<HTML><BODY STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;"><DIV>Carl writes:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>"Over the last two weeks, several self-appointed experts analyzing the election have referred to the 'liberal elite.' Since, even though it's evidently passe to be still be one, I consider myself a liberal, I have to ask, how am I an "elitist"? I make somewhat less than a gazillion dollars a year, I've lived in the same apartment for 137 years, I wear Costco brand jeans, ditto sneakers, shirts, socks, etc. I buy Western Family products whenever possible. I drink Miller Genuine Draft, for crying out loud. I don't know any Holllywood celebrities, although I did find myself sitting a few rows behind Will Geer (Grandpa Walton) at a concert during Expo '74 in Spokane once. We didn't keep in touch, though. Call me a reprobate, that I can't deny. But an "elitist"? Please."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As a self-proclaimed liberal, Carl, you are now by definition an elitist. I'm sorry, but on this point, what the GOP's talking heads say goes. It's not what you wear; it's not what you eat; it's not about beer, or sneakers, or what you watch on TV. It's about what you think. My two favorite television shows at the moment happen to be "Dead Like Me" on HBO, which is a sly, wry, elitist-type comedy about the afterlife, and "A Car is Reborn" on TLC, which follows a mechanic step-by-step as he tears down and rebuilds an old hunk of junk. Clearly, I have one high-brow, and one low-brow, which together make me look like Mr. Spock.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Am I an elitist? Yes. Who isn't? We all look down our nose at someone. Depending where you fall on the political spectrum, it's either Ted Kennedy or George W. Bush. And yet how well do I fit the Red State definition of that word? I love my ATV. I love my .30-06 rifle. I support out troops, I honor our veterans, and, when I was 18, I wanted nothing more than to be a woman Marine. Semper fidelis! My favorite work of literature is <EM>Beowulf</EM>. Why? It's martial. It's violent. But it's lyrically beautiful, and it is an epic paean to a principle that I have believed in all of my life -- that you cannot lead from the rear. Unless you are out front, your life on the line, and you're taking the physical, mental and emotional risks, then you are not a leader. When you dodge your obligations; when you take the easy way out in the Texas Air National Guard; when you let your dad's friends set you up in business after business; when you refuse (or don't know how) to take responsibility for your failures as well as your successes, you are a coward. You are a fake. What we need in this country is Chesty Puller; what we've got is G.I. Joe.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The Right Wing seems to believe that swagger equals strength, that dressing up in a flight suit means that you're a military hero, and that speaking with a tangled tongue means that you have a firm grasp of how to talk like the "real" people. You and I might consider <EM><STRONG>this</STRONG></EM> elitist; we might consider it patronizing, condescending, and offensive, but apparently we're wrong. It's those of us who want health care for everyone, who want a livable minimum wage, a strong public education system, a secure retirement system for our elderly, and complete assurance that every vote is counted and counted equally -- we're the elitists. And perhaps the Right Wing is on to something. These are liberal values, my friend, and yet they are now so rare as to have become elitist, meaning they are embraced only by a thoughtful minority. No -- let's modify that -- a thoughtful, angry, rebellious minority. A 49% that will not be dictated to by a tyranny of 51%, a dictatorship of the snotty, the smug, the anti-gay, the anti-woman, and the anti-liberal. We will not be cowed by a gaggle of radical conservatives who are under the mistaken impression that Texas has the right to govern Massachusetts. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The lesson of <EM>Beowulf</EM> is that inevitably the dragon comes, and he eats hero and coward alike. Better to be a hero. You'll be just as dead in the belly of the beast, but history, at least, will be kind to you.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment </DIV> <DIV> <BR> <BR> </DIV></BODY></HTML><br clear=all><hr>Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : <a href='http://explorer.msn.com'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>