Bitterness in America: The Truth Isn’t Always Pretty – Between the Lines

The petty picking at Barack Obama continued into this week’s Pennsylvania primary as Hilary Clinton continued to grasp at straws in her last ditch effort to remain relevant for the Democratic Party nomination. For the last two weeks, Clinton and pundits have used Obama’s inarticulation on the subject of economic hardship, as a reason to suggest that he doesn’t understand “working class” America. Framed in every context from elitist to defeatist, Barack’s “bitter” comment reaction is a study in relative rhetoric as many around the nation still don’t want to have an honest conversation about why working people struggle in the American economy and why jobs leave only to never return to the communities they left. Relative, in the sense that, the bitter “pill” is only relevant when someone else says it. Rhetoric, because it is a diversion from the real point that Barack was trying to make – that frustration with the economy has a universal reaction that all can appreciate. In some communities, it’s sporting outlets – in other communities, it’s violence, in other communities still, it’s religion. There is a bitterness in all of us when life isn’t what it’s supposed to be, or what we think it should be. And the truth isn’t always pretty. But truth is truth.