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To call Sen. Obama an elitist is to degrade a man that represents more than the status quo. It is a degradation based on ignorance, a lack of information and perhaps an unwillingness to search beyond sensationalized news reports that mislead us. The truth is that this man can and will represent not only “the working-class whites,” but also the majority of us that seek change.
When the cost to run for U.S. Senate amounts to millions of dollars and when lobbyists or special interest groups have more of an influence on our republic than its citizens do, something is wrong with our political process. When the gains of the average citizen are dependent upon massive gains by a small percentage of the population, something needs to be changed. Endorsing McCain or Clinton would diffuse these themes within our government. They represent not the majority of citizens that lack jobs, healthcare and education, but they preserve the consistency of corporate power within the U.S. and abroad.
What is happening within our country is a polarization of politics. We have come a long way from the times of Hamilton and Jefferson debating their ideologies. Instead, the foci we accept – the mind-numbing, insistent tragedies that plague us – are the meanderings of judgment not based on political ideology, but on our individual associations with someone perhaps considered “subversive” or as we describe them in today’s political language, “controversial.”
What we lose sight of is an idea – an ideology that is perhaps different from the mainstream views and our own. Rather than debate issues that desperately need solutions, we invoke a fear of politics and an acceptance to be forever apolitical. It is much easier to debate the reasons why one would not wear a U.S. flag pin on his or her lapel than it is to debate more serious issues, such as our occupation of Iraq. Can we as citizens handle this?
The answer seems to be that we cannot. Perhaps fear has obtained such a hold on our psyche that we remain silent and resist anyone or anything that does not fit what we have been socialized to believe. We are unable to discuss politics. It has become taboo just like talking about our sexuality. What would a student in high school gain from asking a history teacher questions about U.S. intervention in Latin America? Why is it that social problems persist without resolutions?
The answer is that these issues are “controversial” and go against our mentalities of working hard and someday having a specialized profession. For if the majority became politically charged – if the youth, such as the youth of the late 1960s, began to question what the system has raised them to be – an outcry would be heard that would silence their voices. In turn it would not be the issue or injustice imposed that is debated, but it would be how the radical, subversive, Marxist politics of the youth are destroying and dividing our country.
As a result, Sen. Obama has received many attacks that do not go after his policies or his way of thinking, but the people associated with him. If people disagree with the policies of the Bush administration, they are shunned as unpatriotic and unrealistic. They are naive idealists that rely on hope and compassion to create change that is stable and sustainable. They do not support the free trade agreements that ruin domestic and foreign markets. They do not support military intervention in sovereign nations, because they listened to Eisenhower and heard his warning.
To label Sen. Obama as an elitist is to label all politicians elitists and, thus, label our society as elitist. To not recognize the massive injustices that are apparent within our government and work toward change for social and economic equality, is to simply endorse McCain or Clinton and continue the policy that has been evolving since long before 2000.
Anders Christian Beal is a first-year Spanish major who plans on voting for Barack Obama.
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