{"id":148,"date":"2008-04-16T17:30:10","date_gmt":"2008-04-16T17:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/castingstones\/2008\/04\/bittergate-or-clinggate.html"},"modified":"2008-04-16T17:30:10","modified_gmt":"2008-04-16T17:30:10","slug":"bittergate-or-clinggate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/castingstones\/2008\/04\/bittergate-or-clinggate.html","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBitter-gate\u201d or \u201cCling-gate\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As anyone interested in the American electoral process knows that on April 6 at a supposedly private fundraiser of extremely affluent, latte-sipping, cheese-tasting, wine-quaffing, limousine liberals at the ground zero of elitism\u2014San Francisco\u2014Sen. Barack Obama uttered these now infamous words:
\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren\u2019t like them or anti-immigrant or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.\u201d
\nWhat makes these 36 words so witheringly controversial? The Obama campaign and his defenders are focusing desperately on the \u201cbitterness,\u201d defending the assertion that the blue-collar working class voters in small-town Pennsylvania are bitter over the economic dislocations they have experienced over the past two decades.
\nHowever, the problem is not \u201cbitterness\u201d but the verb \u201ccling.\u201d Essentially, Obama sounded like a condescending elitist engaging in socio-economic analysis of these strange inhabitants of fly-over country.
\nSenator Clinton pounced on her opponent\u2019s faux paus<\/em> with whippet-like speed. Hillary\u2019s retort: \u201cThe people of faith I know don\u2019t cling to religion because they\u2019re bitter. In fact, they embrace their faith because it gives them so much in return.\u201d
\nMost Americans of faith (and that\u2019s a significant majority of us) do embrace their faith because it brings meaning and purpose to their lives, regardless of economic circumstances.
\nObama\u2019s statement indicates that he believes working-class Americans \u201ccling\u201d to guns because they\u2019re economically frustrated and they find comfort in toting around firearms. In other words, religion and guns are emotional security blankets in tough times. Such sentiments reveal egregious ignorance of the role firearms have always played in large swaths of our culture, which has nothing to do with economic status. Then Obama makes things worse by accusing working-class folk of being xenophobic and of scape-goating \u201cpeople who aren\u2019t like them.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s pretty hard to get people to vote for you when you make it clear you not only don\u2019t like or understand them, but you disdain them.
\nAs Maureen Dowd put it, Obama sounds less like a candidate and more like an \u201canthropologist . . . observing the odd habits of the colorful locals.\u201d When Maureen Dowd starts making those observations, you know the episode is serious and may have a long shelf life.
\nI was getting very sleepy as I drove across middle Tennessee the other day, so I stopped to get some coffee at a Waffle House in a rural area.
\nAs I sipped my coffee, I eavesdropped on a conversation among some male blue-collar workers who were raising their cholesterol levels while solving the world\u2019s problems. Sen. Obama\u2019s clinging comments came up and one middle-aged man in bib overalls and work boots said, \u201cI hate to say it, but he sounds like just another limousine liberal to me!\u201d Does this \u201ccling-gate\u201d story have a shelf life\u2014Yep!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As anyone interested in the American electoral process knows that on April 6 at a supposedly private fundraiser of extremely affluent, latte-sipping, cheese-tasting, wine-quaffing, limousine liberals at the ground zero of elitism\u2014San Francisco\u2014Sen. 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