By Ian Jobling • 4/18/08
I’ve been delayed in my reaction to “Bittergate” because more pressing subjects arose. Nevertheless, Obama’s gaffe touches on a topic that is fundamental to this site: the class basis of liberalism, or, as I call it, leukophobia. Obama’s words were plainly directed against the white working-class:
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
I’ve argued in several articles that leukophobia is so strong in our culture because it is essential to the identity of the American upper class. The elites slander the white majority so that their own superior openness and tolerance will shine more brightly by comparison. The slander consists of highlighting and exaggerating the closed-mindedness, xenophobia, racism, and authoritarianism of the white middle and lower class. Since the elites are so eager to find these negative qualities in the white majority, they think of perfectly healthy and normal qualities, including respect for the rule of law, racial consciousness, patriotism, and religious belief, as “fascist.”
A good term for this socio-psychological complex is “malignant narcissism,” a term first used to describe liberals by Tammy Bruce. A malignant narcissist, in my sense at least, is someone who abuses others in order to highlight his superiority.
A key element in malignant narcissism is attributing the white majority’s fascist tendencies to inadequacy, stupidity, and fear. Obama’s belief that white fascism is rooted in economic failure and that the white majority is too stupid to recognize that it’s real grievances are economic, rather than social, has a long history. Other explanations of white backwardness include sexual repression and the Oedipus complex. See my article on Theodor Adorno’s The Authoritarian Personality for more.
Here are some other articles I’ve written dealing with this topic.
Malignant narcissism:
explains why wealthy, highly-educated American whites are so liberal.
was the ideology of the professionals in the 1970s and 80s and continues to be strong among this class today.
was helpful to John Kerry throughout his political career and explains why people thought he was “bold” and “hip” for falsely accusing US troops of war crimes in Vietnam.
received its quintessential expression in Archie Bunker.