McCain’s “Elitism”
Back when John McCain thought being truthful and honest was a good thing for a candidate, he said this1:
“It’s the influx of illegals into places where they’ve never seen a Hispanic influence before,” McCain told me. “You probably see more emotion in Iowa than you do in Arizona on this issue. I was in a town in Iowa, and twenty years ago there were no Hispanics in the town. Then a meatpacking facility was opened up. Now twenty per cent of their population is Hispanic. There were senior citizens there who were–‘concerned’ is not the word. They see this as an assault on their culture, what they view as an impact on what have been their traditions in Iowa, in the small towns in Iowa. So you get questions like ‘Why do I have to punch 1 for English?’ ‘Why can’t they speak English?’ It’s become larger than just the fact that we need to enforce our borders.”
Of course, this is not only true, it’s actually more than just anger at immigrants. It touches on the edge of the race issue as well, particularly the part about the impact on traditions in Iowa vis a vis senior citizens. After all, senior citizens are hardly the ones who would be fighting for jobs, particularly in a meatpacking plant. So why would they care if there were Hispanics in their town?
Was McCain’s statement elitist? Not really. It was definitely the truth. So how does it differ from Obama’s? McCain said it.
1 The New Yorker, 12/17/2007
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