The Problem with Elitism

[PJABBER]

I am regularly amused by the comments posted here against the Tea Party.

The comments are inevitably to the effect that government should be reserved for those who have an "elite" background - those who are professional lawyers, professional politicians, the highly "educated" who know so much more what is good for us than we do ourselves.

There is an essential implication that elites have an overwhelming advantage of intelligence, training, insight and, well, whatever it is that makes them better than everyone else at the role of governance.

As a result, the overwhelming choice of liberals and progressives is to proffer a series of candidates and exemplars from their own class of "eliteness." And the electorate does sometimes come to buy the unending praises made in support of these elites, especially when they are sold such an "attractive" bill of goods by the sycophantic press.

Thus we suffer under the highly educated, highly experienced (except in what might really matter - private enterprise) would-be rulers of the current government.

The following video offers a clear vision of what might be the philosophical issue we face each election cycle.

Do we choose an "elite" aristocracy, much like that of the days when the divine right of kings prevailed, and just as onerous, or do we choose a more common man or woman who just happens to believe in the rights of free men and women to determine their own destiny unfettered by the millstone of imposed elitist ideas of what is best for them?

The Problem with Elitism

 

[glenn1]

So I should prefer stupid people running the government? IMHO, the problem isn't the elite, it's the lack of common sense among those populating these positions. Also a problem is the natural tendency of those in government positions to see themselves as a key player and indispensible to solving the issue they focus on - they become hammers looking for nails.

 

[zinfamous]

Elitism: the charge of the ignorant and uneducated. Those who prefer mediocrity should expect nothing more.

 

[hellotyler]

The problem isn't that these people are smart or stupid (they are all very smart), it's that they are CORRUPT.

 

[Craig234]

The comments are inevitably to the effect that government should be reserved for those who have an "elite" background...[/B]

No, they're not.

But your posts are almost inevitably straw men.

 

[Vic Vega]

The problem isn't that these people are smart or stupid (they are all very smart), it's that they are CORRUPT.

This. 110%.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

One thing that most people don't get and especially those who voted for the likes of Obama and cannot understand why they were let down is that politicians have a responsibility for the entire nation, not for their interest groups alone.

But put non-elitists in the government you'd see that change pretty quickly in two ways, one way is that they will become puppets to those who can explain the issues and how they should act and the other is kinda like Chavez, just do whatever the hell you like to appease your followers even if the only possible outcome will be disaster.

 

[JohnOfSheffield]

The problem isn't that these people are smart or stupid (they are all very smart), it's that they are CORRUPT.

No, some are not very smart at all just very good at expressing their stupidity in a cute way.

 

[Bowfinger]

No, they're not.

But your posts are almost inevitably straw men.

Exactly. It's NOT at all about electing people who are "elite." It's about electing people who are intelligent, thoughtful, and reasonably knowledgeable about the world, or at least about the U.S. Being principled and sincere about public service are definite pluses. What we mock are the ignorant ideologues who seem to actively shun knowledge ... the kind of people PJ. et al seem to revere.

 

[CallMeJoe]

Deprecation of "elitism" by PJIBBERJABBER; where the Hell is that "irony" smiley I asked for?

 

[PJABBER]

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

No, they're not.

But your posts are almost inevitably straw men.

QFT

@blabber:

you need to have heart surgery. There are two surgeons. One is an arrogant harvard blue-blood (AKA elitist) with a mortality rate of 0.01%. The other is a good old boy NASCAR loving surgeon with a mortality rate of 10%.

Who do you go to? I'm betting the "elitist" one.

Being intelligent isn't elitism, it's intelligence.

 

[Fear No Evil]

QFT

@blabber:

you need to have heart surgery. There are two surgeons. One is an arrogant harvard blue-blood (AKA elitist) with a mortality rate of 0.01%. The other is a good old boy NASCAR loving surgeon with a mortality rate of 10%.

Who do you go to? I'm betting the "elitist" one.

Being intelligent isn't elitism, it's intelligence.

Or how about this. The shit hits the fan, full on zombie apocalypse. Are you going to run to the surgeon's house who, because of his elitism doesn't believe anyone other than the military and police should own guns. Or are you going to run to the good old boy NASCAR lovers house who believes that the right to bare arms is a god given right. Who do YOU go to? I'm betting the good ole boy.

Isn't this fun!? Or how about this.. he would go to whatever Doctor Obamacare assigned him, regardless of his preference for the better Doctor because Obama knows whats best for him.

It is kind of elitist of you to assume the only doctor who could be extremely successful would be a harvard blue-blood though... kind of proving PJ's point about elitists.

 

[her209]

Or how about this. The shit hits the fan, full on zombie apocalypse. Are you going to run to the surgeon's house who, because of his elitism doesn't believe anyone other than the military and police should own guns. Or are you going to run to the good old boy NASCAR lovers house who believes that the right to bare arms is a god given right. Who do YOU go to? I'm betting the good ole boy.

Isn't this fun!?

Zombies prefer bare arms over covered arms.

 

[qliveur]

Unless they're covered in gravy.

 

[UberNeuman]

All I know is that if there's a zombie attack, the only ones safe will be the tea baggers....

 

[manimal]

Jabber is on a roll lately with the frank lunz talking posts. How does it feel to have his hand so far up your colon that when he moves it you scream bailout?

Since you live in DC is it the fact that you are surrounded by lobbyists and the republican machine that you yourself are what you denounce? Your a republican elitist....

Polling tells you that saying elitist and bailout and take back our country gets a rise out of the ignorant and furthers the cause of the southern strategy. I do wonder if you are on someone's payroll politically. Maybe I have missed this information from a earlier thread. The increase in your thread count on the main page is questionable as well since clearly you are in overdrive and really want to get the "message" out.

I do believe you have a right to argue your points and on rare occasion you do argue them well but your motives is what I am questioning.

No strawmen, just questions...

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Or how about this. The shit hits the fan, full on zombie apocalypse. Are you going to run to the surgeon's house who, because of his elitism doesn't believe anyone other than the military and police should own guns. Or are you going to run to the good old boy NASCAR lovers house who believes that the right to bare arms is a god given right. Who do YOU go to? I'm betting the good ole boy.

Clueless is clueless. I set up a hypothetical. Neither he nor you answered it.

WTH does zombie invasions have to do with anything? Answer: nothing.

If this was a real zombie invasion, I really could care less about surgery, now would I. But typical troll 101 tactics...can't argue the facts, so either ignore or insult the original argument. Typical for you.

Isn't this fun!? Or how about this.. he would go to whatever Doctor Obamacare assigned him, regardless of his preference for the better Doctor because Obama knows whats best for him.

Troll, troll, troll your boat, gently down FNE's twisted stream.......wanna show blind hatred some more? You gotta do better then that. Maybe make it Doctor secrectkenyanmuslimobamacare.

It is kind of elitist of you to assume the only doctor who could be extremely successful would be a harvard blue-blood though... kind of proving PJ's point about elitists.

Cluess again. I mentioned it to make a point. No where did I assume (like you did) that all doctors are harvard types. I made this concept called an "example". Plenty of harvard-type docs are good. Plenty are not. Plenty of non-harvard-type docs are good. Plenty are not.

So answer my question Which doctor would you pick when you need surgery:?

Afraid to answer a simple question?

 

[PJABBER]

QFT

you need to have heart surgery. There are two surgeons. One is an arrogant harvard blue-blood (AKA elitist) with a mortality rate of 0.01%. The other is a good old boy NASCAR loving surgeon with a mortality rate of 10%.

Who do you go to? I'm betting the "elitist" one.

Being intelligent isn't elitism, it's intelligence.

You need to have a vibrant economy. There are two choices.

One is the arrogant "elite" former "community organizer" who has a Harvard law degree and many years experience in running for legislative political office. His time in office is characterized by running for the next legislative political office and winning his races by disqualifying his opponent. He has never worked in private industry, never run a business or managed anything other than political campaigns. He surrounds himself only with people who have also never worked in private industry and never run a business. His legislative proposals at either state or federal levels have never done a lick to stimulate economic development at any level. He reads great speeches.

The other choice has worked in private industry for wages or profit since she was a small girl. As a young girl, she worked in such jobs as were available, jobs such as fish canning, which required her to be on an assembly line cleaning out fish guts, to help support herself and her family. She eventually got a bachelor's degree in journalism from a State university and worked in sports journalism. She was elected a member of her small town city council for four years and then the mayor of the same small town for another four years. Before and during this time in political office she successfully and concurrently runs a family commercial fishing business for profit. The work is not very administrative, she has to go out on a commercial fishing boat in difficult and often life threatening weather conditions and perform hard physical labor. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of her State, she is appointed to chair the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that regulates and develops the most important industry in that state for two years. She is a known anti-corruption reformer that alienates members of both political parties. She is then elected governor of her state by defeating the incumbent governor in the Republican primary and a former two-term Democratic governor in the general election. She is the youngest person to have been elected to the position, and is the state's first female governor. Both the positions of Mayor and Governor are executive management positions where the bucks stops at her desk. She is subsequently chosen as the Republican presidential candidate's running mate. She is the first woman to run on the Republican Party's presidential ticket and the first nominee from her state of either major party. Once the election is over she resigns from her position as Governor to avoid having the state government mired in spurious lawsuits meant to prevent her from functioning in her job and to prevent her from being an effective candidate in the future. She writes a book that is an immediate best seller. The revenues from the book make her an immediate millionaire and she becomes the "unofficial" national spokeswoman for one of the most dynamic political movements in modern American history, a political movement that will in a couple of weeks replace the dominant political party of the past four years.

Who do you go to? I'm betting the "elitist" one.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

You need to have a vibrant economy. There are two choices.

One is the arrogant "elite" former "community organizer" who has a Harvard law degree and many years experience in running for legislative political office. His time in office is characterized by running for the next legislative political office and winning his races by disqualifying his opponent. He has never worked in private industry, never run a business or managed anything other than political campaigns. He surrounds himself only with people who have also never worked in private industry and never run a business. His legislative proposals at either state or federal levels have never done a lick to stimulate economic development at any level. He reads great speeches.

The other choice has worked in private industry for wages or profit since she was a small girl. As a young girl, she worked in such jobs as were available, jobs such as fish canning, which required her to be on an assembly line cleaning out fish guts, to help support herself and her family. She eventually got a bachelor's degree in journalism from a State university and worked in sports journalism. She was elected a member of her small town city council for four years and then the mayor of the same small town for another four years. Before and during this time in political office she successfully and concurrently runs a family commercial fishing business for profit. The work is not very administrative, she has to go out on a commercial fishing boat in difficult and often life threatening weather conditions and perform hard physical labor. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of her State, she is appointed to chair the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that regulates and develops the most important industry in that state for two years. She is a known anti-corruption reformer that alienates members of both political parties. She is then elected governor of her state by defeating the incumbent governor in the Republican primary and a former two-term Democratic governor in the general election. She is the youngest person to have been elected to the position, and is the state's first female governor. Both the positions of Mayor and Governor are executive management positions where the bucks stops at her desk. She is subsequently chosen as the Republican presidential candidate's running mate. She is the first woman to run on the Republican Party's presidential ticket and the first nominee from her state of either major party. Once the election is over she resigns from her position as Governor to avoid having the state government mired in spurious lawsuits meant to prevent her from functioning in her job and to prevent her from being an effective candidate in the future. She writes a book that is an immediate best seller. The revenues from the book make her an immediate millionaire and she becomes the "unofficial" national spokeswoman for one of the most dynamic political movements in modern American history, a political movement that will in a couple of weeks replace the dominant political party of the past four years.

Who do you go to? I'm betting the "elitist" one.

Ah, typical blabber response.....wall of text with absolutely zero content.

Please answer the question, it really is easy to answer.

Do you go to the 0.1% mortality rate "elitist", or the 10% mortality good old boy?

Afraid to answer?

 

[Craig234]

You need to have a vibrant economy. There are two choices.

One is the arrogant "elite" former "community organizer" who has a Harvard law degree and many years experience in running for legislative political office. His time in office is characterized by running for the next legislative political office and winning his races by disqualifying his opponent. He has never worked in private industry, never run a business or managed anything other than political campaigns. He surrounds himself only with people who have also never worked in private industry and never run a business. His legislative proposals at either state or federal levels have never done a lick to stimulate economic development at any level. He reads great speeches.

The other choice has worked in private industry for wages or profit since she was a small girl. As a young girl, she worked in such jobs as were available, jobs such as fish canning, which required her to be on an assembly line cleaning out fish guts, to help support herself and her family. She eventually got a bachelor's degree in journalism from a State university and worked in sports journalism. She was elected a member of her small town city council for four years and then the mayor of the same small town for another four years. Before and during this time in political office she successfully and concurrently runs a family commercial fishing business for profit. The work is not very administrative, she has to go out on a commercial fishing boat in difficult and often life threatening weather conditions and perform hard physical labor. After an unsuccessful campaign for lieutenant governor of her State, she is appointed to chair the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission that regulates and develops the most important industry in that state for two years. She is a known anti-corruption reformer that alienates members of both political parties. She is then elected governor of her state by defeating the incumbent governor in the Republican primary and a former two-term Democratic governor in the general election. She is the youngest person to have been elected to the position, and is the state's first female governor. Both the positions of Mayor and Governor are executive management positions where the bucks stops at her desk. She is subsequently chosen as the Republican presidential candidate's running mate. She is the first woman to run on the Republican Party's presidential ticket and the first nominee from her state of either major party. Once the election is over she resigns from her position as Governor to avoid having the state government mired in spurious lawsuits meant to prevent her from functioning in her job and to prevent her from being an effective candidate in the future. She writes a book that is an immediate best seller. The revenues from the book make her an immediate millionaire and she becomes the "unofficial" national spokeswoman for one of the most dynamic political movements in modern American history, a political movement that will in a couple of weeks replace the dominant political party of the past four years.

Who do you go to? I'm betting the "elitist" one.

Let's see, what did my first post say? That your posts are almost inevitably straw men.

And what do you post next? A post cherry picking the things you can criticize about Obama the 'strong points' you feel are weak, while hyping points about the person you're for while not saying a word about her negatives, or areas she is unqualified. More importantly, you don't say a word about the policies and represent. they represent.

In other words, another straw man post.

 

[PJABBER]

Ah, typical blabber response.....wall of text with absolutely zero content.

Please answer the question, it really is easy to answer.

Do you go to the 0.1% mortality rate "elitist", or the 10% mortality good old boy?

Afraid to answer?

My concern is not in choosing one hypothetical doctor over another.

My concern, and that of the nation, is who is going to drag this country up from the economic malaise it is in. Who will get government out of the way so that private enterprise will do what it does best.

Mine is the more real, the more important, the more critical question that you must answer.

We will see what the rest of the country thinks on November 2 and again in 2012.

 

[theeedude]

I have a problem with perpetuating elites, so I would never vote for a Republican.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

My concern is not in choosing one hypothetical doctor over another.

My concern, and that of the nation, is who is going to drag this country up from the economic malaise it is in. Who will get government out of the way so that private enterprise will do what it does best.

Mine is the more real, the more important, the more critical question that you must answer.

We will see what the rest of the country thinks on November 2 and again in 2012.

IOW...I can't answer the question without being show once again to be a hypocrite, because I would certainly pick the "elitist" to make sure I survive. Therefore, I will post a big wall of text that says nothing, wave my hands about nothing, and bail until I start another thread by copy/pasting another persons thoughts, since I cannot think up any of these ideas on my own.

I think I got all the bases covered, thanks for not being able to defend your own thread. Way to go.

 

[Fear No Evil]

Ah, typical blabber response.....wall of text with absolutely zero content.

Please answer the question, it really is easy to answer.

Do you go to the 0.1% mortality rate "elitist", or the 10% mortality good old boy?

Afraid to answer?

I'd go to the good old boy because the elitist would probably decide that since I am conservative I am not worth saving and would likely rig it so it looked like I died of natural causes because he's so angry about Sarah Palin and GWB. The elitist would probably also decide I'm incapable of making my own healthcare decisions so he'd probably pass a comprehensive healthcare reform bill that would force me to buy substandard coverage with fewer choices and rationed care. The elitist would then allow him and his friends to keep their gold plated super-plan they have and he would let the commoners to fight for whatever's leftover.