How Does Barack Obama Really Feel About the Middle Class?

 Recently Barack Obama gave a speech in which he talked about the concerns of middle class citizens. He talked about job losses and the home mortgage crisis.

“You go into some of 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,” Obama, an Illinois senator, said.

“And it’s not surprising then 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,” he said.

 The people in Pennsylvania, are like the people in the Midwest, gun toting, bible thumping racists. Maybe he isn’t saying that small town Americans are all three, but he says that we are at least one of the three categories he listed. Four if you count the free trade haters he mentions, which leads me to ask this question. Didn’t Obama campaign against NAFTA in Ohio? Doesn’t that mean he has anti-trade sentiment? Oh yeah, I forgot his campaign called Canada and told the ambassador that Obama was only using “campaign rhetoric” when he spoke out against NAFTA. This statement may confirm to us that he is in favor of NAFTA after all.

 Back to the issue I wanted to talk about though, and that is Obama’s preconceived notions about middle class America and how people who lose their jobs turn bitter toward people who aren’t like them. Is this what Obama meant when he said that America needs to have a conversation about race? He is telling Americans that yes, we may be racists and we may be bitter but it isn’t our fault. It is America’s fault. But it is okay now because Obama understands what makes us the way we are. Obama can heal us from America and can heal our souls. This doesn’t sound like a conversation, it sounds like a lecture.

 This is not the first time that a member of the Obama household has said something that makes you think that he believes the middle class is filled with racists. Remember this quote from Michelle Obama?

“Because sometimes it’s easier to hold on to your own stereotypes and misconceptions. It makes you feel justified in your own ignorance… That’s America.

 My next question becomes this, is this what the Obama’s are teaching their children?

 Another question. If people who are bitter turn towards the bible, does that explain why Barack Obama turned to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright? Is Obama bitter towards America and that is why he considers Reverend Wright his spiritual leader?

 My family is a small town middle class family and I take offense to his generalization. People who feel the way that I do about immigration are not anti-immigration as Obama stated, we are however anti illegal immigration. There is a huge difference and I can’t for the life of me understand how some people can not understand the difference.

 I have been laid off five times in my life. I understand what it feels like to lose my job and not know what the future holds. At the risk of taking this post off topic, let me share with you a personal story. I think I can bring this post back on topic. It is the story about the last time I was laid off.

 Times had gotten tough where I last worked. Business was very slow and we had been through several layoffs. I started there as an electrical technician and had worked my way up into testing and troubleshooting of the equipment. After three production managers who were hired from outside quit because the CEO was very tough to work for I decided to put my name in for the job. I didn’t want to have to prove myself to a new boss again. I was given the job and now was production manager and was still doing final test.

 As I said business had become slow. One Monday a friend of the CEO was brought in as a new sales and service man. I was told to train him on how to do final test. I was told they needed a backup in case I was out. In the five years I was there I had only taken one vacation because we were so busy for much of the time. I had never taken an unplanned absence. No backup plan was necessary. I was training my replacement and I knew it. I told a few close people there that I was the next to go. A couple realized that this was probably true, the others just laughed and told me to stop the crazy talk.

 The very next Monday when I got to work in the morning I went to unlock the door to let everyone in. My key didn’t work. I knew it was my last day. So did the people who had taken my warning serious the week before. The others just said it was a coincidence. I sat outside with everyone else until the CEO got there, said hello as he gave me a short glance, and then opened the door.

 I was given the “privilege” of working about six hours all the while knowing what was coming. While I was helping a woman who worked for me, a woman who was sceptical of my impending doom, the CEO came out to the floor and said to me that he needed to see me as soon as I was done, he turned and walked away, back up to his office. I glanced at the woman and said, “this is it.” She told me to stop it.

 It was it. I was handed a paper that told me that the company was eliminating my position and that there were no jobs available that I was qualified to do. That was bullshit, without trying to brag, I could do any job in there. I was given allowed to work almost all day knowing that I was going to be laid off and then I was allowed the final indignity of walking back out to the floor and cleaning out my desk as everyone watched. The CEO couldn’t even afford me the dignity of letting me wait until everyone else had gone home. I was hurt and embarrassed.

 Was I bitter? You are damn right I was. But Obama is wrong about why I was bitter and who I was bitter towards. Was I bitter about immigrants or America or free trade? HELL NO! I was bitter towards the blue eyed, blond, white man who had just handed me a paper telling me I was no longer needed by the company. I wasn’t bitter toward immigrants. I wasn’t cursing free trade or America because I lost my job.

 But bitterness subsides and I became filled with a sense of worthlessness because I felt as though I was no longer a functioning member of society. Not to mention that I was no longer helping to provide for my family.

 Motivation takes over after the initial shock wears off and then it’s time to get back into the game. Rub some dirt on it and get ready to play.

 That is what really bothers me about Obama’s comments. I, and most like me, do not turn to guns or the bible ( he makes that sound like a bad thing), we do not use our jobless status to become a justification for racist feelings. We simply regroup and carry on. The fact that Obama doesn’t think we can rebound when we are hit with adversity really shows me that he is not in touch with everyday people. The fact that he thinks we need him to help us turn our lives around when times get difficult is arrogant.

 Today Obama has been in full Hillary Clinton type spin control mode to try and explain what he meant. It is obvious to me what he meant. He said it, he meant it. Isn’t it funny when politicians or their campaigns have to “clarify” what they mean?

 Obama said the middle class was bitter because of job loss and that the bitterness led people into the arms of guns and the bible, he also said that it led middle class Americans into justifying their apathy towards people who are not like them and into anti-immigration bigotry. It is pretty clear to me where he stands and what he thinks of middle class America. This is more than just misspeaking, there is a growing pattern of this type of thought between Barack and Michelle Obama, and who knows what they are teaching their little girls.

 The media has been focusing their attention on the fact that Obama called the middle class bitter. I find what he claims this bitterness leads the middle class into to be the real story here.

 I find this all terribly offensive.