FOX News' Fred Barnes: Working Class = Lower Class
By SilentPatriot Tuesday May 06, 2008 1:40pm
Talk about "elitism." Last night while discussing "downscale voters," salt-of-the-earth FOX News contributor (and Weekly Standard editor) Fred Barnes ridiculed and demeaned working class Americans by making the distinction that they aren't "lower income," but rather "lower class."
Download | play 
Download | play (h/t Bill W.)
Look at the smug look on his face as he demeans the majority of Americans. Apparently to Barnes union workers and, indeed, anyone who actually labors for a living, is not as good as him. Kudos to the panel who, for reasons you can decide yourselves, distances themselves from his insensitive and bone-headed remarks.
Something tells me we're looking at Duncan's "Wanker of the day."
TPM has more and Faiz sums it up nicely:
Hume opened the segment by asking Barnes to elaborate on his view that many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters are “downscale.” Barnes could hardly contain his laughter as he explained that the term “working class” is a euphemism because “it’s kind of mean to say ‘lower class.’ It’s as simple as that.” He explained that the “lower class” are people of low “social class.”
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WTF! That son-of-a-bitch said that! On live TV? My God, Faux News viewers, save yourselves. If you still keep watching this garbage you'll turn into zombies. Oh wait, it's to late.
Simply showing his true colors. Can't damn him for that.
Maybe he should remember that old piece of common sense..."Better to remain silent and thought an idiot, then to speak and remove all doubt".
These are the 'elite' opinion makers who have fueled Senator 'All Hat No Cattle' Obama's rise to the 'top'. He and they have a mutual love-in goin' on.
Until McSame steps into the ring.
Here's another elitist for ya to check out:
Enough is enough!
Why isn't Limpballs in a uproar about this. I mean isn't he the patron saint of the middle class? All those white dudes on the bottom of the economic rung. Oh, I forgot. Rush probably agrees with him.
ASSHOLE !!!!
Hume, Kristol, Barnes - all punk-assed bitches!
There, I said it.
Time for his taxes to go way, way, way, way, way, way, way up...
That sentiment is absolutely representative of conservative thought-- not just the modern incarnation, but everything it's based upon, going back hundred of years. The idea that all of us working stiffs (or the "great beast" as they used to refer to the working class) is comprised of inferior people who need to be controlled by their betters... well, that's the only *real* conservative value.
And why wouldn't these wealthy conservatives believe that? They hoodwink the same "values voter" rubes every 2 years with the SAME con game, shove more pro-wealthy legislation down their throats, and the dopes just keep lapping it up.
.
Such Rovian euphemisms coming from a Democrat’s camp…
I suppose spelling it out helps… NO?
Hillary (R) Clinton!
… because (R) isn’t just for (R)odham anymore…
(R)epublican (R)over would also paint his opposition as being the elitist he sees himself to be.
Look, according to Barnes;
I'm an elitist because I work for my money...?
I'm an elitist because I make 22K a year...?
When Democrats start sounding like (R)epublicans, I turn them off...
**hint - hint** Hillary (R) Clinton!
.
Yes, it's certainly elitist, but it's also the ugly truth.
There is no aristocracy in the U.S., just wealth-based class distinction.
There is a professional class that kind of blurs the lines in the middle, a "middle class" where money was available for education.
Just watching all those decripet white dudes gives me a chill down my spine. Jeez, I think I'm going blind.
what exactly is so controversial about his statements? Blue collars vote against gay rights, against their own economic interests, against the environment and for what? For their narrow, superstitious, uneducated and plebian beliefs. They voted Bush in twice, they'll vote for John McCain and Hillary and they made fucking Transformers the #1 movie of all time. They are cannon fodder.
Seems they want class warfare
Now you zombies who watch Fux news have the proof that these elite aholes are laughing at you. So this guy, and dont be fooled by the fake anger by Mort etc. they all believe that you idiots who are middle class and "work" hard for a living are idiots! You continue to watch these fools and vote for their candidates.
It's even worse than that.
At about 1:47 Mort Kondracked says “..working class democrats and working class whites and the rest of them are not lower class, they’re middle class.” Accompanied by lots of HA HA from the rest of the panel.
Teh bigotry, like teh stoopid, never ends.
I love how "transparently" bilious this guy is. I also love how any moronic statement by a thug gets turned around and put on the Clintons. Very rich. Good luck, America.
My mother taught me that it was 'low class' to assume you were better than others, Fred.
They think they are 'The Masters Of The Universe.'
Class warfare? Bring it on!
I'll be in any class where Barnes isn't--especially the middle/working class to which I happily belong. They hate it when the little people can read, think and write. Hence, the delay on Senator Webb's G.I. Bill.
Let them eat cake...
Talk about "No Class".
Well now...if it was not for the working class there wouldn't be anybody like Fred Barnes....because without the working class who would provide the goods and services this country needs.
So the working class are the real "elites" they provide the impetus that keeps this country going.
Gee, I guess the feces-flingers at FOX have figured they've gotten all the mileage they're gonna get out of the "Obama's an elitists who bad mouths working people by calling them "bitter"" meme. Hey Fred! If it weren't for the wingnut welfare you've been getting from FOX and your gig at the Standard Weakly, you wouldn't even have a fucking job! Poor Fred, he just doesn't get the fact that aside from himself, and his little cadre of cut rate NAZIS (Hello, Kondracke! Hello Krauthammer!) nobody would even know that he exists. Fuck him!
So let me get this straight . .
If you work for a living, watch Faux and vote repug, you are a "hard working murikan". If you work for a living and vote dem like HRC, you're "low class". Did I get that right?
Man! These guys need to get out and mow their own lawns, wash their own clothes, and do their own grocery shopping for a couple of days. That Barnes character is amazingly out-of-touch.
Fred, buddy, I am a working American. I went to college, and I paid for it myself, btw, unlike some of your "upscale" comrades. Working Americans are people who actually make something or provide something meaningful for others to purchase that makes their lives better. How, exactly, does that makes me "downscale?" By "upscale," do you mean people who shuffle other people's money and other investments around, siphoning off plenty for themselves, while actually making or providing nothing of value? That's what I would call our "leech class."
When Obama and Michelle and their two daughters move into the WH in January, are you ever in for a big wake-up call about America's working class' place in our society. An Obama presidency will mean "Leech Class: 0; Working Class: 1."
End of the clip:
"Look, we know we're really stupid people who get our rocks of saying deliberately provocative things, but we're not so stupid that we don't realize the bonehead across the table just insulted everyone. Even though we agree with it in the locker room we don't want you to switch channels so we'll pander a little bit and pretend like we don't agree with what he just said. But we'll be laughing our asses off over drinks after show. Stay tuned so our sponsors don't ditch us. Thanks."
"Downscale", hahaha. Fuck these media pimps, I'm so sick of this garbage.
OK now I feel better...
Grinning, giggling, moronic assholes, every one of them.
Don't they know who their own audience is?? Red-state working stiffs. Unbelievable.
Fred Barnes is like school in the summertime...
...NO CLASS!
Sincerely,
Fat Albert
Hey Fred, "FUCK YOU", you elitist punk!
make the pie higher @ 13:
They certainly do *not* want that. That's why they all tried to distance themselves from Barnes' unusually frank statement. As Barnes said, they do indeed 'all know who he was talking about', but they also know that issues of social class are to be denied at all times.
The last thing they want is open class warfare. They want to continue their decades-long covert class war, in which they assault the poor and the middle class constantly, but cover it up with wedge issues like abortion and prayer in schools.
FOX News’ Fred Barnes = No Class
"Something tells me we’re looking at Duncan’s “Wanker of the day.”"
Everyday.
What an idiot.
So Faux News tries to backtrack into "working families"
Here's what Working Families have to say about Rethug Shills
I think the unions are going to have to go after these rethugs hard this national election.
I'm looking forward to the day when I hear about Fred Barnes receiving treatment from "lower class" EMTs for the category 4 heart attack he suffered while eating pasta and meatballs.
What a dick.
Class and wealth are not the same thing.
Upper Class people are people that inherited wealth from established families. Middle class people are business owners. Bill Gates is considered middle class. Lower class people are workers, hence the reason they are often called "working class people". A very well paid doctor or lawyer is considered lower or working class; if he/she works for a company.
It just amazes me that in a room full of college educated journalist not one has taken an entry level economics class.
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
The real irony is that the Fox viewership doesn't know they just got insulted.
They think they're part of the top 2% wealth in the country.
"Working class" is a euphemism? Meaning that they don't literally work?
That's not only elitist; it's completely out of touch with reality.
I don't mind if he considers the working class "low class," as long as he doesn't mind that I consider America's upper-one-half-of-one-percent class, "the first people up against the wall when the revolution comes."
P.D. @ 11:
Sometimes during their bullshit sessions on State Television (aka FOX) degenerate into total farce. I'll never forget the time Britt's Fumes had them on, around the time Obama had announced he was running for President and there was some "controversy" over whether African Americans considered Obama "black" enough. Picture these three idiots (Barnes, Kondracke, and Krauthammer) - possibly the lamest white guys in America - sitting around bloviating about how African Americans were supposed to view Obama. It was absolutely fucking hysterical! For a brief moment, I had thought that the "Half Hour News Hour" was on and that they actually discovered how to be funny. Alas, though, this was a "serious" discussion.
I Like Pie @ 36:
Who wrote that text book? Martin Feldstein.
Seriously, do you actually think about what you say, or do you simply make it up as you go along.
He's not black, he's not a Democrat, and he didn't say "bitter", so it doesn't count.
Being "low class" has nothing to do with how much money you make. Mr. Barnes' comments seem pretty low class to me.
btw, clinton has begun her scorched earth policy
Fred Barnes speaks for the smirking nazi chattering class of reich-wing parasites. These FAux folks are not "conservative." Pray tell what have they ever conserved? Our Constitution? Our Bill of Rights? Our natural resources? Anything? They've been blindly and stupidly goose-stepping behind the Bush nazi regime for the last eight years.
CatAtomic @ 31:
It's simple really. They want to own everything and have all the power. They're smart enough to know they can't do that without making people desperate enough to rebel. So ultimately, they want to keep you at the lowest threshold possible that's not below your comfort zone.
And guess what? They keep finding that we're willing to tolerate more and more abuse so they keep lowering the bar. That's why an administration likes Bush's has gotten away with everything it's done with no consequences whatsoever.
And it can get far worse before we're willing to do anything about it. So they keep exploring to find how low they can go and how much more they can take.
But they don't want to go too far no matter what. It means most of them would lose everything.
Did you hear that camera operator? How about all you telepromt writers? All of you gophers, assistants, secretaries, script writers? How you didn't just turn everything off and walk right out on this jerk is beyond me. All you "lower class" workers at the Weekly Standard? Did you hear what YOUR BOSS just said what he really thinks about you? You are nothing but low class and he's just telling the truth to America. And yet, you still will show up tomorrow morning as usual, won't you? Because you are so brainwashed and in the know that you are convinced that he surely wasn't referring to you. Well, yes he was. There is no way in hell I would EVER step foot in any office or room this pig headed blowhard was ever wasting space in.
Even I can't defend that one. But let me work on it.
Uh, "Marge" is back. Hey everybody! All together now: "FUCK YOU, MARGE!"
These people are so arrogant. I can't wait for the debt bubble to burst. All these smug little bastards that are riding the gravy train are going to be jumping out of windows left and right. Here's the funny part; I am going to be the guy with the garden hose that washes their brains into the gutter.
Give the old fool credit. That's exactly what they think of their base.
Albatross @ 40:
Right on, Albatross!
Loved it near the end when Britney realized that there was a danger that the Faux Nation may have come out of the fog of their Cheeto and beer induced comas long enough to realize that these rich smug pricks are laughing at them ...
Albatross took the words out of my mouth!
Powkat @ 53:
And I'll be the one in the front row knitting.
uncle joe hussein mccarthy @ 45:
Jesus, what do you call what she's been doing for the last couple of months or so?? If she's gonna initiate here scorched Earth policy now, I dread what that would be like Uncle Joe. Hell, she's finished. She played her last hand wwhen she made the "Obliterate Iran" comment and didn't get the bump in the polls for which she was hoping.
And those little chubby pigs will look mighty tasty when its time to eat the rich ...
That should be "initiate her..." Tucking Fypos!
That is pretty infuriating. Most of my friends are struggling "working class" citizens who are very intelligent. He just displayed his own ignorance. Manual labor, service labor is not BELOW anybody. Nothing would work without workers whose jobs are very undervalued in today's society.
What a bunch of smug sob's. While I never have been a advocate of killing the rich (though this would provide a purpose for their generally meaningless existences), I don't think I would lose too much sleep if some nutcase chose to make an example of that particular group of rich folk.
Then again, I suffer from the moral failing (if that gaggle of Foxy hens are any indicator) of actually giving a shite about people, so I would probably have a moment or two of silence for their friends and family members who might miss them.
Btw, is it just me or that the amount of class an individual seems to have is directly opposite to how much money they have?
Unsean @ 61:
It's not just you. It really seems that way but there are people with money who actually care about people and the earth and use their money to try to help - and not just for tax breaks. At least that's my fantasy and I'm not giving it up... for my own sanity. :)
Unsean, I've noticed a correlation between intelligence and affluence. I work at a place (wont say the name, I need the job) where a lot of our clients are affluent. For the most part they have this sense of entitlement and refuse to listen to reason whatsoever. I have deducted that the more affluent you are, the less intelligent you are. That or you are just blinded by your own sense of elitism.
"Working class," "Working poor," and sundry other words for what? Are we talking about poor people, the last of the middle class, or the proletariat? The United States has had its way with poor people, who seem to have more than most other poor people in the world yet act outside of their own interests, are generally lower educated, and make poor (no pun intended) choices in their personal lives and for society as a whole. I am sorry that our education system has not remedied this, but it hasn't. Nor, with the age of consumerism and corporatism will it. The "Great Beast" is not the working class today. It is all talk of 1848. Today has no working class. No classes at all, only, as Kissinger said of countries, their interests. Without jobs (meaning working class jobs not service crap) these people do not work, do not have class consciousness (hence, only a beast when organized but outside of yammering unionites and protectionist ninnies could not organize a line outside of a Walmart waiting to spend their welfare check on a Wii without the help of the police), and generally are more interested in the shape, longitude, and colour of the public regions of certain hotel heiresses. The ruling cast (as today you need be born into it) are at the helm and here one nattering naybob outted himself. Nevertheless, the ship is driven by the lower orders who voted for bush, will vote Mccrazy, and generally are the most spoiled "poor" bastards on earth mouths wide open waiting for the world resources to march uninterrupted into them.
"It’s as simple as me!" said Barnes, as he dribbled all over his $500 tie.
What did Hume mean when he appealed to the working families to "bear with us"? Afraid the facade is cracking and the tiny, uncaring lizard heart is being revealed to the common folk, just like in that movie They Live?
Another day gone and another day of speculations on who will be the next President. Another round of mud slinging and unfounded rumors. And I am not talking about those running to become the next US President. I am talking about the American people – or at least some of them. I am astounded to read some of the things people have to say about those leaders who are willing to put their hand up in a difficult time in the American history. What is it that makes people dig so deep to find their own worse self in the way they speak about the candidates? It’s like being in South Africa all over again back in 1994 when we had our own first democratic elections. The doomsayers lived large. But the truth is that all three would make fairly good Presidents – and all have their flaws. It won’t be the end of America. Can’t people just focus on what makes America great instead of scrapping the bottom of the barrel of humanity in the way they talk about their potential future leader? http://angryafrican.net/2008/05/07/november-is-coming-start-stockpiling-...
This makes me very bitter. I may go grab my gun and fondle it. I'm sick and tired of these elitists.
Just remember Fred, bullets kill rich people just as easily as they kill poor people.
Fred Barnes is Mitch McConnel's brother. They both learned their oral hygiene from the same mother.
http://www.bluegrassreport.org/photos/uncategorized/mitch_mcconnell_head...
Albatross @ 40:
Ha! Another dedicated reader of Douglas Adams! Yeah, this guy is just like the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corp.
Methinks he doth richly bait the guillotine!
That's quite a bunch of arrogant bullshit coming from a man who was Jock Yablonski's press man.
Oh, one other thing! Hey Fred - you had parents at some time, right?? They survived the Depression;,maybe your Dad got a house or and education after WWII as a result of the GI Bill which made it possible for him to send you to college so that, years from now, you can sit on your fat ass and denigrate the people who keep this country running. You know who made all that possible? Franklin Delano Roosevelt - that's who That's right FDR - the "traitor to his class". On the other hand, Barnes, it's quite possible you're the product of breeding by typical upper-class parasites who have never so much as lifted a finger by themselves. If that's the case, then this low class American would like to tell you to SUCK MY DICK! C'mon Fred, you'll do it for George Bush, you'll do it for other members of your "class", you can do it for me.
vladmir @ 63:
I've seen the same thing. It sickens me to be in the presence of them.
"Kudos to the panel who, for reasons you can decide yourselves, distances themselves from his insensitive and bone-headed remarks."
Um, really, did we watch the same clip? After they were done laughing their asses off, they realized, oh crap this is going to hurt {RATINGS} and practically begged their "downscaled" viewers not to hold them accountable!
Fred Barnes, just another elitist reich-wing scumbag loser employed by faux to defend the reich-wing Gopigs.
AF Comm Guy @ 69:
Not in Iraq and Afghanistan.
meritocracy @ 12:
Can't agree with you more. And thanks for validating my own views about Transformers, btw. Once you get over the very cool CGI, it's a remarkably bad film. So bad that it actually makes one almost ashamed to watch it, never mind actually having anything to do with making it.
Mr. Barnes, do you realize how easily you could become one of the as you put it "lower class", all it would take would be an economic crisis and you could easily be in the same boat as the rest of us. Please climb down off your high horse, because you are not immune from a crisis, poverty or any of the myriad of events that could shake your world. Remember the saying, "up today down tomorrow". Watch the words that you put into the universe, whatever you put out there will surely return to you.
Rusty Shackleford @ 78:
Tell Saddam's sons that.
Finally, someone with enough guts to admit the reality, publicaly. Everyone wants to put themselves into the middle class because it makes them feel better, even if they make $20-40K / year. We all know that with the current cost of living, any family of 4 earning under $80K before taxes is struggling to make ends meet.
Americans live under the great illussion of prosperity, foolishly encouraged by their politicians to get votes. When you consistantly need to run-up huge amounts of debt, in order to pretend that you are in a higher class, you need a reality check.
casper46 @ 81:
Good point.
Vote for McCain you scumbag, lower class imbeciles!
vladmir @ 63:
Had a comment spat a while ago with one of those. Yopu're exactly correct. There are really only 4 factors
What you were born into
How hard you work
What choices you make
What bits of luck you get
But somehow, when the right choices result in a little luck and they have made it to not worry about finance it becomes
"I use my free mind and create avenues of money that flow into my life" kind of thing.
Frig off, what, you got lucky?!
Fred Barnes idea of low class is staying in a hotel that doesn't place a mint on the pillow.
Wow, everybody seems upset because a conservative finally spoke his truth. You folks want to know what it's like to be treated as inferiors, try being part of a farming family. Never mind that we have to versed in soil chemistry, meteorology, hydrology, applied botany & and animal husbandry, mechanics, accounting, marketing, food science, and the ability to comply with reams of regulations and reporting, we're jus' po ignorant folk.
I played the clip for my 87 year old father and his response was "So what's new?" In this society the elitists and their toady lickspittles have always looked down on those who create the wealth, who produce the materials that make their privileged existence possible.
Welcome to my world.
dennis @ 49:
^ ^ ^ this speaks volumes. =)
***
I'm reminded of that quote from Fight Club. "We drive you to work, we cook your food, we babysit your children, we protect you while you sleep at night. Do not fuck with us." guys like Fred seem to forget the fact that unions were created to articulate that obvious truth.
Oh, no he didn't.
In Fred 's mind, he's not a $5 whore, he's a "high-class escort" .
dennis @ 49:
Hi dennis,
Did you, by any chance, call the Thom Hartmann show today? There was a caller named "Dennis" and was curious if it was you. Thx.
Bonkers Hussein @ 91:
By the way, my question is off-topic (apologies to the Site Mon) and has nothing to do with this thread or your post, so no need to have your guard up in that regard. Not picking a fight. Just curious if it was you.
So now I watched the clip. These m!@#$r f!@#$^rs…
This is a big joke to them with their 300k plus salaries for being Corporate Stooges.
I don't wish them well with the replays of this.
is it just me, or is Fred Barnes the long lost and badly liposuctioned twin of Mitch McConnell?
Oops. Fred Thompson let the cat slip. The plan is for working class and upper class, eliminating the middle class workers. He just wasnt supposed to say that yet.
The funny thing about Fred Barnes' remark is that many good old "low class" voters are the same people who are sitting in front of their sets eating up Fox News.
Nice to know that the people reading you your gospel hold you in such low regard.
Fox News personalities think their demographic is sitting at the country club watching after a hard day on Wall Street. hmmm, Probably not all of them, Fred.
Please don't tell me that anyone's surprised by this.
This comes back to my law that people who make more than 250k a year should get a yearly punch in the face by someone who's working for them and getting paid less than 25k a year.
By the way, did anyone but me notice that the crawl at the bottom of Fox News' screen keeps pointing out the percentage of black voters in each of the primary states and how many of them voted for Obama?
I haven't seen the one about how many grumpy old white guys voted for McCain, have any of you?
Repig pure and simple. Everyone else on the panel were laughing with him. Rich, smug dirt bags. Your lives and your family's well being mean nothing to these fucks. Its long past time to start the revolution. These shit sacks need to be taken down.
Jake S. @ 98:
Awesome. I'd like to run the concession stand while this occurs.
Kathy in St. louis @ 99:
Ding!
meritocracy @ 12:
Thanks for your kind generalizations about the working class. My husband, the lilfe long electrician will be so interested in your views. He, who voted for Obama, Kerry, Gore, Clinton and on and on back to Lyndon Johnson will find it most interesting. We low-class folk love being the source of your generalizations.
Sure there are blue-collar idiots who vote against their interests. There are also white-collar voters who vote based on values that their candidates no more share than the man in the moon.
There are tons of people out there who will vote against Obama because he didn't wear a lapel pin, for God's sake.
There are people who voted against Hillary because, don't you know, she and Bill killed Vince Foster, or some other silly crap.
And there are people out there who will vote for John McCain merely because he fought in the Vietnam war. Never mind that he is too old and clueless for the job, he is their version of a hero.
Stop insulting an entire class of working people because a few are uneducated voters.
meritocracy @ 12:
You've confused dumb rednecks with blue-collar workers. Demographics by state disprove your idea that lower income workers are all reich-wingers in thinking, if not voting.
me @ 102:
Or the post-menopausal jilted wife vote for Hillary. LOL!
Sorry...couldn't resist.
Fire Barnes and give him a job digging graves for the soldiers he's helped to kill. Let him get calluses and blisters on those soft pink hands of his.
these fucks should be happy i dont live in new york ebcause i would hunt them down and give them a beat down.
this shit pisses me off and they keep getting away with it. i think they need to be brought down a peg or two
Bonkers Hussein @ 91:
Hey Bonkers. No, sorry, wasn't me. I did sign up yesterday to be on one of Frank Luntz' focus groups on Fox, though. I'll let you know if I get on.
It's like the mask has come off, and they're not even pretending anymore. America is composed of a few of "us" and a lot of grubby "them," from the point of view of the Fox elites. Will Fox News viewers even grasp how thoroughly they've just been dissed, or will they keep sucking up the talking points with no effort to critically analyze what tools they're being treated as?
slippy hussein toad @ 109:
See post 108 for your answer.
Wow. This guy says basically the same thing as HP and C&L posters have been saying for a long time, and all of a sudden it's BAD. I can't count how many times HRC supporters have been denigrated and name-called on this site and HP in particular for being "downscale," "blue-collar," "uneducated," "old," "rural," "redneck," etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.
But now it's not OK to insult a part of the democratic base now that it seems HRC is probably out of it? I guess these folks will no longer be "bitter" either? Just "salt-of-the-earth" good folks instead who just happen to like "target practice" and a good dose of spiritual awareness on Sunday.
I hope these "great Americans" don't get whiplash from the "bamboozling." Sheeeesh.
Kathy in St. louis @ 103:
Not to defend meritocracy's comments, but he's referring to more than a "few uneducated voters". He is generalizing, but only to a point. We didn't get eight years of George Bush because of a "few uneducated voters", we got George Bush because millions of people voted against their own best interests for really silly reasons, such as a hatred/dislike of abortion.
I got news for those people though. If you don't like abortions, don't get one. Until I get a uterus–which I pray does not happen any time soon–I have at best a minimal say over a woman's right to choose.
Or the invasion of Iraq (invading another country: bad. Invading a country that has done nothing to us, priceless). That that nation was led by a dictator matters little because, if the United States cared all that much about that we could, I don't know, stop selling him weapons or something. My thing is we cannot pick and choose dictators. Sure Saddam was bad, but then again there are plenty of other dictators out there as well (and not all of them have millions of barrels of oil under their lands), some of whom we support most enthusiastically.
The state of our country today, run by people with a total contempt for anyone that gets their hands dirty for a living, people who insist upon foisting their religious beliefs upon the rest, are the price everyone pays for an essentially uninformed electorate (how many people think that Obama is a Muslim? Despite that he isn't, one has to ask why is it in America that it is somehow shameful to be Muslim. And let's not blame 9/11. That terrible event only brought out the fears and hatreds already festering, barely below the surface).
Maybe the "lower class" who have voted for rethugs in the past should listen to what Freddie said about them. MAYBE they'd change their (closed) minds. Maybe not.
What is it with these people anyways ? Ive never seen that guy before today but his face and body language sure scream out DUMB FUCK. See also -- Ken Mehlman, John Gibson, Sean Hannity, Tom Delay , Bill Kristol , and of course.. George Dumbya Bush. Only thing missing is the flies circling their pin heads.
dennis @ 49:
LOL Dennis.
Unsean @ 112:
For all of you working class republicans, this is pretty much what the people who are running your party think of you. If you think these people are going to do anything for you, you are delusional. They are out for themselves. From Bush on down!
Albatross@40: I've always thought the best way to finish off the conservative movement would be to prominently place a guillotine in front of every country club and gated community in America. Not necessarily to use them. Just keep them well oiled as a message.
It saves Barnes time to lump together all the people he despises. Too bad he's not living in France in 1789.
Kathy in St. louis @ 116:
We got George Bush because a lot of people, rich and poor, blue collar and white collar, voted with a nod and a wink against gay marriage, and abortion, and immigrants and a lot of other issues that really won't impact their lives the way the war in Iraq, lack of jobs, no real focus for the country as a whole impacted on them.
I live in a pretty well-to-do suburb and worked in a highly republican field until I retired. Most of the people I know voted for Bush for reasons that mean nothing to them long term. And almost none of the the people I'm talking about were blue-collar or "low class".
People vote their fears and their pocketbooks, but not in that order. It will be a long time before anyone trusts the Republicans to run this country again. The Republicans have cost them money and buying power.
Old Fred better get used to those "low-class" folks. There's going to be a lot more of them.
Dr. Acula @ 115:
I was watching it last night when he said it and I said 'Oh shit, he's gonna catch a lot of flak for that one'. Stupid thing to say. He's a little too full of himself that he doesn't have any mental mechanism for telling himself what is and isn't an insensitive remark when he's on the air.
dennis @ 108:
Gotcha! Thanks for the reply.
Chicken "Hussein" Little - Not!! @ 87:
I love the arrogance of this group of dildos. And even though Mort and Brit try to correct Fred's arrogant statement, khey know not of which they speak. Talk about low class; nothing could be a more apt description of "low class" than these guys themselves.
this is very simple, he was right about the use of euphemisms on the subject of class. It comes down to this: We are the Proletariat and they are the Bourgeoisie. These groups cannot co-exist without oppression and exploitation.
Kathy in St. louis @ 120:
Thing is, we learned all this stuff in 1929, as a society. Republicans ran this country into the ground, and the Democratic Party transformed itself into the party of the people, and rescued Capitalism from itself. And then over the next 50 years, we gradually forgot until we put a Republican right back in there with the same stupid ideas that they had in the 1920's. And three Presidential terms later we said "Ick!" and tried to change course. But by then the bastards had their sticky fingers all over everything in Washington and the guy we voted in turned out to be kind of a changeling -- acting one way when it was convenient electorally, and another way when he needed his backers -- and it backfired and we had to have YET ANOTHER Republican in to remind us that, really, "ick!"
Are we done with these jerks, finally? And can Fred Barnes have his personalized cup of Shut the Fuck Up yet?
Man would I love to run into Barnes in a dark alley!But Karma will catch up with him, sooner or later!
Barnes has said a lot of stupid things in his time (along with being one of the most sycophantic Republican/Bush shills alive), but this is just dispicable. I could see him flitting about Louis XVI's court at Versailles in 1787, sneering at the "lower classes" and all but telling them to eat cake...and then acting surprised when they stormed the palace and hauled him to the guilliotine. I wonder if Barnes will be as surprised in November when the "lower classes" exile his party to the political wilderness (and it would really sting him, since Barnes once declared that thanks to Bush, a "Republican era is now at hand," only to watch them lose Congress).
Spoken like a true republican.
Where's Lee Boyd Malvo when you really need'em?
Technically, he's correct. There's lower, middle, and upper classes.
Income is usually taken to mean from rents and property, not wages.
So technically an income tax should be on those who earn income not wages.
And you would have to admit, something conservatives would loath to admit, that there is such a thing as a class system in this country, and a vast majority of those on the top were born there.
Upper class twit of the year!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSqkdcT25ss
this needs tobe excerpted and played in campaign ads this fall.
What a perfect video to pass around to use as an example of REPUBLICAN ELITISM. Thanks FRED (You fucking low class cocksucker).
Their laughter infuses me with a profound hatred that I find it difficult to contain.
Talk about ELITISM. See that "Working Class" Faux News watchers, do you get it now? They're LAUGHING at YOU.
Listen, when someone tells you who they are. Believe them.
well...
there is a lower class in america, and it is growing. call it the working class, or the lower class, whatever, the name is unimportant. but this is NOT a reflection on said class' ethics, morals, intelligence, education, etc., it is simply the acknowledgement that our economic policies are skewed to help the few rich, and hurt the masses. and the economic policies have served to make a semi-permanent lower class of people--the majority of americans--that suffer with failing schools, cost-prohibitive healthcare, etc.
to say that there isn't a lower class, only serves to bolster the upper class' assertions that all is well, economically speaking. and we know that is not the case.
and, as a result, the lower class in expanding at an ever increasing rate.
call it the working class, or the lower class, whatever, but just make sure you do your part to ensure that this inherently unfair and unequal system comes to its inglorious end asap.
now, fred barnes is a thumb-dick. he is trying to infer that people are in the lower class due to some inherent fault of their own. this is completely ludicrous, and deserves all the scorn one could heap on the heap that barnes is
As I understand the social categorizations that give us the term "middle class", they also define "upper class" for folks making more than the middle class and "lower class" for folks that make less than the middle class. Only if you think it's a defect to be making less than the middle class, then "lower class" is probably an insult. So to term "lower class" an insult is to either misunderstand the term or look down on the less well to do.
fwacbar @ 7:
94% sounds about right. And tack on a 5.998% penalty for being such a complete asshole.
what he meant to say was white nig*ers.
Its obvious in this video that Barnes is having a cathartic experience,enjoying the liberation of simply coming out and expressing his truthful contempt for the working poor.This is what all of the helpless giggling and giddiness signifies.
The way it goes in America is this: you make less than me, so it means you are low class trash: "back off trailer trash". I find it rather comical, cuz lots of these guys have big paychecks, but NO CLASS. I'd say there is a smattering of Americans that have what one might really call "class" (and it's NOT BASED ON INCOME): the rest are wannabes, hopefuls, or simply deluded.
princess @ 108:
They were short on married reich-wing women? Good for you, princess, join that reich-wing spin machine!
Fred Barnes is the Poster Pig for all the other fascists here in America. Parasites who live and thrive off the hard work of working people both here in America and internationally. Seeing that corporate bitch laugh at the nightmare so many Americans like myself know each and everyday makes me feel angry beyond words. Fred Barnes, and those who think the way he does find their happiness in the poverty of others. I would like to silence his laughter with my bare knuckled fists.
princess @ 49:
Of course you can, princess. You defend reich-wing scum like o'racist and pedo-rush on daily basis....come on, run over to freeperville and get some talking points to defend your hero, Fred.
Kathy in St. louis @ 96:
Right, but these "downscale" types are all gonna make it big someday with Amway or by selling stuff on ebay. And once that happens. . . they don't want Democrats to raise their taxes.
Come on you unwashed hill-folk! What you need to do is find yourself a wealthy beer heiress/trollop to fly you around like her little pet, and even then, people like me, Fred Barnes, will have to bury that urge deep inside of us to spit in your Nouveau Riche palm and tell you to shine our shoes. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must ride into the night with my fellow Hellfire Club members to find a lesser human/peasant to satisfy our insatiable needs.
Ghostwolf @ 144:
If only you could get the chance.
CatAtomic @ 8:
Couldn't have said it better myself. The entire body of work that the Republicans have put together in the past 8 years has been all about enriching the wealthy and powerful - at everyone else's expense. Every bit of it, except for the small crumbs that they occasionally throw out to their base to keep the votes coming. If you want to know why Republicans support a bill, simply follow the money. It's always a gift in some way to wealthy individuals and/or corporations and all of those idiots who keep voting for them continue to foot the bill every damned time. And they NEVER catch on! It's amazing.
Fred Barnes should remember that all men are created equal. Elitists like Fred believe they are better because they have more. Wrong. God provided us with the resources to learn our life lessons and believing he is better than others earns Fred an "F".
Old Fred is just one of the "Foxtwats". Its like dealing with puppies and kitten, you have to turn them over to see what they are made of. Old Fred is just another draft dodging pussy.
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