Uneasy Rhetoric

There is a rumor going around that a Maître d’ in a restaurant in New York refused to seat the Bush twins, telling them that the restaurant would be full for the next four years.

I have to admit, I thought “right on” when I first read that. I’ve had a minor comeuppance, however. The excellent blog Waiter Rant points out that such actions, whether true or not, feed into a perception of the blue states that only helps to widen the divide socially and politically:

So what happens when it comes time for him to vote? Does he cast his ballot for the Democrat who has some good ideas that could make his life easier? No. He votes Republican. Why? Because he can’t stand snobs like that fictitious maître d’.

People will act counter to their own interests if they are made to feel like charity cases or culturally inferior. Republicans plug into that blue collar anti Brahmin rage very effectively. That’s why Bush won. That writer of that rumor might as well have been Karl Rove.

I’ve been bemoaning the fact that our political discourse has been reduced to a school-yard argument, and the waiter nicely sums up why this is bad. Unfortunately, it is far easier to call people names than it is to have an intelligent conversation.

Not that Waiter is above the fray. His blog is no stranger to the kind of petty vengeance this rumor/reality demonstrates.