The debate over elitism, who is and who is not, immediately followed by breathless justification of Mr. Obama’s San Francisco comments and whether or not they reflect elitism is laughable. Moments of comic relief are always welcome here.

The idea that having just paid off your school loans as proof that you’re a regular guy does not work. That is just good financial sense, why pay off low interest loans early when your money can be better utilized elsewhere.   Mrs. Obama offers her growing up in a working class neighborhood as proof that elitism does not apply. This argument is a clear disservice to her considerable intellectual prowess; surely, she can do better than that. Or can she?

Elitism has nothing to do with any of that. Elitism is a state of mind, an attitude that while difficult to define to a certainty, is invariably clear when you encounter it. It is the persistent, prevailing attitude that “I/We” know better what is good for "You" than “You” do. That as a card carrying member of the great unwashed, “You” need to just get out of the way, stop whining, and let “I/We” do what “I/We” know is best, things will be better for all of us, just trust us. 

Elitism is evidenced by the demonstration of contrary behaviors. Uncomfortable, difficult to watch engagements with bowling or slugging down a boilermaker is, well…….its just trying too hard.  There is always a message when someone is trying too hard to be exactly what he or she is not.   

More to the point, elitism is, more often than not, ideological and represents a political and social point of view. The discussion of elitism should be a discussion of which ideologies support elitist sensibilities and attitudes and which do not. 

A brief survey of this years campaign comments provides the answers. Proposals have been made by all of the Liberal candidates that we need: more government, more regulation, more redistribution of income, more social programs, more centralized control of the economy, more taxes and more profit engineering for major industries as the menu of answers. In other words, “I/We” know better than “You” do. If you will just let us get on with the economic and social engineering agenda, all problems will be solved in due course. 

Conservatives rely on a different ideological point of view; create the conditions whereby the economy can grow and individuals succeed, reduce the influence of government and allow the market to function as freely as possible. “We” trust “You” to decide what is best for “You”. Yes, you’ll fail on occasion, that is the way of the world and many great lessons are learned in failure. However, the opportunity to try again will always be there and it will always be up to “You”!

One point of view trusts in the inherent good sense of the individual and one does not.   One makes space for the individual and one does not. One looks to a model of significant government intervention and one looks to the value of the individual. One believes that globalized solutions work best and one believes that our values should prevail. 

Elitism by one or the other candidate is not the issue. The ideology that informs and guides their opinions is the issue and there can be no question as to where elitist attitudes prevail.