Gratification! Or: Why I Sometimes Love Americans

Read Bill Kristol's column in the New York Times today. And then read the readers' comments. With the exception of one commentator, everyone inspired to write in (I was, too, but so many people felt compelled to respond that the paper closed the forum) blew apart the logical fallacies inherent in Kristol's dichotomy of the "elite" and the "vulgus," or common man. According to Kristol--apparently representative of the everyman, with his PhD, White House positions in two Republican administrations, own political magazine, and contributor status with FOX News and Special Report with Brit Hume--Joe the "I can't seem to pay my taxes or find my license" Plumber is a savvy analyst of the current fiscal crisis and war in Iraq, and Sarah Palin's lowest common denominator populism is actually exemplary of the democratic process. You see, because "vulgus" means people, and a democracy is a government run by the people! So to be vulgar is to be democratic and to be elitist is to pave the way to totalitarianism. I mean, duh.

Thank you, Bill Kristol, for illuminating the democratic process.

What Bill Kristol is forgetting, and this exposes his own elitist assumptions about the masses, is that there are "elitists" in blue collar jobs in America. There are people with good educations and analytical talent working as teachers, bus drivers, janitors, retail clerks, construction workers and stay at home parents. I know, because I am one of those elitists. We make shit for pay and we work two or three jobs for health insurance and we know that buying a home and having a decent retirement account will be very difficult. Demographically, Americans like myself are allocated to the domain of the vulgus. And the vulgus likes the vulgar politics of the Republican party.

Except, and this is what made the reader comments so heartening, many Americans are insulted and repulsed by Kristol's wiggly act of redefinition. There is a keen difference between rule by the people and in the people's interest and mob rule. Mob rule allows the people to dictate policy according to prejudice and whim. Mob rule is a terrifying and magnificently effective political strategy because it is devoid of critical insight. Mob rule vulgarly asserts that there is a clear answer, usually in the form of a person or persons, to complex problems like the housing bubble and terrorism, and some Americans like clear answers because they don't like to think. Kristol is banking on this constituency to back his claims about the true nature of the U.S. government.

But luckily for us there are at least two major problems with Kristol's assumptions. One, the people who would support (or wouldn't notice) his rhetorical slight of hand probably aren't reading his column. And two, those of us who are, Republican and Democrat, probably don't like being referred to as vulgar, or associated with the xenophobia, multicultural ignorance, anger, falsehood and ineptitude that has characterized the Bush administration, the McCain-Palin campaign, and the far right that continues to support the formers' failed policies.

There is no question that there are ignorant bigots in America who genuinely believe that all Muslims are terrorists and anyone with a college education is out of touch with reality. This is a result of structural inequities in education and the economy that need to be addressed by the next president. What angers me is that instead of renouncing and addressing the root causes the nation's vulgar ideologies of race and poverty (see above inequities), the educated professionals in the conservative wing of the Republican party are holding these destructive ideas up as the epitome of democracy.

So I want to say thank you to all 600 people who wrote into Kristol's column to renounce his suggestions about democracy. We may not all have PhDs or White House staffer jobs waiting for us, but we are the opposite of vulgar. And in the present historical moment, that's downright elitist.