the splinter in your neighbor’s eye while ignoring the plank in your own.
Gerson refers to Barack Obama’s infamous remark that some people “cling to guns or religion”. That sounded pretty crackpot and more than likely wrong, but it’s quite a non-sequitur to go from the inevitably complex issues invoked by “guns or religion” to “disdain”. I think Obama was theorizing that some people tend to interpret events through the lens of worldviews defined either by gun control conspiracy-theory paranoia, or more familiarly, religious fundamentalism. True or not, how did what is basically a left-right issue get to be an up-down issue?
In the past 8 or 16 years, the behavior of conservatives toward their political opponents can only be described as bullying. “Disdain” is not quite the main feeling one gets in the face of such treatment, nor in vindication. This is not about heaping scorn upon all those humble yet well-educated albeit churchgoing folks out there in small-town America. If joy is expressed that “brains are back” it means in comparison to those Republican elites who had been running the country, as well as the usual suspects on Fox News and talk radio along with their legions of Dittoheads. So cry me a river. If you’re reduced to saying, “You think you’re better than me”, then you’ve pretty much run out of arguments.
Nitpick: not so much “gun control conspiracy paranoia” as worrying that their rights as far as firearms go will be constricted further. And fundamentalists aren’t the only kind of Christians that feel oppressed. Of course, they’re all wrong, but members of less die-hard denominations claim discrimination as well.
I took this comment to mean that when times are hard and you can’t do anything about the tangible things (no work, no health care) people tend to look to their ideological roots. Be that faith in God, or individual liberty (which has become defined as gun rights in some circles).
Yea what he meant was they voted on core issues they were unwilling to compromise on because they had no control over economic issues. It wasn’t an elitist statement in any way.
I would say that all these disparagements refer to a specific subset of conservatives, not conservatives in toto. I think all this stuff is perfectly accurate and fair with regards to the Bush/Palin/Joe the Plumber style conservatism which has dominated the last 8 years, and which even many other conservatives (the ones who can read and write) have grown sick of themselves. It’s not that Republicans are all idiots, but that idiots have hijacked the party. There’s a schism going on right now between more pragmatic, non-religious zealot, more intellectual economic conservatives and the Palin worshipping, fundy fanatics who think the party lost because it wasn’t right wing and anti-intellectual enough.
Liberal “arrogance?” No, just relief, and it’s not just liberals, but moderates and sane conservatives too.