Kerry Betrays His Brahmin Roots

[DrFunkenstein]

Candidate: John Kerry
Category: General Likeability
Grade: A

One of the most grating elements of American politics is the impulse for rich candidates to affect the symbolism of the middle class. (Witness the dauphin George W. Bush at his hardscrabble Texas ranch, jus' clearin' brush.)

Cultural experience is of course not the sum total of anyone's character, but the impulse to obscure a privileged background for political gain is a glaring character flaw.

And in a primary where John Edwards pushes his millworker pedigree with Tourette's-like frequency, and Dick Gephardt counters that neither of his parents finished high school, the pressure for the better heeled candidates to play down their not-so-humble beginnings must be intense.

So give John Kerry credit for bucking this condescending campaign ritual. At a Mason City, Iowa, bowling alley, he framed his background in the noblest political tradition: "George Bush went to a nice, fancy high school like I did, but I came out of my fancy high school asking the question, 'Why can't everybody have a school like this?'"

That hits all the right notes--candor about inherited wealth, noblesse oblige, and a concern for the broader national interest. The media frequently invoke Kerry's Brahmin heritage to suggest that he's culturally isolated from the electorate, but the honesty and civic-mindedness Kerry displayed yesterday are quintessentially American cultural virtues.

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[whathappened]

1. wonderful educations

to me , a good education don't mean a dam thing , unless you grow something like some basic how to live with your neightbors and how to share and give in life , the most of these fat heads in d.c. have forgotten what it takes to be a real giver and what it takes to really care for others

[Maple]

2. And see what happens?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51517-2003Aug12?language=printer

[molly]

3. Here's the thread - why post it again?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=108&topic_id=19938&mesg_id=19938

[Maple]

4. Because it sounded like

the original poster hadn't seen it??

[molly]

5. HaHaHaHa - yeah right - his posts are in there

you just wanted to bring it back - huh?

[Maple]

6. No Molly

I hadn't seen the other thread either, until you posted it on here.

You think you could calm down now before you do yourself a mischief?

Sheesh.

[molly]

7. It's posted in GD too

you guys are on a roll!

[crissy71]

13. This Dana Milbank hit piece is a disgusting

Piece of Media Whoredom, and if Dean wins the nomination, expect the same "What is Dean thinking" hit pieces - they'll follow him around on the campaign and if he so much as picks his nose they'll open with the headline "Uncouth Dean Fails to Charm the Masses, blah blah".

DU posters should stand united against the MW's and refuse to acknowledge their propoganda thereby granting it more legitamacy and hype.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

8. Check out the look on Kennedy's face - what's that guy whispering to him?

[sandnsea]

10. Reporting on the naked chick

that the guys in binoculars are looking at. You know the President can't just stand up and ogle women through binoculars... but he still has a responsibility to keep informed of his surroundings!

[George_Bonanza]

9. Kerry wasn't "rich" growing up

On that radio show in NH, he said that while he was part of a privileged society, his family wasn't exactly rich, more like comfortably middle class.

[CWebster]

11. Okay

I suppose I could use this opportunity to let the elitism charges on Kerry rip. But I won't, so long as blm and Molly hold their snide comments on Dean threads in check. As for NicholasJ? Who?

;-)

[DrFunkenstein]

12. Elitist? John Kerry Is The Rich Man's Woody Guthrie

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"Look at that!" Kerry says roughly every five minutes to his 24-year-old daughter Vanessa, who has come with him today, as we drive through another gorgeous vista. "God's country," he says. He turns around and makes sure everyone in the car has seen the Berkshires' lush green rolling hills, as if we could miss them. We pass a cattle-crossing sign.

"Cattle crossing," Kerry says in his Yalie, Brahmin patrician way. "Swallows swooping."

Vanessa rolls her eyes, embarrassed a bit by her dad waxing poetic. "He's such a cheeseball," she says lovingly. "I mean, it comes out that way. But he's really sentimental. He really means it."


The Skaters

Black swallows swooping or gliding
In a flurry of entangled loops and curves;
The skaters skim over the frozen river.
And the grinding click of their skates as they impinge upon the surface,
Is like the brushing together of thin wing-tips of silver.

-John Gould Fletcher.

[CWebster]

14. Check out the madonna nite-lite on the bed

The equivilant of a cheesesteak to the jesus-on-the-dashboard crowd.

;-)

[DrFunkenstein]

15. Lol!

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[LuminousX]

16. Educate Me

What do people mean when they talk about "Brahmin Roots'? Why does this seem like bogus issue? Or to be less cynical, Is this a real issue that Kerry needs to be concerned with or is it a minor distraction?

[DrFunkenstein]

17. First Lines of The Great Gatsby

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.

"Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had."