Rounding out the paper’s coverage of the Republican National Convention that concluded here September 2, the article revealed some of the arrogance and anti-working class prejudice that predominates among many middle-class supporters of John Kerry’s presidential bid. The author of “Ne’er the Twain Shall Meet,” John Tierney, planted himself at the upscale Zabar’s grocery on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. This is a section of town whose residents are known for their liberal views and where the Democrats—one of the twin parties of American capitalism—enjoy support by the large majority.

Tierney interviewed Jill Howell, “who runs a company devising strategies for marketing to multicultural populations,” as the author put it. “I don’t know anyone in the city who’s supporting Bush,” said Howell. She acknowledged that many people actually did vote for Bush in 2000 and will again in 2004, but said, “It’s amazing to me so many people out there don’t recognize the damage he’s done to the country. To a large extent they’re probably lazy and don’t want to examine what’s going on.”

“It’s a complete mystery to me how anyone could support Bush,” Leslie Zema, a dance teacher, told the Times reporter. “I just don’t know anyone like that.”

Retired college professor Charles Burkhart indicated to the Times he ventures a little more into the world than Howell and Zema do. He actually does know a couple of Republicans—in Maine, he said, but even they don’t support Bush. Burkhart figured those who voted for the president are not so much lazy as they are dumb: Bush “fools them by appealing to their gut instincts—they think he’s for family values,” he said. Through this deception, Burkhart reasoned, Bush is able to hide the fact that “this has been the most tragic administration that has ever happened to the United States.”

The notion that a majority of voters are increasingly to blame, or suffer from some form of stupidity for backing Bush, is becoming more and more pronounced among liberals, especially since Kerry slipped behind Bush in the polls after the Republican convention. Eric Linden, another Zabar shopper, a graduate student, gave this explanation for the seemingly growing support for Bush. “Honestly,” he said, “I think it’s a lack of education.”  
 
 
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