Recently in San Francisco, Obama said the following about small town Americans: “And it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
He has subsequently said that he didn't choose his words well, but "I said something that everybody knows is true." (LA Times, Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer April 13, 2008). So he meant what he said, just not the way he said it.
As a Harvard-educated lawyer, he should know the textual interpretation canon known as noscitur a sociis: a word is known by the company it keeps. That is, because words can mean different things, words are intended to be interpreted by the words around them.
“Antipathy to people who aren't like them,” “anti-immigrant sentiment” and “anti-trade sentiment” are not positive attributes. They are negative attributes: respectively, racist, xenophobic, and isolationist attributes. And so, if small town Americans are bitter and clinging to racist, xenophobic, and isolationist attributes, what does that mean for the attributes stated between the words “bitter” and “antipathy”? Applying the canon of noscitur a sociis, those attributes of clinging to “guns” and “religion” must also be negative attributes. At least, according to Mr. Obama.
In sum, Mr. Obama regards guns, religion, a respect for obeying immigration laws, and a concern for keeping your job as negative things. Accordingly, people who hold such views are bitter.
But let’s look at some other people, people with whom Obama associates, and see what we find.
Michelle Obama has said that for the first time in her adult life, she is proud of her country. She has said that life in America “is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is ‘just downright mean,’ we are ‘guided by fear,’ we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. ‘We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,’ she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. ‘Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!’” (The New Yorker, March 10, 2008, Lauren Collins). These sentiments come from a woman who attended Princeton and Harvard Universities. Her husband has made millions of dollars.
She sounds bitter to me, and clinging to both her bitterness and her feelings of victimhood.
Then there’s Jeremiah Wright, spouting decades-old conspiracy theories about drugs and AIDS. He sounds bitter as he clings to ludicrous conspiracy theories.
And finally, there’s William Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist bomber who wishes he had done more damage. I doubt you can get any more bitter than attacking your own country, and decades later wishing you had endangered the lives of more fellow citizens, as he clings tightly to his discredited Marxism. You’ll only get his Communist Manifesto and Little Red Book by prying them from his cold, dead hands.
Mr. Obama may not know or understand small town America. But he certainly knows people who are bitter and cling to destructive attitudes.
He has subsequently said that he didn't choose his words well, but "I said something that everybody knows is true." (LA Times, Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer April 13, 2008). So he meant what he said, just not the way he said it.
As a Harvard-educated lawyer, he should know the textual interpretation canon known as noscitur a sociis: a word is known by the company it keeps. That is, because words can mean different things, words are intended to be interpreted by the words around them.
“Antipathy to people who aren't like them,” “anti-immigrant sentiment” and “anti-trade sentiment” are not positive attributes. They are negative attributes: respectively, racist, xenophobic, and isolationist attributes. And so, if small town Americans are bitter and clinging to racist, xenophobic, and isolationist attributes, what does that mean for the attributes stated between the words “bitter” and “antipathy”? Applying the canon of noscitur a sociis, those attributes of clinging to “guns” and “religion” must also be negative attributes. At least, according to Mr. Obama.
In sum, Mr. Obama regards guns, religion, a respect for obeying immigration laws, and a concern for keeping your job as negative things. Accordingly, people who hold such views are bitter.
But let’s look at some other people, people with whom Obama associates, and see what we find.
Michelle Obama has said that for the first time in her adult life, she is proud of her country. She has said that life in America “is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is ‘just downright mean,’ we are ‘guided by fear,’ we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. ‘We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,’ she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. ‘Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!’” (The New Yorker, March 10, 2008, Lauren Collins). These sentiments come from a woman who attended Princeton and Harvard Universities. Her husband has made millions of dollars.
She sounds bitter to me, and clinging to both her bitterness and her feelings of victimhood.
Then there’s Jeremiah Wright, spouting decades-old conspiracy theories about drugs and AIDS. He sounds bitter as he clings to ludicrous conspiracy theories.
And finally, there’s William Ayers, an unrepentant terrorist bomber who wishes he had done more damage. I doubt you can get any more bitter than attacking your own country, and decades later wishing you had endangered the lives of more fellow citizens, as he clings tightly to his discredited Marxism. You’ll only get his Communist Manifesto and Little Red Book by prying them from his cold, dead hands.
Mr. Obama may not know or understand small town America. But he certainly knows people who are bitter and cling to destructive attitudes.
