You, too, can be a member of the liberal elite!
By Jim Dallas
Kevin Drum catches Rammesh Ponnuru telling us to take our latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading (maybe not, but I digress), Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Oklahoma, where it belongs:
In 1997, Republicans lost a special election in the 22nd House district of California. I talked to a well-known Republican strategist afterward, and he blamed, in part, social-conservative activists who had run ads on abortion during the campaign. The strategist said that this was a stupid move "in a wine-and-brie coastal California district." It was a nice line at the time. But my impression is that the proportion of our population that consumes either wine or brie, or both together, has gone up since then. (If I were David Brooks, I'd have the data, straight from American Demographics, at my fingertips.) Hasn't the insult lost its bite? I thought of this when I read a crack against elites that mentioned bottled water. It sure seems as though drinking bottled water has ceased to be an elite activity. Back in 1997, conservatives could mock latte towns--but you can find latte in any town you're in nowadays. Conclusion: We need some new put-downs. (Confession: I like brie and wine, have occasionally had a latte, and buy bottled water for my family--but that last point reflects the high lead content in D.C. water rather than a preference on my part.)
Incidentally, the economic elite... that's another story entirely.
Posted by Jim Dallas at October 16, 2005 12:28 PM
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During the 2004 Presidential campaign, one reporter remarked on Kerry's requesting Green Tea, or something similiar, while in Iowa. This was used as an example of Kerry being elitely out of touch. Only, another reporter went down the street and found plenty of Green Tea and other varieties at the local K-Mart or similiar store.
