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| Home Front: Politix |
| Barack Obama the self-loathing yuppie |
| 2008-04-16 |
| Jonah Goldberg, National Review Barack Obama is finally coming into focus. For a while now, the Obamaphiles have insisted that their candidate represents a profound break with the past. No more culture wars. No more “re-litigating the 1960s,” in Obama’s own words. But what about re-litigating the 1980s? There’s always been a certain cultural lag time to Barack and Michelle Obama, a kitschiness that’s hard to pinpoint. But I think I’ve got it: They’re self-hating yuppies straight out of the 1980s, which were to the Obamas what the 1960s were to the Clintons. For those too young to remember, “yuppie” was shorthand for young urban professionals — think Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton in the TV series “Family Ties” — who allegedly represented the collapse of ’60s values and the triumph of ’80s greed. Yuppies sold their souls for a BMW and a condo. See also, e.g., Warren Zevon. Ironically, the biggest complaints about yuppie materialism came from self-loathing liberal yuppies — like the Obamas. The Obamas still seem stuck in that time warp, clinging to ’80s-style resentments and political assumptions. . . . |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #1 Zevon ref? Mike, you rock. I miss Warren |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-04-16 20:29 |