European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 19, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse William f. Buckley critic afflicted wednesday february 19, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary with populist snobbery a adv Nunt semis v ult i h a amp Iam vvl�?~v5c\ v anti wok a at1wv o a la i w. Al two wow and Lott is amp amp i it ttys we a go. A Imbt in / a we took atm Tot noun f 1 \ it amp or wet Fly if re i v l tip a 6mt w of onaf\at�,w0w new inc. 1 Isi Sag at thus to mow i Wpm >mov4 f x�1k> of it mar a it. _ us m Fosse it sol with Wom <ourharvw., was granted that when presidential primary season sets in the least abnormality or the normality most subject to sensationalism becomes the focus of the procrustes a imperative. But surely the treatment Given to George Bush because he was surprised by something called a a bar code scanner takes the cake. I have specifically in mind the Book critic of the Washington Post Book world who wrote a column re printed in the International Herald Tribune under the Eadline a this supreme prep piness Stoops to do it will win any prize for the year s most fatuous venture in snobbish anti snobbery. To begin with Jonathan Yardley takes off on Bush a full name which is George Herbert Walker Bush. He is so Tak a by this exercise that he does it twice calling him at one Point a George Algernon Fortesque Leffingwell Bush and a Little later a George Taliaferro Belmont Cabot there Are two problems with this. The first is that George Bush did not name himself his parents did. Moreover i see no reason for assuming that a person whose parents elected to give him or her three Given names is putting on airs. Much More Likely they Are seeking to please multiple aunts uncles and in Laws. I have a sister whose first names Are Mary Margaret Priscilla Langford. So so what i Don t know whether Yardley has More names than he customarily uses. I do know that Bush is known As George Bush or when he signs documents As George h. Bush. To read snobbery into the Long form of his name suggests kindergarten training in class resentments. Speaking of which there is the a this supreme Are we really disposed to designate All graduates of Andover As supreme preppie my eyes and ears Are moderately Well trained and i Tell a graduate of Andover from a graduate of Scarsdale High school though As a matter of fact that Isnit the Case with Groton which seems to implant in its students an accent that is pretty distinctive would Yardley refer to Franklin Delano Roosevelt As an obvious preppie but what choked up Yardley a or rather unhappily did not choke him up a was the episode. Bush went to a convention of the National grocers association along the Campaign Trail and saw evidently for the first time the Means by which a can of tomatoes gets priced at the counter which is by flashing its electronic fingerprint below a beam of Light that relays the information to the Cash Register and to a computer that tallies the diminished Supply of cans of tomatoes. George Herbert Walker Bush expressed a quite Elat when president Bush expressed amazement at a supermarkets electronic checkout scanner he was ribbed for being so out of touch with american life. Commentators went on to remark that High government officials As a group with their chauffeured lives Are cushioned from reality. Fair enough. But the episode of the president and the unfamiliar supermarket suggests a broader Point a much More serious one. Upper income americans generally whether in Public or private employment live not just a better life but one quite removed from that of Ordinary families. They hardly experience the problems that weigh so heavily today on american society. And that fact has dangerous political consequences. Health care for example. The possibility of serious illness without insured care is now said to be the no. 1 worry of americans not just the 40 million without any health insurance but the Many millions More who have inadequate coverage or who Are afraid to change jobs lest they lose Protection. Bush does not have those concerns. He gets socialized Medicine care at Public expense. Congressmen and other top officials May also be treated in government hospitals. Nor is health insurance Likely to be a concern for private americans with incomes in the top 20 percent. Comprehensive coverage goes with the territory for them. Or consider education. Public schools Are among the most depressing features of contemporary life in this country turning out Young people unable to Cope with the demands of a technological society a and cultural de Surprise Over this technological accomplishment. Jonathan can it be True strike me dead if it is Yardley is so indignant he cannot verily stand it. A the Man who runs the United states of America confessed however indirectly that he a so out of touch with the daily lives of his constituents he does no to even know How they go about buying the food they put on their Bush a comes from and is utterly a part of a world in which the supermarket is where the servants ii 8� that is the statement of a True populist snob. Just to begin with does anyone suspect that for did his own shopping or Averell Harriman or Nelson Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie or for that matter John Fitzgerald Kennedy who never even bothered to keep Money in his pocket because there was always someone there to pay for it besides which he most often got it free. Yet these gentlemen Are securely situated in history As True advocates of the people. If there was a populist Breeze in the air Nelson Rockefeller would Rustle. What is the Point in putting on airs pretending to do what in fact one does no to for whatever reason incline by backward. Better off families simply opt out of that problem. In Large numbers they Send their children to private schools. Crime is a menacing fact of daily life for millions of americans. Whole neighbourhoods Are unsafe. Of course the better off May also be victims. But they increasingly protect themselves by living with alarm systems or in units with private Security guards. All this refers not just to the super Rich the Lee la Coccas whose inflated earnings Nave lately been so much discussed. The top 20 percent income bracket includes business and financial people and professionals of All kinds lawyers doctors journalists. A Friend of mine a writer and editor was at an economic conference in Switzerland recently. He is certainly not among the american Rich. But he said he realized during that meeting How people of his professional class had come to have a qualitatively different life from most americans. A for the elite life really is sweeter than it used to be a he said. A food is so much better. Hotels Are More sumptuous. The variety of amusements available the sports the travel a its a Cornucopia. For the and there a the rub it is for the few. The top 20 percent of americans now get 47 percent of the country a total income. The Bottom fifth get 3.9 percent. The Gap Between Rich and poor in America is far and away the widest in the developed world. It has widened dramatically in the last 10 years both because real incomes have grown at the top and shrunk at the Bottom to do Herbert Hoover that austere intellectual used to play Canasta four hours every sunday. So so he liked to play Canasta four hours every sunday. I have never seen a professional baseball game an episode of Dallas or of Rosc Annc or of Giraldo or of the Black woman who is alternately fat and thin i forget her name. So so i waste my time and take my pleasures in other ways. Does that make me ignorant of human anxieties problems vexations such a person As George Bush a should not be relied upon to Nave an especially acute sense of what life is like for someone Squir reling away $50 a month under the illusion that this will pay for his child a College education or his family a Protection against catastrophic what or a a. The biggest bleeding heart in Britain is the Prince of Wales and if he Ever entered a grocery store it was Given to him under a Christmas tree. By the criteria of Yardley Edward Gibbon should not Nave written about Rome so removed was he from roman life. After All lie was born 1,300 years after Rome fell. C univ Oral pros Syndicate nation s woes and because Reagan Bush tax and other policies have exacerbated the differential. America is More like the pc revolutionary France than Ever before. But luxury is not just for Royalty and a handful of Nobles. It is for the top 20 percent. That is a lot of people. And therein lie political consequences. The professionals the Rich and the upper Middle class families in the top 20 percent have the most political influence in this country. They care they vote they contribute to politicians. And quite naturally not out of evil they will tend to favor their own interest. No one should really be surprised then that tax rates on upper incomes Are so much lower in the United states than in Japan or european countries. It is not hard to understand Why George Bush talks about the need to improve Public education but puts no Money where his Mouth is. In a democracy where a substantial top slice of the population is insulated from the country a most corrosive problems it is politically very difficult to Deal with those problems. And the rest of the people the majority who live with them become increasingly cynical about government and politics. It is not a recipe for a healthy democratic society. C the now York Timos the opinions in the columns and cartoons on this Page rap is sent Tho a of the authors and ars in no Way to a cons i Dor Adas Rop the flows of the stasis and St Las or the in Ltd states gov am Manl Anthony Lewis upper crust losing touch with
