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September 6, 2008 2:08:14 AM CDT

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George Will Knows the Working Class?

Posted Apr 18, 08 7:37 PM CDT in

(Newser) – George Will knows blue collar America? Probably not, Jonathan Chait writes in the New Republic, but the "fabulously wealthy, bow tie-wearing, pretentious" pundit still blasted Barack Obama for saying rural voters "cling to" firearms and religion. And Will is not alone—US leaders have long treated blue collar workers as "a victim-hero class" with "moral superiority" they don't have.

Will and other conservatives have slammed Obama for telling workers to care more about bucks than other values, which "diminishes their convictions," read a Wall Street Journal editorial. But Obama is daring to tell them that money matters: "The process of trying to persuade others to reconsider the nature of their self-interest is not some Marxist exercise," Chait writes. "It's what we call 'democracy.'"

Source New Republic

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Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
George Will speaks in this undated file photo.   (Getty)
George Will in an undated file photo.   (Getty)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Barack Obama  • blue-collar vote  • Bittergate  • working class  • George Will


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