Lefties Aren't Elitists?

Vaughn's Comment:

what a stupid fucking op/ed that is empty and absolutely fails to address anything of substance. . . but good enough to get my blood boiling. . . . -v

NYT Op/Ed Here


My comment:
The article is funny, not serious. Of course some community college students are leftists who don't have ten cents to rub together. To assert, however, that the rich in this country don't have a liberal bend is to ignore solid empirical evidence from surveys (and even lefty books (see Fussel's Class book)).

The wealthy on both coasts tend to be more liberal than the average American if they 1) were Ivy educated; 2) came from a coastal background (CA not KA); 3) are in the arts, media, publishing or education; 4) are anyone who associates with these people; 5) are almost anyone who follows political fads. These tend to be the high-profile leftists in the country.

Righties and lefties have rich backers, period. To argue that the left is a solid working class movement, while the right is a club for the wealthy is a myth that both statistical surveys and a visit to any college campus will readily dispel. Both sides enjoy support from a mix of backgrounds, rich and poor. Why do you think the country votes almost 50-50, Rep and Dem? If we were really talking about a rich versus poor choice, then the vote should be skewed markedly in one direction.

I feel like the country is arguing like children now. The faddish anti-Bush stance of all (no hesitation here) leftists is comical -- as if the emotional defense of most righties. No one is perfect. The presupposition that the President is (or could be) is silly morally and practically. Clinton's excesses demonstrated that point rather well.

To Lefties:
Is Bush really Hitler incarnate? Would you have opposed the Iraq war if Clinton had supported it? His foray into Somalia was a lefty adventure that drew nary a peep out of the no-war-at-all-costs-crowd. Somalia had even less national security significance than Iraq. If you're all for human rights, what do you do to a dictator who ignores you? I'm not being facetious. What do you do? UN?

2.5M people died in Congo while waiting for the UN (which never did anything significant to stop the genocide, even after its extent was revealed). Do you really have more faith in the UN's judgement than in the US's? Isn't your hatred of Bush a veiled contempt of the opinions that most Americans hold (patriotism, anti-UN-go-it-alone-if-necessisary-ism, etc)? Isn't it funny how you still claim to support the average man on the street?

To Righties:
Bush is not god. No one is. Defend him when he is right, otherwise, don't. There's more than enough to criticize on the left without having to legitimize its worst proponents (Moore, again) by hyperventilating.