In April 2008, A few weeks before the Pennsylvania primary, Barack Obama was a freshman senator but at the cusp of a history-making presidential bid. In an unguarded moment, he turned the country's attention to the working class voters Pennsylvania, who had been hard hit by job losses (“Clinton”, 2008). He said" "You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing's replaced them... 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."
As expected, the remarks were instantly incendiary all over Pennsylvania as well as the Midwest and as with politics, this rival, Hillary Clinton seized the firestorm and sought to convince the voters that his utterances depicted how the presidential hopeful was out of touch and an elitist(Thomas, 2017). The comments stirred resentment in the voters who were forced to reconsider their stand about voting him and the reiteration from his rival made her campaigners handouts stickers that read" I'm not bitter". The remarks sensitized the rural marginalized and disenchanted voters in a way despite the analysts' speculation that they had given the white working class voters enough reason they so much wanted not to vote for him. This was after the state had experienced a growing momentum that was regarding his candidacy with a lot of skepticism.
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The utterances by Obama were a depiction of the political belief system is America which is powerfully composed of ethics set of tenets supporting ideologies that govern the beliefs of an individual into believing that how they believe is important than what they believe( Beachler, 2011 ). Therefore, in addressing the economic stresses that the working class has suffered, Barrack's choice of words such as "bitter clingers" could have been a promise of regenerating the communities whose jobs have been gone and despite the successive administrations, nothing has changed. Ironically, once the politicians get to the offices, they behave like the problems they quoted were resulting from forces beyond human control, trying to escape their monumental failures.
Even though the Blue-collars and the residents of the small town harbored considerable justifications that on top of the political system neglect, they were also confronted with despise from urban elites. As such, they had their firearms emotively loaded for many reasons. Among them was the belief their perception of gun control as a kind of culture and class warfare that urban sophisticates wage against them. Obama's description did nothing but aggravating the feeling of belittling ignorance, smarmy condescension and broadly refereeing it to elitism in a package. The political system cultures democratic parties of preference with the credibility of choice. For example, in 2008, any Democrat on stage drumming support for gun rights would have been treated just as Obama and told: "we don't believe you"! This is due to their representation of a populist national coalition encompassing rural whites' and blue collar as a course matter ( Goldenberg & Schor, 2008 ).
After the media firestorm that resulted after the utterances, Obama quickly apologized and said: "If I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that." This shows the stereotyping of gun owners at a time when politicians saying the unsayable became the norm as a result of a broken public language. The utterances portray what happens when incomprehension and rage boil over, and the political class runs out of sufficient trust in each other to allow them a sitting where they can dialogue about what is uniting or dividing. As children of enlightenment, the political system believes in digging below the surface to get the truth since all that the surface has is rhetoric that politicians use for cover. When the political ideas are expressed, the masses, usually want to work from the back because believing in having fundamental causes regarding the group values and affinities. Pa felt that their economic and social challenges were ignored and that there was a political failure with the previous regimes. Theirs was a symphony that appeared bittersweet and was offensive to them to have class, religion to be all wrapped up in "liberal elitism" as the small town voters’ grapple with a rough economy.
Obama's political behavior served as a wake-up call to the PA residents who later hugely got impacted by his reign, marking his legacy with a considerable impact in Pennsylvania. Obama's strong policy lead to the creation of jobs, improved infrastructure, and reformed healthcare. Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians were covered by the Affordable Care Act health insurance, while similar numbers got Medicaid exchanges(An, R & Ji, M, 2018). Penn ranked among the states eligible for health insurance availed under the legislation. Additionally, race relations took a downturn never realized in America in decades something that played out in rancor in Penn. Therefore, on small-town Pa, Obamas clinging to guns, religion and xenophobia was just an attempt to explain his resentment as political belief system expects of politicians leading to an offensive ideological bend.
References
Clinton wins Pennsylvania. (n.d.). Retrieved June 1, 2019, from: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/22/pa.primary/
An, R., & Ji, M. (2018). Obesity Prevalence and Voting Behaviors in the 2016 US Presidential Election. American Journal of Health Behavior , 42 (5), 21–31. https://doi-org.ezproxy.northeast.edu/10.5993/AJHB.42.5.2
Beachler, D. (2011). Barack Obama and the South: demography as electoral opportunity. Patterns of Prejudice , 45 (1/2), 155-175. https://doiorg.ezproxy.northeast.edu/10.1080/0031322X.2011.563160
Thomas, W. (2017, December 07). Pennsylvania Primary: Latest News, Polls On Democratic Race. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pennsylvania-primary-late_n_87069?guccounter=1
Goldenberg, S., & Schor, E. (2008, June 26). Obama supports supreme court reversal of gun ban. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jun/27/barackobama.usa
