There was one thing that surprised me about this past weekend’s “news coverage” – it’s not that the Tea Party Convention was covered but the fact that it was covered seriously.
I would even go as far as to say that I was shocked …wait that’s too far… mystified to find that reputable news outlets were giving serious discussion and analysis to Tom Tancredo opening speech (and the entire convention for that matter). What I would describe shocking is reputable and respected news outlets describing Tancredo’s speech as anything but racist, dangerous and as American as the Malawian born Englishman writing this article.
Furthermore, what stuck out at me from the overwhelmingly thinly veiled soup of hatred for anything slightly tanned is the loathing of people who have done well for themselves in life. Now I know that this may sound confusing, it confused me for awhile, but the same group of people who profess to be standing up for American values (working hard, providing for your family, making a good honest living, picking yourself up by the bootstraps) hate those very same people who fit that mold if they happen to be non-white, Democrat, pro-choice Republicans or gay…Oh, and Muslim. What’s the code word they use for anyone that falls under any aforementioned categories? Elitist(s).
Well to paraphrase the fictional republican Gordon Gekko (just guessing- he was a banker, shunned banking laws and restrictions and he looked like he hated taxes) – Elitism is good.
If your parents (grandparents or guardians) scraped all the money they had and managed to get you through an Ivy League education and you managed to work yourself up from the gutter politics of Chicago to become the President of the United States, and you are still described as an elitist? Well then, elitism is good.
No? Well what about if you were born into a famous dynastical family from the great red state of Connecticut and every step in your life from your education down to your career as, let’s say, the President of the United States had a monarchical feel to it, are you still described as an elite? No, you’re a Patriot.
The Conservatives are playing a very dangerous short term game, which if demographics are to be believed will not benefit them in the long term. Make no mistake about it, what the media coverage of this convention has made me realize is that this a coup for the heart and soul of the GOP. This is how they are choosing to define themselves in the Obama era, more hate, less inclusive and with no new ideas and funnily enough, the “media” is falling fall it.
It seems like I am living in a parallel universe where everyone has forgotten what happened the 8 years before the scary elitist guy with the name Hussein took the White House from the American people. I thought anti-intellectualism/anti- elitism was rejected in the 2008 elections? Is there anything wrong with having a President who is actually smarter than you? Heck is there anything wrong with having a President who is smarter than most people in the country?
Just a normal everyday bloke writing about films.