Friday, August 22, 2008
McCain's houses
I try not to pay attention to the talking points, but this really does cut deeper than the usual nonsense. It's not simply his inability to count the houses; the real problem is that he didn't even notice how weird it is. He and his wife live in an elevated and isolated circle of super-rich plutocrats, where "I'll have my staff look into this" must be a normal thought. He clearly doesn't know anybody who could even remind him that ordinary Americans don't live this way.
An ordinary American might have trouble answering "How many cans of soup are in your cupboard?" or "How many shirts do you own?" In the McCain world, houses are in the same category.
I find it especially galling because I went through considerable trouble and pain to acquire and keep my ONE tiny house, and I'm proud that I managed to own it free and clear. The Americans who went through similar trouble, only to find that they now own ZERO houses because of job losses or unwise investments, must find it even more galling.
= = = = =
Literary note: I started to write "How many cans of soup do you own?" but realized the sentence is somehow ungrammatical, or perhaps unsemantical. Cans of food don't quite count as possessions, because you don't expect to sell them. You expect to be able to sell a house or car, or even a shirt at a garage sale, but you simply don't resell food, and you certainly don't hold it as a collectible heirloom. You eat it.
¶ 8:07 PM
An ordinary American might have trouble answering "How many cans of soup are in your cupboard?" or "How many shirts do you own?" In the McCain world, houses are in the same category.
I find it especially galling because I went through considerable trouble and pain to acquire and keep my ONE tiny house, and I'm proud that I managed to own it free and clear. The Americans who went through similar trouble, only to find that they now own ZERO houses because of job losses or unwise investments, must find it even more galling.
= = = = =
Literary note: I started to write "How many cans of soup do you own?" but realized the sentence is somehow ungrammatical, or perhaps unsemantical. Cans of food don't quite count as possessions, because you don't expect to sell them. You expect to be able to sell a house or car, or even a shirt at a garage sale, but you simply don't resell food, and you certainly don't hold it as a collectible heirloom. You eat it.
¶ 8:07 PM
