Oops, the mask just slipped again

When I attended Bishop Brossart High School in Alexandria, Kentucky, during the 1988 election season, a Brossart diehard punched me in the spleen with all his might and declared, "Only stupid hillbillies are Democrats." (That was years before I switched to the Greens, only to return to the Democrats.)

The Republican 1% today tries to portray themselves as "aw, shucks" populists, but they still let the mask slip occasionally.

Bernie Sanders just made a campaign stop in West Virginia that drew thousands. This prompted the usual Republican plen-T-plaints on news websites. One right-wing comment reads...

"Free Free Free everything free. Free food stamps, free welfare, free tuition, free healthcare, free gas, free dental, free jobs, free phones and free POONTANG. ... No wonder hillbillies loved him in W.Va. They only have three million people and two last names. All you out of work democratic miners be sure to run out and vote for Bernie or Hillary...I figure most of you are that stupid anyway. ..."

Does that tirade sound like working-class populism to you? It doesn't sound like it to me.