It’s important to remember that Barack Obama was closing the gap on Hillary rather aggressively when he stepped on a land mind in the culture war and blew up his campaign. While “Bittergate” may have cost Obama the Pennsylvania primary, I think the cost to the Democrats in general is probably greater. The Democrats can’t be the party of large urban centers and still win national elections, and their attitudes toward, not just rural, but ordinary people and their lifestyles have been a big part of what’s holding them back.
Bittergate wasn’t broken by conservative digging. It wasn’t some intrepid reporter who uncovered it. It was a lefty blogger, who had little idea of the significance of what she was revealing. But how could she have? She was part of the same intelligentsia that Obama was trying to appeal to in the first place. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the urban left, it’s that many are very insulated from lifestyles and opinions of those outside their parochial social circles. This is a trait most commonly attached to rural people, but mass media and the internet have largely ended that. Rural people are learning what life long urban dwellers like Barack Obama think of them, and they don’t like it.
I believe Wretchard of The Belmont Club summed up the issue best:
Americans in contrast, opted to leave that responsibility with individuals. The phrase “In God We Trust” is often attached by wags to the words, “all others must pay cash”. It’s a restatement of the belief that there are no special people, no natural overlords, no entitled class upon the earth. Bureaucrats are just people doing a job in uniform clothes. At the end of the day the world consisted of you and your Maker.
God and guns are a talismanic connection to the idea that the individual is supreme.
And that is what Democrats have been failing to understand for quite some time now. Democrats of the past often had lofty goals in terms of progressive reform, but respect for the people they thought they were helping was generally there. The more the Democrats look like they are a bunch of wealthy, educated, city dwellers trying to feel better about themselves by helping those poor ignorant indigents run their sad, pathetic lives, the more they are going to lose. Barack Obama just learned that lesson the hard way.