New York Times Op-Ed opinion columnist William Kristol compared Barack Obama’s remarks about the bitterness of white working class voters to Karl Marx, as their feelings lead them to nationalism, religion and guns . "The Mask Slips" published New York Times on April 14, 2008.
"Obama was explaining his trouble winning over small-town, working-class voters: “It’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
This sent me to Marx’s famous statement about religion in the introduction to his “Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right”:
“Religious suffering is at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of a soulless condition. It is the opium of the people.”’
Interesting. I made similar remarks earlier on GroundReport.com in the article Obama’s Remarks on Small Town White Voters Draw Fire https://www.groundreport.com/Politics/Obamas-White
"t should be pointed out that Obama’s interpretation of voter "bitterness’ pointing them to guns, nationalism and religion is what Marxists call "false consciousness."
Kristol is more certain about what he calls Obama’s cyniccal manipulations.
You read it here first on www.groundreport.com. -30-
Also on Obama see https://www.groundreport.com/US/Obama-The-Same-Old-New-Thing
(About the author: Richard Cooper is the export/import manager of a Long Island, NY manufacturing firm. He was a Ron Paul delegate in the February 5th primary. Previously, he served as chair of the Libertarian Party of New York www.ny.lp.org)