MATTHEWS: OK. Let me ask you about how he -- how's he connect with regular people? Does he? Or does he only appeal to people who come from the African-American community and from the people who have college or advanced degrees?
I have an advanced degree, yet I work at a job that pays less than $12.00/hr. I work third shift, with lousy benefits - do I qualify as part regular guy, part effete latte-sipping elitist? What, exactly, makes someone "regular people"? My wife and I struggle from paycheck to paycheck, like most folks, and we always seem to be just a step, or even half-step, ahead of serious financial trouble. Both of us have Master's Degrees, my wife is an accomplished professional, influential in both our local community and within her chosen profession. We both enjoy Starbucks, Borders, jazz, and are raising our children without cable or satellite television. I write occasionally on abstruse topics in philosophy and theology, always with one eye on the fact that I have to be as clear as possible because, while it might make perfect sense to me, it doesn't to others.
This entire way of framing political discussions just doesn't really make any sense to me. I read enough stuff to know that some people carry a huge chip on their shoulders because they might not be as educated or "worldly" or whatever as others. In discussions with some such on the 'net, I have always found it interesting - and occasionally infuriating - that such people automatically assume that I view them, and their opinions, as less worthy of consideration not because they are logically flawed, or based upon factually inaccurate premises, or are poorly organized, but out of some built-in bias against those whose educational or other achievements are not the same as my own. I do not have any corner on any special knowledge or wisdom or information, and seek to learn from anyone and everyone. At the same time, I refuse to put up with nonsense cloaked in self-righteous indignation that he or she is entitled to some pass because, while not educated, his or her opinion comes from "regular people".
While probably standing accused by my own words as a hypocrite, I feel I have the virtue of at least admitting my own limitations, the probability of being wrong, and not believing there is any such thing as a privileged opinion from which to argue.
Matthews is such a chowder head (yes, that is an ad hominem attack; sue me).
