Time magazine article about America—by a bigoted hater of white conservatives

Joe Klein, formerly of the evil leftist magazine Newsweek, currently of the evil leftist magazine Time, took a four week, 6,000 mile car trip across the country speaking to people about their views of America. He says that “Topic A is the growing sense that our best days as a nation are behind us, that our kids won’t live as well as we did, that China is in the driver’s seat.” The online version of Time just gives the introduction to the article, you have to buy the print version to read the whole thing. I’ll pass.

What possible credibility does Klein have as an observer of America, or as a journalist of any kind, after his despicable column one month ago in which he said that the tea party is driven by racism, and in which he repeatedly described the tea partiers as “teabaggers”? The mainstream liberal media are in the sewer, but still imagine themselves la crème de la crème.

Election Road Trip 2010
Encountering Anguish and Anxiety Across America
By Joe Klein Thursday, Oct. 07, 2010

On a blistering evening in Phoenix recently, a group of prominent civic leaders met to talk about America. It didn’t take long for the conversation to get around to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. That’s what happens when smart Americans get to talking about politics these days. Topic A is the growing sense that our best days as a nation are behind us, that our kids won’t live as well as we did, that China is in the driver’s seat. (See more entries from Joe Klein’s road trip.)

This is a popular, perhaps even dominant, theme in the U.S. this season—but it doesn’t begin to describe the anguish that dominated every conversation about politics I witnessed during a four-week trip across the country. With a month to go before a crucial election and campaign ads cluttering the TV, people were in a heightened state of political awareness. I’ve covered more than a few midterm campaigns, but this one seems particularly fraught. (Comment on this story.)

I talked to dozens of politicians running for office and hundreds of voters. The voters were, with few exceptions, more eloquent and unpredictable—and, of course, candid—than the politicians. They tended to be extremely frustrated with the national conversation as presented by the news media. They tended to be more anxious than angry—although the infuriated, fist-shaking third of the electorate, the Tea Party cohort, seemed a far more powerful and immediate presence in people’s minds than the President of the United States or his party. Republicans seemed more talkative than Democrats, and more precise about their solutions: lower taxes and less spending. “People say to me, ‘I don’t like the Democrats because I don’t know what they stand for,’ ” said Lisa Urias, a Latina businesswoman in Phoenix. “I tell them, ‘I hate the Republicans because I know exactly what they stand for.’ ” (See Joe Klein talk to Southwestern residents about the economy.)

I found the same themes dominant everywhere—a rethinking of basic assumptions, a moment of national introspection. There was a unanimous sense that Washington was broken beyond repair. But the disgraceful behavior of the financial community, and its debilitating effects on the American economy over the past 30 years, was the issue that raised the most passion, by far, in the middle of the country. Many Americans also were confused and frustrated by the constant state of war since the terrorist attacks of 9/11. But for every occasion they raised Afghanistan, they mentioned China 25 times; economics completely trumped terrorism as a matter of concern. (See Joe Klein in Detroit.)

Road trips are nourishment for the mind and the soul, if not the body (given the quality of roadside food); from Huckleberry Finn to The Hangover, they have been a classic American pastime. The trip exploded my personal Beltway Bubble, which turns out to be more a state of mind and a set of habits than an actual place. Driving 6,782 miles in four weeks, I was forcibly weaned from my usual engorgement of newspapers, magazines, blogs and books. I watched no more than 15 minutes of cable news per day but listened to music obsessively. I was cleansed and transformed, a news junkie freed from junk news, and able to experience Americans as they are—rowdy and proud, ignorant and wise.

This is an abridged version of an article that appears in the Oct. 18, 2010, print and iPad editions of TIME magazine.

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James P. writes:

Klein says,

“I found the same themes dominant everywhere—a rethinking of basic assumptions, a moment of national introspection. There was a unanimous sense that Washington was broken beyond repair. But the disgraceful behavior of the financial community, and its debilitating effects on the American economy over the past 30 years, was the issue that raised the most passion, by far, in the middle of the country.”

Is it actually true that “ordinary Americans” think the financial community has destroyed the American economy, and that this creates the most angry passion? I am doubtful. If so, it is a tribute to the Left’s blame-shifting campaign and efforts to demonize Wall Street. I suspect that in reality, Americans are mostly angry about the disgraceful behavior of the government and its debilitating effects on the American economy over the past 30 years, and understand that the financial community simply responds to the rules that the government creates.

Karl D. writes:

The article should have been entitled “Joe Klein’s 19th Century Style Grand American Tour.” I guess all that needling from Glenn Beck as an elitist snob in an ivory tower really got to him? Yes, a four week whirlwind trip is truly all one needs to understand America and Americans. This should last him at least twenty years before he feels the need to take a pulse once again. There are few writers out there who disgust me as much as Klein.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 15, 2010 10:42 AM | Send