Interesting story. But here's the thing -- a pickup is a symbol more than a vehicle. And by talking down to the "truck" President Obama seemed to be falling back on his earlier errors of being disrespectful to a broad element of Americans. Now I doubt that was the intention but we Liberals should notice and be careful not to "dis" by accident!
"It wasn't quite the gaffe heard round the world, but it came close: Barack Obama dissed an American icon — the pickup truck. More precisely, the green 2005 GMC Canyon driven by Scott Brown, the Republican underdog in the Massachusetts special election.
Forget the truck," Obama said during last Sunday's visit to stump for Martha Coakley, Brown's opponent. "Everybody can buy a truck." It was pretty much curtains from then on for Coakley, who had already miffed voters by calling a much loved Red Sox pitcher a Yankee fan.
Brown himself also seized on the remark in his victory-night speech. "When he started to criticize my truck, that's where I drew the line," he joked, adding when Obama called to offer congratulations, he offered to "drive the truck down to Washington so [the President] can see it.""
5 comments:
A pickup is a symbol mostly to those who don't own one. To people who own them - I do - and grow up where pickups are ubiquitous - I did - they are just vehicles. Do you get out in rural Canada much?
lrC
i must agree what it says.
I agree a pickup is a work vehicle. And maybe for farmers it is nothing more. (In fact, my grandmother had a truck that she didn't like driving precisely because she needed it to deliver stuff from her farm). But even in Canada pickup trucks, like cowboy boots, have a meaning beyond the merely practical. And that meaning cannot be ignored without penalty.
What meaning? That owning a pickup truck means one subscribes to a certain work ethic and self-sufficiency? Or do you subscribe to the Democrat view that it's a symbol of racism? The symbolism could be a big "screw you" to the effete, elite snobs who inhabit so many of our urban cores. But that's probably just a bonus to the ability to haul away junk or bring home a couple flats of drywall.
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