We Have Met the Enemy ... and It Is Us the "Elites"

Bob Herbert cites Mayor Michael Bloomberg's choice for New York City schools chancellor Cathleen Black, chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, a well-to-do corporate executive with "absolutely no background in education," as an example of the "vast disconnect between the fortunes of the American elite and those of the struggling masses."

My comment once again received the old heave-ho, so here it is:

Mayor Bloomberg's choice of Ms. Black was just his way of thumbing his billionaire's nose at the rest of us. I'm sure he tells himself that "living well is the best revenge," then sleeps like a baby.

Yet it is people like Bloomberg who are largely responsible for the popularity of pseudo-populist demagogues like Sarah Palin. It isn't just Bloomberg, of course. It's most of the political class. George W. Bush resented having come down from the heights of the White House to a Dallas morning walking the dog & picking up puppy-poop. And his aristocratic mom said Sarah Palin should stay in Alaska. Palin's retort? -- something about "the blue-bloods who want to pick and choose their winners instead of allowing competition."

In fact, the right's most effective argument against President Obama -- who although he shares ancestors with the Bushes, does not share their unbroken aristocratic line -- is that he is, by virtue of his education & his richy-rich friends, a member of the "East Coast elite establishment." His detractors have a point, even if they miss the mark. They accuse Obama of bowing to foreign dignitaries, but that's nothing. It's his metaphorical kowtowing to Wall Street that is the real problem. If the President had lived up to his campaign rhetoric instead of "palling around with tycoons," the House would still be under Democratic control come January. As California Rep. Lynn Woolsey said the other day, "... if he'd done less compromising in the last two years, there's a good chance we'd have had a jobs bill that would have created real jobs, and then we wouldn't even be worrying about having lost elections."

There are leaders like Woolsey & Speaker Pelosi who will work for the people instead of the plutocrats, but until the media give these true populists their due, instead of making fun of them, or pretending to "balance" their reporting with right-wing talking points, the loudest mouths on the right will continue to dominate the conversation. Can you name me one half-governor on the left who gets the same media attention Sarah Palin does? Can you name one Speaker of the House who gets the same positive attention John Boehner does? Not Nancy Pelosi, that's for sure. She was the first woman Speaker of the House, but she didn't get her picture on the cover of popular news magazines. John Boehner did. So did Newt Gingrich. The disgraced Newt still dominates the news. When Newt speaks, the media listen. And report. Why, even former Minority Leader Tom DeLay, recently convicted of money laundering, enjoyed many press kudos last year for his performances on "Dancing with the Stars," & I saw him on at least one MSNBC show where he was treated as a serious political commentator.

We are all complicit in the sad situation in which we find ourselves, but the Lords of Wall Street, our government leaders and many in the main stream media are primarily responsible. You're a breath of fresh air, Mr. Herbert, but much of what I read in the MSM leaves a fetid odor.