If you’re one of those people who buys into the mainstream media’s collective swoon, Sen. Barack Obama “transcends” race. How about class?

“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not.”

“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” said Mr. Obama.

Translation: being unemployed has turned you into a Bible-thumping, isolationist, xenophobic bigot with a loaded gun.

That Barack Obama is just another elitist Democrat with contempt for ordinary Americans should surprise no one. The entire platform of the Democratic Party is based on the idea that people are incapable of taking care of themselves. Barack Obama merely articulated the reasons why: we “cling” to such absurdities as our Second Amendment rights or our love of God; we have quaint notions that the rule of law should take precedence over the legalization of millions of border-busters; we’re dumb enough to think that all people should be treated equally instead of getting special privileges based on skin color, gender or sexual orientation; and we want America to put Americans first.

Hillary Clinton and John McCain were quick to pounce on Obama’s gaffe. But even a cursory look at their track records suggests they feel exactly the same way about the “little people.” The only difference is that the Republican party as a whole has yet to institutionalize their contempt for us. They’ve come a long way with “compassionate conservatism,” but socialist fever hasn’t quite taken hold.

Thus, the 2008 election comes down to a choice between three elitist phonies. One of them will be swept under by yet another Democratic “specialty:” the separation of people by race and gender. That will leave Americans with two inside-the-Beltway bureaucrats promising us the sun, the moon and the stars.

Whoever promises to leave me the hell alone most of the time gets my vote.

atahlert@comcast.net

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