[Peace-discuss] Does Cheney Make Obama Look Good Enough?

[C. G. Estabrook]

I wrote

> McCain was the best thing Obama had going for him during the campaign 
> (altho' Palin helped by mobilizing class resentments that couldn't be 
> admitted openly)...

--and was asked about the meaning of the clause in parentheses. I meant that 
Palin's background allowed the soi-disant educated to look down on her.

Chomsky was asked about his assertion in his "Manufacturing Consent" that 20 per 
cent of the population that goes to college and holds important positions within 
the capitalist democracy are the sections of the population that need to be 
brainwashed under freedom.

He replied, "The 20 per cent figure is not mine. It is a standard notion in 
political science called the 'political class,' the class that is actually 
active in public and economic affairs. This roughly constitutes about 20 per 
cent of the population. From the point of view of the propaganda or the 
doctrinal system they are a different kind of target than the rest of the 
population.

"Remember, the United States is not a democracy - and has never been intended to 
be a democracy. It is what is called in the political science literature a 
polyarchy. A polyarchy is one in which a small sector of the population is in 
control of essential decision-making for the economy, the political system, the 
cultural system and so on. And the rest of the population is supposed to be 
passive and acquiescent. They are supposed to cede democracy to the elite 
elements who call themselves, rather modestly, the 'responsible men.' 'We are 
the responsible men and we take care of the affairs of the world.' The rest are 
sometimes called a 'bewildered herd' or a rabble or something like that. 
Actually, I am quoting Walter Lippman, the leading figure in U.S. journalism, 
and a leading public intellectual of the 20th century..."

The political class in America is taught to hate and fear the 80% as uneducated, 
racist, religious, and proto-fascist.  (Tom Frank's "What's the Matter with 
Kansas?" is a sophisticated version of this teaching of contempt; it's been 
seriously challenged by various people, notably Larry Bartels.)

The liberal elite, which makes up a good bit of the political class, was shocked 
and appalled that someone who seemed to belong to the 80% -- and an attractive 
woman at that -- should dare to presume that she might run for national office. 
  So there was a great effort to denigrate her as  "uneducated, racist, 
religious, and proto-fascist" -- regardless of her politics.

Among other things, the reaction reveled the fear among the liberal elite that 
the 80% might become politically active.  Don't they know their place?  She and 
they belong to the "bewildered herd..."

Palin, whatever her politics, was a challenge to the polyarchy in a way that 
Clinton and Obama were not. That's where the rage and scorn heaped on her came 
from. --CGE