If you went to prep schools, lived in mansions most of your life and had 100M are you elitist?

[sfam]

Just wonderin, 'cause if I'm trying to identify the elitist,

I might look at the person with over 100 million in the bank.

I might look at the person who went to prep schools when they were young.

I might also look at the person who lived in mansions most of their life.

I might even look at the person who served on numerous corporate boards like Walmart, but that's just me.



I might not focus on the person who was raised by a single mother, or the one who just recently got done paying off their college loans.

I might not look at the person who used their law degree to help out poor people in the south side of Chicago, but that's just me.

[mucifer]

1. nope she's clearly working class.

[Johnny__Motown]

37. Why is that? Being on the board at Walmart doesn't make you working class

[mucifer]

40. oy vey it was sarcasm

[sfam]

46. I got the sarcasm, BTW. Even got a chuckle out of me! nt

[aquart]

51. Welsh immigrants who worked their asses off.

Park Ridge is not a millionaire's enclave. It was middle class.

Nobody in Hillary's parents' home took money for granted. Her father started a small business and did well with it. Her mother worked before marriage. No trust funds. No inherited fortune. Hardworking people who always appreciated what they had earned. And, because of the Depression, knew how easily it could be lost.

I hear from Daily Kos that Hillary's grandmother was a mean, eviction-mad landlord in Scranton. Sometimes people who come from nothing get that way. They figure they sweated to get ahead, why should they give someone else a break. Those are Republicans and Hillary's family was Republican.

Hillary, among all the choices in the Ivy League, chose to marry a nurse's son. No scion of inherited wealth for her. The mansions she lived in belonged first to the state of Arkansas and then to the American people. None of them were hers. Possibly wealth wasn't her main interest?

If we want to compare incomes, probably the fairest comparison was the Clinton income when Bill Clinton first ran for president. He, like Obama, was significantly helped by having an earning corporate lawyer for a wife.

[killbotfactory]

2. And already spent eight years in the white house...

married to the most powerful person on the face of the Earth.

[ruggerson]

3. Prep school is the new bogeyman of the day now?

[Armstead]

6. Okay mea culpa -- She did go to public high school

[ruggerson]

11. Didn't Obama go to prep school?

Personally, I think there's nothing wrong with prep school, but I didn't write the OP.

[Armstead]

16. See my mea cuulpa -- I looked it up and she went to high school

But most of her life experience are elite.

[ruggerson]

18. here you go:

As a child, Hillary Rodham was a teacher's favorite at her public schools in Park Ridge.<8><9> She participated in swimming, baseball and other sports, and earned many awards as a Brownie and Girl Scout.<8><9> She attended Maine East High School, where she participated in student council, the school newspaper, and was selected for National Honor Society.<10><11> For her senior year she was redistricted to Maine South High School, where she was a National Merit Finalist and graduated in 1965

[sfam]

24. My apologies. I guess prep schools are not elitist!!!

Hooaaah! You like that? Shows how silly this conversation has become. But I do agree. Obama does not campaign in a red pickup truck, nor does he reminisce about shooting varmits in his youth. Worse, he doesn't like Budweiser, so this makes him elitist.

I'm sure that living in mansions as long as she has, or having over 100 million in the bank takes nothing away from her working class cred.

[aquart]

53. Not if Obama went to one. Public high school IS elitist, however.

If Hillary went.

[sfam]

7. Well again, if you were trying to figure out who was the elitist, does prep school or public ed..

say elitist to you?

We might agree, however, that the discussion of which democrat is the elitist is a fairly insane proposition, but that's another question. One wonders who this subject even came up, ey?

[ruggerson]

12. I thought Obama went to prep school

[FrenchieCat]

14. on Financial Aid.....

meaning he had the smarts but not the bucks.

[ruggerson]

17. Doesn't matter, Clinton went to public HS, Obama went to prep school

chew on that, you elitist. :)

[bigbrother05]

26. Public HS in an upper class suburb pre-forced busing days.

Don't know about you, but where I grew up, folks that owned their own businesses in the 50s/60s were upper not "working" class. No slam to her folks, just don't think she had it too bad growing up.

Even if he went to a PRIVATE HS, being one of the few black kids there wouldn't have been that easy. I emphasize private because I've always thought of a prep school as being some place you are SENT to (boarding school), not a place in the town where you live. Catholic schools are private, but don't think of them as prep schools either.

[ruggerson]

29. Boarding schools have a significant share of day students

who live nearby. They were called "dayhops" in mine.

There are also prep schools that are exclusively day schools - that is no one lives there.

[FrenchieCat]

33. And this means what?

The problem that you have with your approach is that Hillary calls Obama an elitist, not the other way around.

Going to a Prep school back in the 60-70s does not make one an elitist, especially since it wasn't a boarding school, and Obama went back to his regular life each and every day.

There is an automatic amount of humility that comes with accepting need basis scholarships & financial aid. Most folks that do, and who happen to be of a different color than most everyone else in that school, know this intimately.

[ruggerson]

36. Since

I went to a boarding school and you did not, from what I gather, and since I was friends with kids from lots of different backgrounds and at least half (if not more) were on some kind of financial aid, I'm probably in a better position to comment here than you.

Neither Obama nor Clinton are "elitists" because of the schools they went to or even the money they currently earn. It's a stupid Republican meme and when Hillary or Barack has used it, as most politicians do, I thought it was stupid then, too. It's class warmongering of the worst kind. It dumbs down the political conversation.

I've been sarcastic in this thread, poking fun at the entire premise of the OP. Sorry you missed it.

[sfam]

49. The entire premise of the OP is that this is a truly silly attack for a democrat to make...

especially from someone so completely "not" working class as Hillary. Revisiting all her various incarnations used in this campaign so far, I really feel like I'm watching the Danny Kaye classic, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."

Personally, I liked her sniper fire-dodging commando impersonation the best. This lunch pail totin, truck drivin, beer guzzlin, anti-science, annie oakley caricature has far exceeded its half-life.

[FrenchieCat]

56. Actually, we are in the same position to comment......although you assume much with little evidence.

I went to schools here and in France, public and private and parochial, and as a mixed race person was friends with kids from lots of different backgrounds.

My children attended private school, one went on to the 6th best Prep school in the country (according to the WSJ), and yes, we did receive some financial aid. In addition, my daughter is Black (she's at Harvard now). Does that make my daughter an elite? No, it makes her a person who is multi-dimensional and has empathy for the least one among us, and understands that education is key.

There is a difference with those who end up being where they believe they belong, and those who make it to the same place against all odds.

And yes, I missed your sarcasm.

[ruggerson]

64. Well then

we agree on something. It's snowing in Hell.

[aquart]

58. You obviously never owned a business.

And I have no idea where you grew up, but business owners in my area were middle class and we were barely that, despite 80 employees, a choice Manhattan location and an international catalog.

I guess you think all businesses are Microsoft and IBM.

As for Obama, he was a half-black kid in HAWAII!!!!! The most racially-mixed state in the nation. Not to mention he was Barry O'Bomber, an ace basketball player.

<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0703250359mar25,0,4596397.story?page=5>

[bigbrother05]

62. Grew up in 'fly over" US

And the folks that owned the lumber yard, the office supply place, the corner grocery, etc. were definitely upper class in our 90K city, but, very few wealthy, millionaire types. You are probably right about the large cities, but most of Americans of Clinton's age came from humbler roots than her.

[aquart]

38. One of the most exclusive schools in Hawaii.

From there he went straight to the Ivy League.

[FrenchieCat]

57. Occidental College is not considered an Ivy League, that I recall.....

It is considered a very good Liberal Arts School, from what I can tell, but falls short on the list of the Top Ten a.k.a. Ivy Leagues.

List of Ivy Leagues College and University
http://www.go4ivy.com/ivy.asp

[murielm99]

21. Not quite. The word of the day is elitist, or elite.

I guess the Obamatrons got their marching orders early this week.

[washingdem]

4. If your husband had check writing privileges from the Federal Reserve...

you just might be elitist.

[breakaleg]

5. I also wonder how she can say that with a straight face. Given the size of her bank account. nt

[sfam]

10. If you have a summer cottage to go to as a little girl...

Just wondering, sort of sounds elitist, but that's just me. :)

[Catherina]

8. Just focuse on duck-hunting at the summer cottage as a little girl

Summer cottages :rofl:

[goldcanyonaz]

9. Clinton was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

Obama will be just as rich in the next 7 years.

[gristy]

13. Clinton is simply following the teachings of Rove and Bush

Regular guy you want to have a beer with.

Regular gal you want to have a shot with.


Bad news for Clinton is her target audience is substantially different from Bush's and is insufficiently receptive to these methods.

[washingdem]

15. Doesn't Bush's face look punchable in that picture?

[murielm99]

22. It's the battery pack on his back that concerns me.

[washingdem]

42. Must have left it on from that debate in 2004 where they fed him answers.

[msongs]

19. yeah those millionnaire book writing attorneys, nothing elite about that nt

[ruggerson]

20. who went to prep school, Columbia and Princeton

[Benhurst]

31. I have no idea. If you are talking about Obama, he went to prep

school, Columbia and Harvard.

[blogslut]

23. Here's how I frame this

No matter what Hillary Clinton does, no matter if she wins the presidency, no matter if she loses, loses her Senate seat and goes back to work in the private sector, she will always have something that 99% of the electorate will never have - Secret Service protection for life.

Hillary Clinton can not and will not ever become an ordinary citizen. She hasn't been ordinary since 1992. She is one of an elite group of people.

:)

[sfam]

25. She lived in the Arkansas mansion prior to 1992. She wasn't ordinary then either.

This whole working class thing is just her latest re-incarnation. Bottom line, she has no other approach which has worked, so she's morphed into Governor Bush in the hopes of collecting the simple working class vote - those who actually might believe that a summer gas tax would get implemented, and that it would somehow be good for them.

[blogslut]

28. I know

I'm just giving you a lil something else to work with. :)

We're all nobodies until we hit the big time. Some that hit, actually do return to relatively normal lives. Hillary Clinton is not one of those people. She will never be one of those people. She is a former First Lady of the United States. That can't be undone.

[ananda]

27. You might also look at the person who..

.. when a child was driven to and from
school in a limo.

GWB

[OHdem10]

30. Elitism is an attitude--it makes not a whit what your income is.

[sfam]

32. Elitism is a rediculous campaign slime...it matters not a whit what it means...

Its like a 5th grader picking on someone by calling them a "fag". They have no clue what the word means, but they know their friends think its bad, and that they are not one. Same thing for Hillary and McCain's use of the term, "Elitist." It has no real meaning in this context, but if they can convince the voters that Barack is elitist, they intuitively know its a bad thing, even if they don't understand what she means.

[smoogatz]

39. Exactly.

You are an elitist if you are wealthy/privileged and think the wealthy/privileged are in some way inherently superior to everybody else, and/or inherently deserving of the advantages they've been given. FDR was very rich by the standard of the day, but his politics were iconically progressive. Also, "elitist" does not mean what the rightwing wants people to think it means: i.e., anyone who's ever read a book, been to a museum, bought coffee at Starbucks or owned a vehicle other than a pickup truck.

[sfam]

45. Are you talking about the right wing or the Clinton campaign? She's the one..

campaigning in a red pickup truck.

[annie1]

34. i used to be sort of elitist. i was born and raised in manhattan, ...

was raised by a single mother went to an elite private high school. even at 18 i never wanted to leave manhattan, 'why would i want do that' type of thinking, i was liberal and scoffed at people who didn't share my liberal views. I actually believed that small town people who were conservative (gun enthusiasts, pro-lifers, "christians", just like what obama said in San Fran) were just lame and not getting it. i don't think Obama is nec. elitist, but he does come off as very arrogant to me. i know obama fans aren't going to agree, but his language "my children are above average", "i don't want my kids punished with a baby", these things aren't awful to say, but they speak to how he thinks. his wife too ("isn't he special", "first time in my life" etc) when he used to get on stage for debates, he came off very arrogant to me. JMO. i know most on this board love love love obama, so i don't expect anyone to hear me, but i'm just answering how i feel.

[sfam]

35. "My children are above average" is offensive to you????

Wow...like, really wow. Have you ever been around a group of parents? If so, do all of them who brag about the great things their kids have done strike you as elitist? As a parent of two kids, I really have a hard time seeing how you take that line and enter it into an "arrogant mentality" narrative. Like I have a REALLY hard time understanding that.

[annie1]

41. no, like i said, there's nothing wrong with that thougt except it...

just comes off as arrogant that he needs to say that in an interview. furthermore, he's running for president and he's basically saying my children are better than most. i know every parent thinks.

[sfam]

44. Again, if every parent thinks that, how does this come off as arrogant? What does Hillary say about

Chelsea? Did Hillary say that Chelsea is just average? Everyone sees and hears what they want to I suppose. If this comment to you supports the idea in your mind that Obama is arrogant, I guess there's not much more to say here...

[annie1]

48. never heard her say it in an interview. and i mention several things that come...

off as arrogant. we differ in opinion, np.

[Diane R]

43. I've read that Hillary's family drove a cadillac when she was young. Doesn't sound blue collar to m

[splat]

50. Facts: He went to Penn State on a football scholarship and sold textiles

Wikipedia

Hugh Ellsworth Rodham (April 2, 1911 – April 7, 1993) was an American textile wholesaler and father of New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the son of Hugh Rodham and Hannah Jones,, British immigrants descended from a line of coal miners from Co. Durham and Wales.

Rodham attended Pennsylvania State University on a football scholarship, playing for the Penn State Nittany Lions football team and joining the Delta Upsilon Fraternity. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in physical education from the College of Education in 1935, at the height of the Great Depression.

He briefly worked for his father's employer, Scranton Lace Company, then freighthopped to Chicago without telling his parents. Rodham found work there selling drapery fabrics around the Midwest, sending the money he made back home.

In 1937, he met Dorothy Emma Howell, who was applying for a job at a textile company that Rodham was making a sales call at. After a lengthy courtship, they married in early 1942. Rodham enlisted in the United States Navy, where he became a Chief Petty Officer stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Station, performing training duties for sailors headed for the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II.

After the war, he began what was to prove to be a very successful career in the textile supply industry, starting with Rodrik Fabrics, a drapery fabric business located in Chicago's famous Merchandise Mart building. He later opened a fabric print plant building on the North Side...

[aquart]

59. Because he worked his ass off and got lucky with his business.

(Because no matter how hard you work, bad luck can wipe it out in a heartbeat.)

Hillary was raised in a middle, NOT upper, class community in a nice house which is NOT the same as a mansion. But no one ever left a light on in an empty room because her parents well-remembered having nothing in the Depression. And never let her forget it, either. There was no inherited wealth. No trust funds. Hillary wasn't a Kennedy.

When she met the young men of the Ivy League, so many of them from wealthy families, the one she chose was the son of a nurse.

Later, Hillary did indeed live in mansions. One belonged to the people of Arkansas, the other to the people of the United States.

[sfam]

61. So she wasn't an elitist untill she started living in her own (current) mansion?

So its OK to live in other people's mansions then. Check.

[Diane R]

68. That's her father, it's not Hillary. Her life has been much more comfortable than Obama's.

[splat]

47. Was RFK elitist? It's not what you have, it's what you think about the rest of us

For instance, when I read people hear dismissing blue-collar voters, that's elitist.

[sfam]

52. Please tell me you don't really buy into this crap...

This, along with the pandering gas tax, is a fairly ridiculous position to take. Obama is elitist?? We don't really know why other than I think this name will resonate with one of my only two remaining base voters, so I might as well go for it!!!!

Bottom line, the elitist label is republican hooey. It was used on Kerry and Gore to convince voters to vote against their real interests. Now Hillary is using it. Do you think it is any more valid now than it was then? Well do ya?

At least in the comfort of your own home, I hope you can admit how sad and ridiculous a charge this is to see in the democratic primary.

[splat]

54. I'm talking about people posting here! Like the only good voter is just like them

[DAGDA56]

55. Is this a trick question?

[1776Forever]

60. I would look at the ones that belong to the Bilderberg Group! Oh & are on Dubai's payroll!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bilderberg_attendees

[grasswire]

63. How about the one that lived in public housing most of adulthood?

That's Hillary.

[phrigndumass]

65. Yup

[Triana]

66. Hillary is a hypocrite and a projecting narcissist. AND an Elitist. n/t

[Igel]

67. Could be. Might not be. Can't tell from externals like that.

I've known elites of various kinds--intellectual elites, monied elites, some actors and actresses, heads of universities and the occasional politician. Graduate student government at a very large research institution will do that.

My family was working class, steelworkers, mostly. I've known a fair number of non-elites: high school dropouts, immigrants legal and illegal, workers with no college at all.

Among them, I've known snobs, people that just considered themselves superior. Among the snobs were many, esp. among the elites, that believed this gave them some sort of dispensation to rule or have a greater influence on politics. To a person, they were arrogant pricks.

Not that there weren't arrogant pricks among the working class joes. They just had less to be arrogant pricks over, that's all. Still, some were elitists: convinced that by virtue of their vast intellect or whatever they deserved to rule. Among working class people this is simply risible. When you're able to ponder a $30 million donation, when your ex-husband was an Illinois governor, when you could seriously be a government consultant or are a university chancellor, "elitist" views become more dangerous.

There's a large inverse correlation between elitism and humility.

Among the elites were also some "common joes" as far as their attitudes were concerned. They may be able to pick up a phone and get a tenured appt. at a major university tomorrow; they may have enough money to buy an island and retire in the next 20 minutes. It doesn't matter. They consider themselves lucky, not superior.

Politicians tend to be elitist in the sense that they believe they deserve power and can wield it more wisely than others. I think the best response from a politician when asked, "Would you like to be president?" is, "Hell, no! Why me?" But that's not going to happen, now is it?

Politicians can also be elitist in other ways. They can be convinced that their intellect means they don't have to respect people or groups of people. They can rely on their own wisdom--in a democracy, a sketchy proposition. Politicians should do both: They often have greater resources and access to more information, but they should also defer to popular will, not reluctantly, but just as a matter of course. This shows humility. Bill Clinton didn't have much, but he was smart enough to triangulate; HRC, I can't tell, she triangulates a bit much and is a good actor; some BO comments have shown that he knows himself to have keener insight into the souls of strangers than they could possibly have into their own souls, with their souls just happening to reflect his beliefs. (Then again, I'm not in BO's camp: The first ad I heard that figured him speaking set my teeth on edge, and the second ad determined how I'd vote in the primary--and that's without seeing an HRC ad.)

[Secret_Society]

69. Elitism doesn't necessarily have to do with wealth

it's about being able to connect with people. A sense that you share their vales and don't look down on them.