3 Responses to “Beware Gerson”

1. vanya, on May 9th, 2008 at 1:03 pm Said:

   The ironic thing is that Dukakis, for all his faults, is the one politician who would never ever stand around a cocktail party and laugh at rubes. He may be a misguided sanctimonious liberal, but he is a SINCERE misguided sanctimonious liberal, and he would be horrified at the impropriety of laughing at those “less fortunate.” Gore is probably the same way (Obama and Kerry I’m not so sure about). The snobbish attitude Gerson is talking about is something you find more among liberal academics , artists and blogger types, then among actual Democratic politicians. If Gerson thought about it for more than two seconds, he would see just how ridiculous the idea of Dukakis standing around at a cocktail party laughing at rubes really is. But I guess he’s not paid to think.

2. Daniel Larison, on May 9th, 2008 at 1:14 pm Said:

   “I guess he’s not paid to think.”

   He writes for the Post–I think it would violate his contract if he did.

   In Dukakis’ case, I agree that it may be unlikely, but it’s hard to know. Something I am arguing in my next column is that people who come from a humble background, or in Dukakis’ case the background of an ethnic immigrant community, may be more likely to accept the condescending attitudes of their peers once they have reached a certain status level as a way of conforming to expectations and showing that they belong. One sometimes sees this among white Southerners who have risen to a high level and sometimes feel obliged to make a show of disdaining their ancestors or the attitudes of their parents. However, you have a point–sanctimony might trump condescension, especially if it allows the sanctimonious one to put himself in a position of superior status over the condescending one, which is more or less what Clinton did to Obama affter the “bitter” remarks.

3. donaldj, on May 10th, 2008 at 7:32 am Said:

   Gerson probably didn’t actually join in the laughter so much as take credit for the laughter of others.

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