What's The Matter With Elitism?

I'm getting sick and tired of Hillary Clinton piling on Barack Obama for comments he made early last week about how working-class and middle-class Americans are "bitter" over their economic difficulties and cling to guns and religion for solace. Because isn't he right? Don't people in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other industrial (or post-industrial) states get bitter over losing their jobs and having to compete with their own teenage children for low-wage jobs at Wal-Mart? And when all they have is hunting and churchgoing to find something to believe in and hold onto, wouldn't you expect them to do that?

Hillary called Obama condescending, saying he took an "elitist" attitude. As Obama himself cited, this is a peculiar accusation for someone who grew up with a single mother in a Third World country and had socioeconomic difficulties growing up. But - what if Obama is elitist? What if Obama - whose annual family income is far less than the Clintons - can be considered elitist because of his ease with people of higher incomes and better education? Don't we want someone from an educated elite - who, by definition, knows a thing or two about running a country and knows what he's doing - to govern us?

Here's a pretty impressive list of elitists: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams. Six of our Presidents? Not just that - our first six Presidents! Imagine how much worse off our country would have been if, in the first forty years the Constitution was in effect, we had leaders who were not a part of an educated elite.

Ponder that while you're mailing your tax form tonight.