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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Obama versus the folks in the suburbs |
| 2008-06-14 |
David Mendell's Obama: From Promise to Power, p. 148-149:"[Obama]always talked about the New Rochelle train, the trains that took commuters to and from New York City, and he didn't want to be on one of those trains every day," said Jerry Kellman, the community organizer who enticed Obama to Chicago from his Manhattan office job. "The image of a life, not a dynamic life, of going through the motions... that was scary to him." Obviously, if Barack Obama were satisfied with an office job, not only would he have not spent three years as a community organizer, he probably wouldn't have ever run for office. Every politician has to have some drive like that, some desire for more than punching the clock from 9 to 5, commuting home, and quiet evenings. They have to be willing to put up with public scrutiny and the constant demands for time, energy, money, and effort... Mike says: My father was in local politics, and as I was growing up, I saw first hand just how demanding that lifestyle is. Dad was a restless sort of person, and campaigning fit his personality. I would never want to live that way, so I've never run for office--but I will always have a certain level of respect for anyone that does; even the ones, like Obama, that I could never vote for. There's nothing wrong with saying, "that life, taking the New Rochelle train, just isn't for me." But there's a fine line between rejecting that life and looking down at that life. Because some people are just fine with jobs that require them to take the New Rochelle train. Some people actually prefer it to the stress, the risk, the time away from family, the constant demands from strangers. And the world needs these people - who get up every morning, go to work to do jobs with no glamor and little or no prestige, wages modest or worse, and whose names never appear in the newspaper. As another prominent commentator describes them, "hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us." These folks receive a round of applause when they dance at their wedding, and at their retirement party, and that's about it. We can't all be touted as secular messiahs, surrounded by adoring throngs. Very few us get crowds chanting our name on a regular basis. Scarlett Johansson doesn't e-mail us, and Jennifer Lopez doesn't visit our offices. Never mind the small towners who"cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment." Obama didn't want to be a suburban commuter. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #1 Seems to be a lot of things Barack doesn't want to do nor see worth in. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-06-14 14:48 |