Credentials

I have no idea what happened between 1990 and 2000. Granted, the country went through a fairly rapid change. It was the victim or beneficiary of the dot-com bubble, depending on your point of view. We had a stable democracy, a competent, well-spoken, and educated President. Why would the country not wish to continue this trend?
When George W. Bush stole the election in 2000 and then won re-election in 2004, I was befuddled. He was not an educated man, although his degrees from Yale and Harvard would supposedly tell you otherwise, nor was he well spoken. He was not a deep thinker. Although, I concur with the general populous that he might be fun to have a beer with. How does that qualify a man to be President of the United States? Why would you not want a man with the capacity for abstract thought leading the country? Why would you want Joe Shmoe leading you? I know that I do not.
Sarah Palin, among others, would be another example of that. The conservative movement in this country is full of people like that. There are not people with the capacity for thought like William F. Buckley or Milton Friedman. These are both men that I do not agree with, but at least I can acknowledge they were intelligent men. Where did the intelligent conservatives go? I have no idea.
Which I guess brings me to the point in my rant that is truly annoying me. Sarah Palin and the rest of the conservative movement calling people "liberal elites." IE: People who have money, have been educated, and thus cannot have a clue as to how the common man thinks. Which I guess is their rationale for wanting a person "just like them" to lead the country. So how is Sarah Palin like the common man? Because she's stupid? I'd like to think that the common man is slightly more intelligent than she. Rather, what separates her from the common man is her six figure speaking fee, five star hotels, and private planes. So how does this not make her an elite? If President Obama is a limousine or caviar liberal, what does that make her? What does that make George W. Bush? What does that make Darrell Issa (approx. net worth $251 million)?
Whenever I hear that term- limousine liberal- I think of Paul Farmer. In a book I read about him, he was quoted talking about what it was like going into Haiti- and why did he not do something Che Guevaraesque and dress like the natives. Farmer said that the impoverished people he encountered- they did not want you to look like them when you came to help. They wanted you to be wearing a suit and act like you know what you are doing.
Which leads me to my conclusion- people can act and dress in all variety of manners. In the end- what really matters when it comes to helping people, when it comes to political candidates, and things of that sort- it's really about content of their character and ideology. Because someone is a liberal and believes that government is an answer to people's problems- and they happen to have an educated background,that does not make them an elitist. It does not make them anything. Their actions, their content, that is what defines them.