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elfsIn an unsurprising trial balloon this morning, Politico reports that "liberal firebrand" Elizabeth Warren is taking grief from conservatives for being rich. The head of the group Americans for Limited Government groused, "I begrudge her hypocrisy of trying to play the demagogue against those who have achieved and who have created wealth," and the National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman added, "Her poll-tested campaign rhetoric simply doesn’t match reality as voters learn more about who Elizabeth Warren really is."
Neal Stephenson has a brilliant piece of hypocrisy in The Diamond Age, where he excoriates 20th Century types who loathe the hypocrisy of former ages but who are themselves not hypocrites because "they take no moral stance and live by none. They believe themselves morally superior to [those with declared high morals], even though – in fact, because – they had no morals at all."
In some ways, this is where we are in this political campaign. The right has bifurcated into those with a morally bankrupt ideology incapable of understanding or responding to the modern age, such as Rick Santorum or Ron Paul, and those who have absolutely no morals at all but want to win at any cost, such as Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, or Mitt Romney.
Read closely into what's been said here, and you'll get this message: "Of course we have to fuck the middle class. If we didn't, we'd be hypocrites, and as you know hypocrisy is the high crime of the current age. Elizabeth Warren is a hypocrite because she's rich, and she's not using it to make herself more rich. Being rich, staying rich, and becoming evermore rich is the one value we all believe in, isn't it?"
Politico just went out and admitted that not only is there class war, but class war is a necessary, right, and honorable activity for the upper classes to engage in.
Neal Stephenson has a brilliant piece of hypocrisy in The Diamond Age, where he excoriates 20th Century types who loathe the hypocrisy of former ages but who are themselves not hypocrites because "they take no moral stance and live by none. They believe themselves morally superior to [those with declared high morals], even though – in fact, because – they had no morals at all."
In some ways, this is where we are in this political campaign. The right has bifurcated into those with a morally bankrupt ideology incapable of understanding or responding to the modern age, such as Rick Santorum or Ron Paul, and those who have absolutely no morals at all but want to win at any cost, such as Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, or Mitt Romney.
Read closely into what's been said here, and you'll get this message: "Of course we have to fuck the middle class. If we didn't, we'd be hypocrites, and as you know hypocrisy is the high crime of the current age. Elizabeth Warren is a hypocrite because she's rich, and she's not using it to make herself more rich. Being rich, staying rich, and becoming evermore rich is the one value we all believe in, isn't it?"
Politico just went out and admitted that not only is there class war, but class war is a necessary, right, and honorable activity for the upper classes to engage in.
