"THE MASK SLIPS"
By WILLIAM
KRISTOL
...Barack Obama's now-famous comment at an April 6 San Francisco fund-raiser. Obama was explaining his trouble winning over small-town, working-class voters: "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."
This sent me to Marx's famous statement about religion in the introduction to his "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right":
"Religious suffering is at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of a soulless condition. It is the opium of the people."
Or, more succinctly, and in the original German in which Marx somehow always sounds better: "Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes."
Now, this is a point of view with a long intellectual pedigree prior to Marx, and many vocal adherents continuing into the 21st century. I don't believe the claim is true, but it's certainly worth considering, in college classrooms and beyond.
But it's one thing for a German thinker to assert that "religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature." It's another thing for an
American presidential candidate to claim that we "cling to ... religion" out of economic frustration.
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Obama Reinforcing Stereotypes,
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, April 14, 2008; Page A04
Hillary Clinton expressed her view that Obama had been "elitist ... and, frankly, patronizing."
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton greets backers in Grantham, Pa., where she participated in a forum on religious and moral values.
Her remarks came in a nationally televised forum on religious and moral values, which brought Clinton and her rival to the private Christian school just outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The discussion represented a remarkable departure from the Democrats' increasingly harsh tone of campaign rhetoric. Both candidates dropped biblical references and spoke of policy issues such as energy and health care in the context of their Christian faith.
Obama was questioned at the start of his session about his reference to religion in his small-town remarks - perhaps the most controversial word he uttered. Describing the Pennsylvania political landscape at a private fundraiser last Sunday in San Francisco, California, Obama told of how people "cling" to such issues as religion and guns when they become disillusioned by hard economic times and by politicians who promise much but deliver little.
Obama was questioned at the start of his session about his reference to religion in his small-town remarks -- perhaps the most controversial word he uttered. Describing the Pennsylvania political landscape at a private fundraiser last Sunday in San Francisco, Obama told of how people "cling" to such issues as religion and guns when they become disillusioned by hard economic times and by politicians who promise much but deliver little.... "Religion is a bulwark, a foundation when other things aren't going well," Obama said."It's not surprising that they get bitter," Obama then told donors. "They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment."...
...
Earlier in the day, Clinton seemed frustrated when a reporter asked when she had last attended church or fired a gun.
"That is not a relevant question for this debate," Clinton said. "We can answer that some other time. I went to church on Easter, so . . . but that is not what this is about."
"I don't know Senator Obama very well," said Senator McCain, addressing a packed crowd of journalists at a newspaper editors' conference on Monday.
McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, spoke at length about how small town Americans in places like Pennsylvania are the backbone of America. Those folks don't support the Second Amendment because of recent economic hardships, said McCain, they do it because that's been part of their values system for generations.
"These are the people that produced a generation that made the world safe for democracy," sais McCain. "These are the people that have
fundamental cultural, spiritual, and other values that in my view have very little to do with their economic condition."
