We are all snobs at MU.
According to Rick Santorum, so are our encouraging parents for that matter. In late February, Santorum did some impressive regressive pandering to an audience more than willing to bite at whatever bait he threw at them.
Rick, the ever-eloquent speaker he is, went for the subtle, unoffensive name-calling approach: “President (Barack) Obama said he wants everybody in America to go to college. What a snob!”
Burn.
A week later, after his wife shook her finger at him for his childish words, he attempted to retract the statement, albeit after the voting booths of Michigan closed. Santorum said it wasn’t the smartest choice of words. Referring to “snob,” not to the part where he said it was arrogant to strive to obtain higher education.
To clear any misconceptions, Obama’s actual quote about the matter was from a 2009 joint session of Congress, “And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.”
Yeah, that’s just classic elitist arrogant Obama spouting off his left-wing propaganda again. (By the way that quote is available to everyone, including Santorum, free of charge. Just use the magic inter-webs and “Google” it.)
This gaffe by Santorum isn’t an isolated incident. It is part of a broader never-ending effort by the GOP to peg Democrats as “elitists.” This is also coming at a time when the GOP is trying to peg Obama as dividing the country into haves and have-nots, perpetuating class warfare with his talks of “fairness.” (Because trickle-down economics isn’t elitist or divisive.)
Let’s further examine what divisive actually is, and how badly elitism perpetuates it.
Gingrich, also a subtle unoffensive speaker, ridiculed those who “live in high-rises” and work for “fancy newspapers” and “ride the subway.” Yes, those elitist subway passengers. This insensitivity toward urban areas goes back farther with another great orator, Sarah Palin, who according to the Washington Post said, “We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.”
According to the CIA World Factbook, the 2010 Census states that 82 percent of American’s live in urban areas, which means, according to Palin, they aren’t real Americans, much less are they pro-America, hardworking or patriotic.
There are a few serious problems with this type of pandering. First, it’s hypocritical coming from a group of four millionaire GOP presidential hopefuls who have lived in and represented cities, and who have 11 college degrees between them, seven of which are post-graduate.
The hypocrisy doesn’t stop there. The GOP champions the 1 percent, or as they call them “the job creators.” The job creators being those who attended elite schools or have been born into opportunity. Then they turn around and criticize those who want those same opportunities and the administration who encourages them.
Secondly, it’s regressive. To say a group of individuals is elitist used to mean, by definition, that they were exclusionary and pompous (e.g. Thomas Jefferson and his electoral college). Elitist has been spun into meaning people who go to college, those who are experts in their fields, live in cities or who just happen to live on the east or west coast. The message this sends is vehemently against the American dream: picking yourself up by your bootstraps and working your way to the top. In a country where, according to US News and World Reports, 94 percent of parents want their children to attend college, why are Republicans suddenly against this?
Lastly, this talk of elitism and this pandering to rural areas is dangerously divisive. It’s not divisive in the same way Obama’s “fairness” is divisive. It’s divisive in the because-you-go-to-college-and-live-in-a-city-you-aren’t-a-real-American way. Columbia is the 13th most highly educated municipality in the United States, according to Money Magazine. Does that make us unpatriotic?
This anti-elitism and the air it creates is frightening. Luckily for the time being it’s just GOP pandering and parents still want their children to go to college. But next time you hear someone spout off a Faux News talking point about Obama dividing America, think about the divisive rhetoric coming from the GOP first.
