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Obama Backlash Isn't About Race

The real, centuries-old conflict is between urban elites and small towners

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 18, 2009 1:25 AM CDT

(Newser) – It's a mistake to see the growing backlash against President Obama through the prism of race, David Brooks writes in the New York Times. The anti-Obama movement springs not from racism, but from the long American tradition of popular distrust of the urban elite, argues Brooks. He notes mostly white anti-government protesters happily mingled with people from an African-American event in the capital last weekend.

The same kind of conflict could be seen as far back as the clash between Hamiltonians and Jeffersonians, Brooks writes, with those in favor of greater federal power pitted against those with "small town values" opposed to the redistribution of the fruits of hard work. Populist movements like today's have come from both the left and right, Brooks writes. They always tend to be "ill-mannered, conspiratorial and over the top," he notes. "It's not about race," he concludes. "It's another type of conflict, equally deep and old."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

A woman holds a sign that reads "Don't tax me bro! " during the Atlanta Tea Party tax protest earlier this year in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

A demonstrator protests the health care reform plan supported by President Barack Obama during a rally in Atlanta last month. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Demonstrators rally at Freedom Plaza in Washington last week. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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The populist tendency has always used the same sort of rhetoric: for the ordinary people and against the fat cats and the educated class; for the small towns and against the financial centers. - David Brooks

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 22 comments

Guest

Oct 6, 2009 2:24 AM CDT

Anybody who can overlook all the problems with this administration and point to racism is willing to do more than lie.

Kant

Sep 20, 2009 12:48 AM CDT

@Doctor_Zaius: The phrase, "I reject your reality and replace it with my own" comes to mind with your pointless replies. You call bullshit, huh? So that makes your right, because you've read Locke and Rousseau? You misunderstand, I never stated that Locke, Rousseau, et. al. were CONSERVATIVE. Only that the conservative movement in America TODAY seeks to CONSERVE the principles espoused by the CLASSICAL LIBERALS (Locke, etc.) There is no retroactive relabeling by conservatives today to make CLASSICAL LIBERALS conservative. As for the founding fathers, while they were deemed liberals (notice the lower case) by their political opponents (Loyalists, British Gov.), any credible historian of that period will tell you the founders believed they were CONSERVING the CLASSICAL LIBERAL beliefs of natural rights, representative gov., etc. Don't mistake liberals of today with Classical Liberalism. They are two different things. If you STILL cannot grasp this, it is because you are FULL of bullshit.

Doctor-Zaius

Sep 19, 2009 7:48 AM CDT

And having read Locke and Rousseau I call bullshit to your other points as well.

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Obama Backlash Isn't About Race