The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
The Politics of Condescension
…Check out this column from the New York Times’s Gail Collins:
Right now you are probably asking yourself: “What would it be like to live in a place with an unemployment rate of 1 percent?”
Me, too! So I went to Williston, N.D., to find out. There are certain things that journalists do as a public service because you, the noble reader, are probably not going to do them for yourself–like attending charter revision meetings or reading the autobiography of Tim Pawlenty. Going to Williston is sort of in this category. The people are lovely, but you’re talking about a two-hour drive from Minot.
OK, we realize she’s probably trying to be cute by acting like an exaggeratedly stereotypical East Coast elitist. But the stereotype comes across more clearly than the exaggeration.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
NOTE: Mr. Taranto is covering the Democratic National Convention this week. Today’s excerpt is from the 7/26 BOTW archives.
