Xenophobia is a funny thing. In theory, it describes a
"fear and hatred" of anything foreign but in practice, it is generally a charge levied upon groups who reject others on the basis of race or gender. The term has been copiously applied to American protectionists, namely those who oppose widespread immigration, or most recently by Barack Obama in relation to rural, white voters in Pennsylvania whom he considered to be "bitter" in comments that have been batted around quite a bit as of late. Granted, he didn't use the word itself but the idea was inferred by his detractors who turned the phrase back on him and ironically dubbed his statements
"xenophobic."The term has been coupled with elitism, racism, sexism and almost every other possible form of prejudice this election season, but it doesn't really hit at the heart of what seems to be going wrong with the Obama campaign, and for that matter what has gone wrong with the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Accusations of racism, sexism and all-around xenophobic behavior seem to be obfuscating the real problem that plagues these campaigns, which is elitism.
Much has been written about elitism since Obama's comments hit the press in the weeks leading up to the Pennsylvania primary, so I apologize if you are sick of reading about the role of elitism in campaigning. However, I think it is important to point out the distinction between elitism and xenophobia because they are usually applied in diametric opposition to each other. That is to say, elitists (under one definition meaning
those who are "conscious of being or belonging to an elite") often suffer due to xenophobic assumptions that paint them as inherently prejudicial of non-elites. In contrast, many members of the elite think of themselves as reasoned to the point of being devoid of xenophobia or prejudice, or at least consciously aware of their biases to the point of rendering them benign. Of course, in the end, everyone is equally guilty of not only being aware of these biases, but acting on them as well.
So, although elitists can be xenophobic, and harping on elitists can be seen as xenophobic, where does that leave the campaign?
George W. Bush, epitome of the layman's president (the "guy I'd grab a beer with" or "
whiffle ball Tony") was once himself a victim of the brand of xenophobia targeted towards elitists. While running against Kent Hance in a 1978 congressional race, Bush was
"successfully portrayed... as an elitist carpetbagger with suspicious connections, via his father, to the Trilateral Commission."(For more information, check
this out.)
Bush not only nearly staved off defeat in that race, but was able to channel his folksy charm into a hallmark of two successful presidential campaigns, repeatedly branding his opponents as "out-of-touch" with the average American. If ever there were an underrated talent that George W. Bush possesses, it is his uncanny ability to shapeshift into whatever community he faces (well,
almost any community). This is not unlike another
two-term president with ties to the current race, whose greatest attribute may have been a similar ability to
relate to the common man.
Obama, for all of his lofty, prosaic charm, has yet to learn this lesson. What makes Obama an elitist isn't a disdain for the poor or his mischaracterizations of rural and working class whites (neither of which really pertain to him); no, instead it is his steadfast belief in the value of the elite to solve the problems of the non-elite and, well, everybody. Of course, Clinton and McCain suffer from this problem as well, and it is almost inherent to any national campaign (with the exception of Mike Huckabee who saw limited success by eschewing this altogether but was marginalized by the Republican elite). The real problem is that when you get caught making a statement that could be interpreted as xenophobic toward the non-elites, you start to sound disingenuous with regards to wanting to help them.
So, Obama has two options at this point:
1) He can embrace the "I-feel-your-pain" approach of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and try to convince rural white voters that he is one of them (which, by definition, he is not). This is a tempting strategy since simple math would dictate that nearly 200 million Americans did not vote in 2004, and presumably a great many of them are eligible, rural and white.
orrrr...
2) He can stop running from the fact that he is essentially a middle class urbanite who understands urban plight better than anyone else running, and who instead inspires members of non-elite and elite to come to an understanding that we need to be working together in order to get anything accomplished.
Systemically, the odds are not in Obama's favor. For now, the following is an anecdotal theory, but I hope to flush it out with more concrete evidence down the line. Essentially, being a member of the elite means having gone to college (and beyond) and therefore being able to tap into greater earning potential and thus more elite networks that include politics, finance and corporate business. I try to say this without the implication that the elite are superior in any way, but I understand that it may be intrinsically impossible to overcome that idea.
Most of us suffer from complete and total removal from the parts of the country that now dictate presidential outcomes. And, in our defense, it is not entirely our fault. When you graduate from Middlebury College (as I did), or Columbia University and Harvard Law School (as Obama did), you rack up a fair amount of financial obligations before even starting your first job, and unfortunately, the only parts of the country that can afford to pay us the wages required to meet these obligations happen to be "blue" pockets in all 50 states and across larger parts of the east coast, the west coast, the Pacific northwest, and the midwest. Thus, the dialogue gap between the college-educated and the non-college-educated grows more and more wide, and we remain conceptually alienated from one another. Sounds like the perfect xenophobic vitriol for our melting pot.
Obama's original campaign message was one of unity, but has veered off-topic under the heat of scrutiny about his ties to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and racism finger-pointing. Another fundamental problem is that Obama's notion of unity was far too narrow and underdeveloped: essentially he was re-branding the notions of bi-partisanship that permeated every single local, state and federal campaign before George W. Bush took office, and which has since taken a back seat to bitter fighting. Obama would benefit from renewing his call for unity, not between Republicans and Democrats and whites and blacks and other cliché polarities, but instead between the elites and the non-elites where the real dialogue has broken down. A Republican and Democrat in Boston have far more in common with each other than do a Bostonian and a rural Kansan, and for the life of me I wouldn't even know how to open these lines of communication. But Obama has a real opportunity to show us both the way, so that hunting and traditional values seem more understandable to me, and urban decay and multi-culturalism might seem more understandable to them. If Obama is really committed to engendering change, then maybe this is where the real challenge lies, and thus the real opportunity for success.
I would venture to say that Obama didn't really know what he was getting into until after he started his campaign. Perhaps when people think of Obama as being inexperienced for the job, they mean that he really just hasn't been to a lot of the places he is campaigning in before having started his campaign. And that's understandable. He's only 46, he has been committed to working for Chicago's underrepresented, and spent a great deal of time in school. Not to mention the fact that he probably racked up a fair deal of money in loans and needed to start working to pay them off. So, Obama not only knows where the rift lies, but is himself on one side of the divide. Obama's true chance to shine will be when he throws the rope across to the other side, and asks us both to start pulling ourselves together.
