Obama the Snob

Recently, the President seems to be under attack by people who are refering to him as an elitist because of his stating that the reason people have problems with the Democratic agenda is simply that they don't understand it. In a Boston stump speech he reportedly said, "Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now, and facts and science and argument do not seem to be winning the day all the time, is because we’re hard-wired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country is scared, and they have good reason to be.”
The Washington Post responded with an editorial entitled "Obama the Snob", which reiterated the charge from critics that he is a Harvard-educated millionaire elitist who is sure that he knows best and thinks that those who disagree just aren’t in their right minds. (A Facebook friend of mine posted a link to this article.)
So I have to wonder, what does that make me?
I believe that everyone in politics, Democrats, liberals, Republicans, moderates, traditional conservatives, modern "conservatives", etc., all have the capacity to be misinformed, disingenuous, and outright liars, and that because of that all have the ability to pass on bad information is support of their cause. I also believe that facts and data are not always on your side.
I believe that this country's greatest threat, greater than any threat of terrorism or any of our economic problems even, is the toxic hyper-partisanship promoted by the 24-hour propaganda "news" channels that constantly churn out reasons why we shouldn't trust this person, this group, this legislation, and reasons why we should be afraid...very afraid.
Well, I'm not afraid. And I don't want to be afraid. I want to be informed. And I think everyone should be informed, and if that makes me elitist, well so be it.
My brother and I have this discussion once in a while, about trying to stay not red, not blue, but purple. But the purple is made up of little dots that are red and blue, like in a Georges Seurat painting, and if the blue dots outnumber the red dots there is a decidedly blue cast to the picture.
So if facts and data support the "liberal" point of view, does that make my brother and me liberals? Our red-favoring friends seem to think so. We would prefer not, because devotion to an ideology tends to give people permission to ignore the facts and data, and thereby make poor decisions. If the dots are blue, it's not our fault.
Information is out there. And if you are failing to look for it, or selectively ignoring it because it doesn't fit your political ideal, it's not our elitist president's fault either.