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A Vote for Elitism

NEW YORK -- If you care about the United States and care about swimming -- I happen to care about both -- who do you want representing you, Michael Phelps or "one of us"?

If you answer "Phelps," does that make you an elitist?

Most of us, in one way or another, aspire or have aspired to be part of an elite, to be really good at something. That's the definition of the word. "Elite," according to the American Heritage Dictionary, means "a group or a member of such a group or class enjoying intellectual, social or economic status ... the best or most skilled members of a group."

Not bad. But "elitism": bad. The "ism" word has evolved over centuries to mean, according to the same dictionary: "The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority ... the sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group."

Bad.

In other words, Michael Phelps can be admired for being a better competitive swimmer than I was (a long time ago), but I'll be mad if he thinks he's better than me.

So it goes. "Elitism" has become perhaps the most potent negative issue in American politics in our time. George Wallace, the racist former governor of Alabama and would-be president, used it to great advantage back in the 1970s, attacking "pointy-headed intellectuals who can't even ride a bike straight." He went a long way bragging that he was dumb and didn't like smart people. George W. Bush got further by playing the regular guy -- or at least the most regular of presidential sons who went to Yale -- against the intellectual pretensions of Al Gore and the wind-surfing of John Kerry.

Both Wallace and Bush and a lot of other politicians coming from the right have clobbered liberals by claiming to be dumb and dumber. Lefties have been less successful, in recent elections, in trying to attack economic elitism.

Which brings us to this year. John McCain, the son and grandson of admirals, was doing just fine for a few weeks attacking Barack Obama, he of humble if exotic origins, as an elitist because he excelled at Harvard Law School and uses and understands a lot of big words -- and made some money writing books all by himself.

Regular guy McCain -- Obama is definitely not a regular guy -- seemed to be doing right well in yelling that the guy with the funny name was not one of us. (There might be racial implication in that, but you couldn't be much whiter than Gore and Kerry.) And Obama, like Phelps, is not like most of us. In his business, he's better.

Now McCain seems to have tripped over his own elite rich wife and real estate status.

One of the most interesting things about following politicians is their bravery (or arrogance) in putting everything on the line every time they open their mouths. One or two wrong words, and they can lose everything. A risky business, as McCain learned again on Thursday when Politico.com asked him how many homes he owned (with his wife) and he didn't know.

His answer on the houses was: "I think -- I'll have my staff get to you," McCain replied. "It's condominiums where -- I'll have them get to you."

He sounded and looked as bad as he looked good when, in his first congressional race in Arizona, he was accused of being a carpetbagger who had never actually lived in the state. That was true, but McCain had a killer answer ready: "I'm from a military family; I've moved around a lot. Actually, the place I lived longest was in Hanoi."

The Obama campaign, like McCain in that first race, was ready to pounce, having researched the decimal points of McCain's millions. They had the answer and television scripts to go with it: "Seven! -- and maybe a couple more."

Gotcha! A gaffe. But it was a revealing one. As Bob Drogin and Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times began their report on McCain's confusion: "A political gaffe, it is said, occurs when a politician inadvertently tells the truth."

This time, the knife of elitism has cut both ways. Both of these guys are accomplished and ambitious men in a killer craft. As they should be. Politics, it is said, ain't beanbag. And the presidency is not for the faint of heart.

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Related Topics: election 2008 | mccain | obama |

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