Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Bitterness? No.

Eugene Robinson – Shot and a Chablis – washingtonpost.com
Um, so the issue isn’t whether you regularly sit in a church pew or even occasionally go hunting, but whether you can manage to seem like the sort of person who does? I think I need a shot and a beer, too. Just give me whatever the lady’s drinking.

Thank you, Eugene Robinson!

He’s such a smart guy.

Barack Obama is a smart guy, too, but I think he had it wrong when he ascribed to bitterness the way some people cling to their guns or their religion or their bigotry.

I don’t think it’s bitterness. I think it’s fear.

We live in a rapidly changing world. Every year — every day — the rate of change accelerates. That scares a lot of people and, when people are afraid, they fall back on the things they know. If they were religious, they turn towards fundamentalism. A sense of unease around people who are “different” becomes flat-out xenophobia.

It’s not just in the United States that we see this. It’s happening all over the world.

So, while I think Obama is right about what he’s observing, he’s wrong about the cause. I suspect, though, that the fear explanation would be even less palatable than the bitter explanation.