Published: October 12, 2008 01:26 am            

DUVALL: We’re really not stupid

Since when do “working-class” people have to sound like idiots? Thanks to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s incessant aww-shucks routine, all those elitists from New England and California must think we have no understanding of English.

I winced constantly during last week’s vice presidential debate every time Palin threw out her hokey hockey mom wink at the camera. And her June Cleaver impression needs work. It’s a good thing there isn’t a second vice presidential debate — she might well have baked cookies for the audience.

Why do politicians insist on pandering to people they so obviously don’t understand? Just because we work at restaurant lunch counters and on factory assembly lines doesn’t mean we don’t read newspapers and have informed opinions on the issues of our day. We can handle adult discourse. We understand what it means when you talk about complicated issues facing our country and the world.

We don’t need color-coded flow charts to understand the economy is in the dumper. No condescending language necessary for us to get that there are evil terrorists in the world who seek to do us harm.

Every blue-collar man and woman wants to see someone as president who understands their problems. We don’t necessarily have to have someone who’s doing a slap-stick routine (and a poor one) to impress us. Really, do they think we’re deciding who our favorite of the Three Stooges is?

“But Gee Whiz, Governor Palin, how are we gunna get outta dis mess with all the numbers always goin down on the Wall Street?”

Would she like it if members of the media always patronized her by asking questions like that?

Of course our would-be moose-dresser-in-chief is going to keep up this routine. “The gloves are off and the heels are on,” she’s become fond of saying.

Obviously it’s been a while since she worked one of those “working class” jobs — you don’t see many waitresses in three-inch heels.

Of course, Palin isn’t the only one guilty. And there are people, sadly enough, who are being fleeced by this routine. People who still think she’s folksy and scrappy and neat-o.

Those numbers are dwindling, though. Increasingly, polls show Palin as a drag on McCain’s ticket. After her initial wave of interest, she’s turned into a political sideshow. A rubber-necking of sorts follows her around now. We’re all waiting for the other heel to drop — for her to say something so monumentally dumb that Dan Quayle will finally be able to relinquish the crown of dumbest person ever on a national ticket.

You know, something like Palin not being able to name something really common, like the name of a newspaper. Oops!

Although, that particular gaffe probably wasn’t all that surprising to most. Somehow I didn’t see her pouring over that day’s Le Monde with her morning coffee.

Of course the other candidates are guilty too, just to a lesser extend. Barack Obama’s constant refrain of being brought up in a single-parent household is wearing thin. Joe Biden’s constant references to his Scranton roots — like he’s actually been back there in years.

So please, politicians, I beg of you — stop treating us like idiots. We’re not. We might not have a million dollars and live on some hoity-toity street in lower Manhattan or Northwest Washington, but we’re not stupid.

And yes, we do know when we’re being treated like we are.

Managing Editor Eric DuVall’s column appears every Wednesday and Sunday. Contact him at 693-1000,

ext. 112 or by e-mail to duvalle@gnnewspaper.com.

        

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