Conservatives and the Proletariat

Following the Pennsylvania mine "miracle," I had been expecting this: conservatives have discovered the working class!

In an amusing post on "Michael Novak and the Toiling Masses," Rittenhouse Review observes:

Whenever an event or crisis occurs that involves danger, fear, manual labor, faith, and family, it’s time to duck for cover, preferably before the punditocracy -- left, right, and center -- gets its hands on the incident, overanalyzes its significance, and ruins the (preferably) happy conclusion for everyone.

Such is the case already with the dangerous and nerve-wracking rescue of nine Pennsylvania coal miners trapped underground for nearly four days. As best we can tell, the accident at the mine and the ultimate recovery of the miners drew the interest, sympathies, and prayers of a wide range of Americans. The success of the rescue effort, which required overcoming several heartbreaking set backs, was applauded by millions of Americans across the political and ideological spectrum.

It is an event that we all shared, not unlike the attacks on New York and Washington last September. But, as expected, there are some who feel compelled to call the event their own, evidence of their special virtue, and worse, to use a tragedy (or potential tragedy) to support their own political agenda.

Read on; it's a funny piece.

Also, as expected, Rush Limbaugh weighs in (two years ago, that would have been a nice joke) with this poignant and thoughtful piece of analysis:

The left constantly assaults the traditions and institutions that make this country great, as they seek to convince you to look to the federal government for every solution, rather than look to yourself. Knowing this, it was with goose bumps that I watched Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker (R-PA) talk about the families first, and say upon the rescue, "What we have here are nine rugged, individual, great Pennsylvania miners." There wasn't one liberal on the scene warping these people or telling them, "Don't destroy a blade of grass or cut down a tree just to save some petty humans."

Human life came first - and that just doesn't happen with liberals. I don't mean the rank and file liberals, not you mom and pop libs, FDR fans or family sedan guys. I'm talking about the liberal elite leaders in Washington. These people who are better than everybody else in their minds. For the John Corzines of the world, it's okay for them to score big on Wall Street doing curious things; they are entitled, special, superior. That's why they tax your income to keep you from becoming wealthy, but there's no tax on the wealth they already have.

Like their European counterparts, the Corzines of the world hate the people you saw on TV all weekend - both the rescuers and the rescued - who make this country work. They hate that this is a country where the coal miners rule. The blue-collar workers are vulgarians to the left. Why, they get their hands and faces dirty! Sure they're praised at election time, and they're said to be the backbone of America, but when it comes to policies that actually help these people, go ask most traditional Democratic voters how their lives have improved over the last couple years...

The sincerity here, coming from a man who reportedly makes $30 million a year, brings a tear to my eye.

(NB: Novak link via eschaton; Limbaugh link via Hamster.)