The Negro Elite Recommends…

Do you remember how John McCain and Sarah Palin spent so much time railing against those of us who went to college, live near an ocean and prefer our animal meat already dead and wrapped in supermarket cellophane? I spent much of the Presidential Campaign ignoring everything about the Presidential Campaign, but when this "elitist" label started kicking around, I spent more time than I'd care to share trying to wrap my mind around it.

Yeah, yeah…it's all political gamesmanship – I get that. It's just that I don't understand what's inherently wrong with being an elitist, particularly when this derisive appellation is being used as a means of telling people that they're better than me.

Well, I'll be damned if anyone from rural Ohio or bum-f*ck West Virginia is better than me. I live in America's Paradise (non-island division). I married a woman with an MBA. My baby-soft hands have never done a hard day's work in their life. I am an elitist and, yes, I'm better than the residents of the GOP's "real" America.

Anyways, over the past few months I stumbled across fivethirtyeight.com and became hooked during the waning weeks of the campaign process. While ostensibly a site for statistically-based polling analysis and state-by-state campaigning updates, the writers tackled all of the big stories with a greater fact-to-opinion ratio than MSNBC, CNN or Fox News. And, that's quite a raised bar, no?

In the past week, they've addressed some of the myths relating to the passage of California's controversial Proposition 8. Their insight on the African-American angle is pretty good stuff. Find time, if you can, to read their thoughts on the recent evolution of certain swing states to a more clearly defined blue/red status and the ongoing vote counts in Minnesota and Alaska.

Over in the Los Angeles Times – or should I say "Left Angeles Times" ahahahahhaha "NObama"! – Norah Vincent writes a compelling piece on NOT voting in this past election and what can only be described as "voter's remorse".

Finally, Newsweek has a ginormous seven-part piece on the entire Democratic and Republican campaigns from beginning to end. The whole thing is about two years long (in both time and text) but, it's absolutely terrific.

Just like me.