Lexington | A bitter pill

Lexington | A bitter pill | Economist.com: "The war between “ordinary people” and “condescending elites” is one of the great themes of American politics. “Ordinary people” are real Americans: they worship God, revere America and love their families. “Condescending elites” are crypto-Europeans—the sort of people who eat arugula, do sissified jobs in offices and universities, and scheme to ban guns and legalise gay marriage. Mr Obama not only put himself firmly on the “wrong” side of this great cultural divide; he implied that “ordinary Americans” are the victims of “false consciousness” for not falling in love with him."

On one hand, I love this column, particularly because it so clearly illuminates an anti-intellectual streak that runs thick through modern American society. However, politics has been for time immemorial a bit of a race to the bottom in the rush to make comforting promises and rail against the "other." The cold logical benefits of free trade don't sell well to the struggling masses on the campaign trail. Still, as a self-identified crypto-European (or at least wannabe), much unnerves me about these seemingly all too common attacks against the intelligent and self-made man, particularly when so many others in the race are overlooked, despite their often more sheltered, inherited privilege status.

At the same time, my stomach turns when man does forget his roots, whether those roots are Small Town, USA or the dust of the Rift Valley. Considering the high regard Americans so often place on their heritage, we often face our more immediate past with no small measure of discomfort and awkward shuffling. So perhaps Barack has been forgetful about some of the roads upon which this life has led him, and so too the author of this column is quick to reprimand the Winesburg, Ohios which sprawl across the American landscape as derelict relics of a bygone age, surviving merely on pork barrel politics and subsidies. This is a rash and crude generalization, albeit with grains of truth.

Who then is more in the wrong? I do not know--I only know that a bit more respect and empathy flowing in both directions would work a world of good upon America's interior monologue. We then need not be so bitter and spiteful.