Sunday, October 26, 2008

New Name Calling from the Right Wing

I've long been curious about the term Limousine Liberal.

According to WikiPedia, limousine liberal, A.K.A.,
  • latte liberal
  • limousine leftist
  • learjet liberal
  • lakefront liberal
  • Lexus liberal
  • MasterCard Marxist
  • parlor pink, and
  • white wine socialist
are all pejorative North American political terms used to illustrate perceived hypocrisy by a political liberal of upper class or upper middle class status.

Wikipedia traces limosene liberal back to a pejorative conservative term used to describe Republican Mayor John Lindsay and his wealthy Manhattan backers during a 1969 campaign.
It was a populist epithet, carrying an implicit accusation that the people it described were insulated from all negative consequences of their programs intended to benefit the poor, and that the costs and consequences of such programs would be borne in the main by working class or lower middle class people who were not so poor as to be beneficiaries themselves.... criticized Lindsay for favoring unemployed blacks over working-class whites.
I may be wrong, but it's always seemed to me to imply:
  • a tacit admission of a state of de facto class warfare, and
  • limousine liberals were class traitors.
It's my impression that the limousine liberal epithet has most often been thrown at the most wealthy of liberals, starting with George Soros, Warren Buffette and Edward Kennedy.

In this 2008 election year, class traitors have been uncovered in the ranks of the Republican Party. Some prominent Republicans, concerned with salvaging their personal credibility and integrity have offered criticisms of the McCain-Palin Palin-McCain ticket. They have encountered a blowback for their efforts. As a result we have a few more - more colorful epithets coined by Palinistas such as:
  • Charles Krauthammer's "wet-fingered conservatives leaping to Barack Obama"
  • Jim Nuzzo's (a White House aide to the first President Bush) "cocktail party conservatives [giving] aid and comfort to the enemy" and "dead people in the Republican Party".
  • Anonymous White House source's "Benedicts"
The Palinistas conjure themselves up to being the leaders of the Republican dynasty of the future - The 21st Century Reagans.

Well, all I can say on this point is more is to come. I felt the need for a G.O.P. program so I can track all of the present and future players. I found one from the New York Times, vintage 2005. I have placed it in MMA, for future reference.