I'm a card carrying member of the Mandarin Meritocracy (Johns Hopkins and U of Chicago) and a life long Democrat, so I think I'm allowed to say this. The reason that the Democrats keep handing the Republicans this kind of resentment stoking gift is that so many people of my class and background believe exactly what Obama said and think any intelligent person ought to agree with them.

There is such a thing called the "Mandarin Meritocracy?" I'm obviously not a member. But I think this issue highlights, for me, what is more interesting than the race debate, it's deeper, it's a social/economic debate. Do you think the union members revere you in the Mandarin Meritocracy? No, they are suspicious, resentful, occasionally envious? Why? One, they think you make a lot more money than they do. Sometimes, it's true, sometimes it's not. If you are in the skilled trades, in the unionized skilled trades, you can do quite well comparatively. That is, if you started making $40,000 to $50,000 at the age of 22, with health care and a defined benefit pension, you probably would be doing as well as some professionals, certainly better than many academics, by the age of 40 considering the amount of student debt you had to pay back. Are you doing better? But the problem is fear. Barack needs to take the fear part out of the equation. Fear that the U.S. may not be the economic superpower forever; fear that since not all of us will make it to Harvard, or even U of C that we will somehow miss the economic boat; fear that we won't be able to give our kids better than what we had. Maybe it is not possible to take the fear part out. I'm not sure that we are not headed for another economic depression. No one wants to say that, but some states are already there, i.e., Michigan. What did Roosevelt say? "There is nothing to fear . . . . "

It isn't money, it's something else. The people of the class I am talking about aren't rich, for the most part, although most are pretty comfortable. What defines them is their belief that their education defines them, and that it makes them both wiser and more moral than the general run of Americans. Although they wouldn't articulate it this way, they believe that they hold the same place as the clergy do in a traditional society -- specialists in how people should live -- and should enjoy similar authority and respect.

The Age of the New Deal, from 1933 to 1980, was their apogee. They have been trying to get back there ever since and have grown increasingly puzzled and frustrated that they cannot. Hence the spate of books like What's The Matter With Kansas, and the op-ed pundits like Krugman who explain 40 years of Republican political success as nothing more than white racism and backward religiosity. Obama's remarks express that orthodoxy perfectly.

Your description of this meritocracy is very interesting. And I would agree with your description, depending on what some of these folks do with their educations, i.e, where they end up working. I also think this way of thinking is a sort of psychological defense for the usual American insecurity about whether "I've made it." All of us are left to fend for ourselves, the puritans wouldn't have had it any other way, but it has left this society fragmented along cultural, economic, racial lines, i.e., whatever group you decide to allign yourself with in order to pull yourself up. I guess I thought with an Obama presidency there would be change away from this. You know, all for one and one for all, kind of thing.

One might think that since Barack did some community organizing he would have come down a peg or two. But apparently not. And remember he thought he was among his people at the fundraiser and San Fran. I heard Michelle Obama make certain remarks at a fundraiser in Chicago that I considered, well, risky. And I think she has been called to task on the more obvious remarks, i.e, "for the first time in my adult life I am really proud to be an American." But I believe she made them because she thought she was among her people.

Does this discussion help this county? What is the solution(s) for the continuing depression in the rust belt? I canvassed for Obama in Dayton, and I was depressed. I tried to convince people who were Clinton supporters that she would not be able to bring Congress together to pass some of the reforms she is looking for and that it would take Obama to effectively make those changes. And in response I got some very direct questions asking for concrete facts on what exactly was Obama's plan on health care or the environment. Are those one issue voters who would vote against their own economic interests? I don't think so. I think they were hard working people asking for concrete response to questions they have to deal with everyday.

I believe I've rambled too much. Thanks for the opportunity to discuss this issue.

lfskater1:

I guess I thought with an Obama presidency there would be change away from this. You know, all for one and one for all, kind of thing. . . .

One might think that since Barack did some community organizing he would have come down a peg or two. But apparently not. And remember he thought he was among his people at the fundraiser and San Fran. . . .

What is the solution(s) for the continuing depression in the rust belt?

I never thought that. Obama is the obverse of W -- his claim to be a uniter is really a claim that his people will overwhelm the other side so badly that it will shut up and accept inferiority.

He indeed thought he was among his people, just like Earl Butz thought so when he made the "loose shoes" joke that ended his public career. The truth comes out when you think you're among friends who agree with you.

As to the continuing depression in the rust belt, any solution has to take into account several facts. (i) the cheap Mesabi iron ore the rust belt was built on is a long time gone, (ii) a guy pulling the handle on a drill press in Youngstown is worth no more to the market than a guy pulling the same handle in Guangzhou, and (iii) the prosperity of the 1950s and 60s was a historical moment based on conditions - the aftermath of WW2 - that ain't never coming back. The rust belt economy based on union jobs in metal bending factories is as gone as the Sioux economy based on buffalo hunting, and dancing the Ghost Dance won't bring either one back.