CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER CALLS MASSACHUSETTS´ CITIZENS AN "ANKLE-DWELLING POPULACE"

Mr. Krauthammer continues to show that his conceit is well above the average American.

…Conservative columnist, Charles Krauthammer

I´m finding it bizarre when a conservative ideologue, such as the Washington Post´s Charles Krauthammer, refers to the election in Massachusetts as "The great peasant revolt of 2010".

As with many conservatives, Mr. Krauthammer, as he refers to the "ankle-dwelling populace" of Massachusetts, is trying to say that the average working American in the very "Blue" state of Massachusetts was demonstrating against a health care bill for all Americans. This was apparently his assumption from the results of the recent special election to replace Senator Ted Kennedy´s senate seat.

Both Mr. Krauthammer and the GOP continue to try and use this election (of a candidate that never really ran as a Republican), as a big push-back against the president´s push for a health care program that covers all Americans.

The reality was not that the average Massachusetts voter was against a federal healthcare program. They were demonstrating against a program that did not include a "public option", that made the insurance companies even wealthier, that did not lower their premium costs and that was too big for a single bill. That kind of "health care" was not what Obama ran on, and it´s not what their late Senator Ted Kennedy would have supported.

Krauthammer portrays the average citizen of Massachusetts being almost as ignorant as did the recent blogger he quoted saying; "The Time Magazine blogger was even more blunt about the ankle-dwelling mob, explaining that we are "a nation of dodos" that is "too dumb to thrive."

Mr. Krauthammer tries to imply that he doesn´t actually feel that way about the citizens of Massachusetts. But when you read the whole article, it is more of the same, saying that for Americans to follow the Obama / Democratic agenda will just "march them over a cliff".

As if to say that following the previous administration´s direction for the last two Bush terms had such a positive effect on the average American´s well being. Yes sir, and what were the number of jobs added and jobs lost and wages increased under Bush´s eight-year debacle? Talk about marching off a cliff……

Actually, Krauthammer´s initial comments were right on when he said: "The consistency [of Obama] is remarkable. In 2009, after passing a $787 billion (now $862 billion) stimulus package, the largest spending bill in galactic history, he unveiled a manifesto for fundamentally restructuring the commanding heights of American society -- health care, education and energy."

When one looks at why the president was forced to spend that much, because private industry blew it up to where the government was the country´s only last resort. One only has to look at the state of those items today, such as US "health care, education and energy" for over the last 30 years. In a country where America, as President Ronald Reagan had once said was the "shining city on the hill", the US now stands in the 30th or lower place in everything from job-satisfaction, health care, education, wages and living standard.

I found it interesting that Mr. Krauthammer´s article references all the ways that the liberals have historically considered the conservatives. And his comments were all very refreshing, as there is no one that can better describe that attitude than a true conservative such as himself.

As an example he says; "It is an old liberal theme that conservative ideas, being red in tooth and claw, cannot possibly emerge from any notion of the public good." And he is absolutely correct.

He also states: "The [far] right, you see, is grateful when a bright intellectual can graft some philosophical rationalization onto its thoroughly base and self-regarding politics." So true, so true.

And of course, when he said; "This belief in the moral hollowness of conservatism animates the current liberal mantra that Republican opposition to Obama's social democratic agenda is nothing but blind and cynical obstructionism." I couldn´t have said it better.

Continually, throughout his column, Mr. Krauthammer references different liberal writers that have made comments to the effect that perhaps the average American reader needs to see things written simpler, or less complex. He even quotes another writer who wrote, that the health care proposals should be written "in the plain words of plain folks". But at no time does Mr. Krauthammer say that average Americans do not deserve to be "talked down to" in such a way. At no time does he say, "But the average American is smarter than that."

By the end of his article, one would probably come to think that Mr. Krauthammer agrees with those that think of all American´s as being not very bright and a "few bricks short of a load". In fact, his ending comment of "in the end the bedrock common sense of the American people will prevail" kind of comes off sounding very insincere and overall quite trite.

Yes, keep it up Mr. Krauthammer. We sincerely need your conservative, overly pompous attitude.

Copyright G.Ater 2010

Follow me on Twitter: gater01