Some things just go together. Peanut butter and chocolate. Fireworks and the Fourth of July. Elections and charges of Democratic elitism. It comforts me greatly to know that, in these ever-changing times, we can still count on politicians to get all faux-indignant when someone dares to opine that some of our neglected fellow citizens are kind of grumpy and may be channeling that grumpiness at the gay couple down the street or the guy at the Kwik-Mart with the funny accent.
Obama’s phrasing was clumsy, but that doesn’t discredit the observations he was making. The megachurches that dot the suburban landscape are booming because they offer a one-stop support network that is replacing the old civic infrastructures, like neighborhood organizations and labor unions, that have been decimated by economic stress and upheaval. And some of those churches do preach uplifting messages of social justice and tolerance, but many of them encourage a kind of exceptionalist thinking that breeds contempt and suspicion of those who are different. This wasn’t as much of a problem when people lived in homogenous little towns, but that isn’t the world we live in now. “Those people” are now neighbors and co-workers. Obama isn’t criticizing anyone; he’s giving an oversimplified, reductionist explanation of a social trend. But it is a real and persistent trend.
Some of you may be getting tired of my political commentary, but I can’t help it. It’s just too interesting for me to ignore.
