How Our Candidates Insult American Intelligence
It probably goes without saying that John McCain and Barack Obama's tributes to "Joe the plumber" in tonight's debate were transparently treacly, even manipulative. When a commentator on CNN remarked that the Joe comments had an "insider" tenor, however, this struck me in more ways than the most obvious: that the senators had both met and exchanged with a this Joe figure and that most of us hadn't been there, at least in the sense that most of us hadn't scavenged through the extant smorgasbord of restive media discharge -- articles, blogs, videos, rumors, clips, jokes, and so on--most of us hadn't "met" Joe the plumber. What was more disturbing to me was that most of us aren't represented by Joe the plumber.
Joe the plumber, more than an insiders' exchange, felt like a Norman Rockwell painting, a pat eulogy to a veteran, an panicked industry's ad celebrating the virtues of drinking milk... than a legitimate and provocative subject of debate. But the Norman Rockwell painting et al don't quite capture Joe the plumber, either, because there was something condescending about the senators' homilies: The working-class praises become a kind of normative rhetoric. We already have Joe six-pack, hockey moms, and now Joe the plumber; and to balance things out, we've got the Wall Street fat cats, the elitists, and the super wealthy--throw in a few buzz words: "golden parachutes" or "gold-plated Cadillac" or "summer house." The rhetoric is obviously totalitarian; it represents the for-us-against-us paradigm that we've so ardently objected to.
What's worse: In its wake, we have Joe, PhD, who's been a student... forever. Now, Joe, PhD -- in many hockey moms' minds--may not be the kind of figure that gets your emotional juices flowing. Indeed, Joe, PhD, may be devoting his livelihood, his health, his career, and so on to, say, the representation of women in medieval literature. He may not have the same kind of livelihood conversations that a hockey mom whose child has Down syndrome may have, but does that make his work any less significant? Joe, PhD, writes your kids' textbooks, hockey mom. Joe, PhD, makes nuclear energy possible. Joe, PhD, makes an economic bailout possible, Joe six-pack. So let's give Joe, PhD, a little airtime.
Now let's talk about Josephine, the transsexual, who lives next door. Now if you live in rural America, you may have never met Josephine, and if you have, you might not have even noticed that Josephine was at one time Joseph. Is Josephine an extreme example? No. What's extreme is the fact that Josephine can be singled out and targeted -- ideology aside for a moment -- can be singled out for a hate crime, raped, murdered, shoes stolen, and strung out for dead on a fence post. What's extreme, moreover, is that some of us wouldn't call that a hate crime. And what's most extreme, I think, is that Josephine will probably never be a part of the senators' Joe-the-plumber rhetoric because she's not iconic; she's not normative; she's not really the stuff of home-cooked American politics.
My friends, let's consider Jose the illegal immigrant. Or let's talk about Joey the locavore-hunter-fisher-writer-vintner-overall-Renaissance man. Joe, the homosexual who wants to marry Joe, the other homosexual. Let's talk about Joe the millionaire-philanthropist.
The point is: the Joe-six-pack, Joe-the-plumber, hockey-mom rhetoric does more than pander to the "lowest-common denominator;" it condescends to the rest of us. Those of us who have our masters degrees and have worked damn hard to get them. Those of us who were born outside the lucky lot of the Norman Rockwell iconography -- and there are a lot of us.
I'm not surprised that John McCain would bank on this rhetoric; he's done it in the past, and his running mate has made it her platform. I'm only mildly surprised that Barack Obama would play along. After all, he has an election to win, and indeed a-glass-of-milk-a-day has a large following, particularly when you have a funny name and a dark skin color. I would hope, though, that those who watched the debate would ask their candidates to stop talking down to them. After all, we're the smartest, best, strongest, most innovative people in the world. We understand big words, and we embrace them.
A tip of the hat to Joe, PhD.
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Politicians have to talk like this lest the rubes stay home on election day. H.L.Mencke
One-issue wedge voters are the epitome of stupid. Social conservatives don't care if a politician plans to ravage their children's future and screws them in every which way possible as long as they are "pro-life" and "anti-gay".
And you just have to love the "pro-life" hypocrisy. They couldn't care less about other people's children AFTER they are born. Just don't let a woman choose.
Also, what kind of "culture of life" supports sending our kids to die in unnecessary wars, does not care one whit about God's earth and all its living creatures, and salivates over the death penalty?
I always wondered the same thing: Just how pro-life is it if all you care about are the UNborn. What about the BORN? One second out of the womb and the pro-lifers say "F*ck You. You're on your own. It's a lot easier to care about people who don't exist yet than ones that do. See ya!"
Always did make me really curious and not really believe the pro-lifers. I call them pro-unborn, because they're not really pro-life. If they were pro-life, they'd also be pro-charity, pro-welfare, pro-environment, plus lots of other pro's.
Michael, obviously this is a very old blog, since you mention "last night's debate", and it's been two weeks since the last debate.
So, I was going to correct you on this :"I'm not surprised that John McCain would bank on this rhetoric; he's done it in the past, and his running mate has made it her platform. I'm only mildly surprised that Barack Obama would play along."
But I think I can safely assume that since the debate, surely you've learned more about the events, and can't possibly, any longer believe that Obama was "playing along" too.
Intelligent Americans are not undecided voters, and are therefore not being targeted in campaign rhetoric.
That's an unfair statement. There are some good reasons to be undecided. The Republican party has nearly fractured into two separate entities - the social conservatives and the fiscal conservatives. If you're fiscally conservative, you may disagree with Obama's fiscal program. Yet you may at the same time be completely in disagreement with the right's social program of no abortion and no gay marriage. So what's a fiscally conservative pro-choice person supposed to do? It can leave one feeling very undecided up to the last minute, hoping for something to happen - some sort of clarity.
This is why Obama's poll numbers have seen a very steady climb, even since before the financial meltdown. People who are fiscally conservative but more middle of the road with social issues have become more comfortable with the economic plans he proposes.
Give us all a break. These issues didn't come up yesterday.
My first cousins grew up on a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin. They baled hay, milked cows, and did all the farm chores Governor Palin would probably call "real American" stuff. Two of them are gay, and have been in long-term relationships that have outlasted 80% of straight marriages. One has a son about to graduate high school. So one mistake the "real American vs. gay people" crowd makes is to forget that people in small towns or rural areas may have gay family members that they love very much. Most of us are not all one thing or another; we may be church people who also support abortion rights, or social liberals who would still like to see a more responsible fiscal policy. Total intolerance only works if there are no gray areas, no overlap. We're getting more and more mixed up--the former racist may now have a mixed-race grandchild and you'd better not call that kid a nasty name--and it is becoming harder to completely isolate and stereotype. I hope.
Obama has never talked down to me.
And he never will:-)
Very salient point! You should run for office!
Forty percent of us may or may not be dumb, but something in that range of our fellow citizens seem to prefer gorging on mystery food based on quantity as opposed to nutrition, pulpit & pundit pronouncements to thinking, and buzzwords to truth.
If the majority of us, irrespective of party, haven't learned the danger of complacency by now . . . if any of us think "it" can't happen here . . . .
Eight more days of Democratic grace.....
Well, Obama was the one candidate who actually spoke with Joe the (unlicensed) Plumber and took the time to answer his question thoroughly and clearly. Obama was speaking to an actual individual, rather than an icon, during the debate. Big difference.
Absolutely, kpod!! I watched the entire exchange again, and was struck by the tone of reasonable discourse, by both parties. Nothing confronttational about it. I'm only amazed by McCain camp's decision to put their eggs in this basket.
ladies and gentlemen.
But the voters ARE dumb. How can they be insulted?
Palin tells them that she is going to Washington to eliminate overspending and waste and then spends $180k on makeup and clothesin 7 weeks!!
Then she says Obama is a Socialist, when unlike any other state Alaska taxes oil companies and "spreads the wealth" to the tune of $3200 for each citizen!!!
Voting for her is just DUMB. The Dumb cannot be insulted.
The "beauty" of the Oil $ dispersal, was that the oil companies got to write off those costs since those revenues were diverted from Fed coffers to Alaskas, so we non-Alaskans got to PAY for that largesse.
Bullshit. The hockey moms and Joe sixpack the plumbers are the parents who took the time to prod their kids to work hard for their Masters Degrees (like myself). "Joe Phd" is a tiny minority in this great country who by no way reflects the spirit of the American working stiff with a dream.
Piss off. You have a Masters. You assert that Daddy Sixpack pushes little Joe to go get his Masters. And yet pursuing a PhD in "no way reflects the spirit of the American working stiff with a dream?" Your viewpoint is internally inconsistent. So where, exactly, is the bullshit?
Do you know what "McCarthyism" is????????How dare you insinuate that someone with a PhD is less of an American.
See Johnathan Wilber's Profile
Yes, Joe, PhD, is most definitely a minority. What I hoped to convey here is that minorities are very important.
Man, I just wrote something about that on my silly bloggy thing after watching the VP debate and the following second presidential debate. A lot of what I LIKE about Obama and Biden is that they don't do that. Here's that bit:
McCain and Palin talk to the American people of the U.S. and the world as if we were kindergartners barely capable of adding 2 + 2, as if we were ruled by infantile emotions and the need for much nap time. I’d like to see a new wave of post-partisan politics and politicians that recognize and expect a helluva lot more than that of their people.
You know Senator Obama has a gyrating gravitas..
Mr. Tonello, you referred to middle class America as the "lowest-common denominator," and a commentor here said speaking about Joe the Plummer is, "glorification of mediocrity
This campaign season has revealed how the left truly feel about fly-over country and the people in it,.
We aren't mediocre. This campaign hasn't been vilification of the exceptional; it's been vilification of Iowa corn country, Alaska oil field workers, Wyoming ranchers, Idaho potato farmers, Minnesota fishermen, Montana hunters, North Dakota beet farmers, Pennsylvania coal miners, and all the nurses, electricians, carpenters, waitresses, and plummers in society. Joe the Plummer resounded with a large number of us.
Sure, Joe the PHD is important . And so is Josephine. But for many of us, Sarah Palin gave us hope we might be truly heard in DC rather than just used as campaign rhetoric and props.
We aren't Norman Rockwell paintings. We're half of the voting public. I've lived rurally all my adult life, but having been raised in the Twin Cities, yes, I met Josephine. I've also met Jose the illegal immigrant, (he lives in rural areas, too), Joey the locavore-h
It's safer to say you've never truly met us. You've seen us in movies, particularly when there's something Hollywood wants to make fun of. But you've never truly known us as people - or loved us.
DyingInInd
the only thing sarah pallin' hears is her own voice.
I'm afraid you've misunderstood me and probably the author, as well.
I AM of the middle class- my husband is an aviation mechanic and I'm a housewife with a part time job.
... and I went to college, I volunteer my time, I try hard to keep up with the issues of the day, I read philosophy in my spare time, and my mother in law speaks highly of me.
What I find insulting is the idea that has been pushed during this campaign is that the thinkers, the inventors, the volunteers and the unconventional are the "other", the "elite".
Wait a minute- to be exceptional is all of the sudden a BAD thing?
I'm sick to death of being told what should concern me and then being lied to about where the blame should be settled.
The venom that has been heaped upon the intellectuals during this campaign has been staggering. Elitism is problematic, but to be of the elite is no flaw- Elite simply means the best, the brightest, the most qualified- As in "The Navy SEALS are an elite unit". Would you send a recruit fresh out of boot camp or a Chief Petty Officer to do the work of a SEAL? Of course not.
So, why do we think that putting the best qualified on the job in any other context is a bad, scary idea?
We HAVE a "six-pack joe, non-intellectual, antiprogressive president and I am not happy with the result.
I think the main point of the piece is that we are a wide and varied people and I hope that Senator Obama will speak to that as he has in the past before this is over.
I'm sorry... I live in the rural heart of the one of the wealthiest states in this country and there is NO ONE middle class here who is looking at a quarter-mil (250 THOUSAND DOLLARS) A YEAR.
You're full of it. Joe the unlicensed, tax dodging Plumber does not represent the middle class regardless of how much you wish he did - get real!
See Johnathan Wilber's Profile
"The Lowest Common Denominator" was actually meant to refer to the normative rhetoric, not Joe the Plumber or people like him. I didn't intend to demean anybody who's working class, or who lives in rural America. (I've in fact spent most of my life in Iowa, and my family still lives there...so at least for me, it's most definitely not fly-over country).
I wanted to point out, rather, that the Joe-the-Plumber rhetoric seemed to position education as something to be ashamed of. While it is very important for our politicians to speak to us about the waitresses and the beet farmers and the "six-packs," it's just as important for them to speak to us about those who don't fit into the easy NAME/OCCUPATION paradigm.
Thank you, thank you so very much.
My frustration about this glorification of mediocrity and vilification of the exceptional has been growing with every insult dealt out to the thinkers, the artists and the UNcommon Americans.
I'll join you in tipping my hat to Joe,Ph.D, and then I'll tip my hat to you for your charming and eloquent statement of my own opinion.
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