This is from The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell. He is a hero to the left but his wit (and subsequent conversion) was somehow lost on them.

It may help to refer to zombietime to see how his seventy year-old description still has tremendous relevancy. One of my favorite images is the F*** Middle America in the Hall of Shame. The cranks are also complemented by legions of fabulously wealthy, vacation-home owning, Ivy League educated, Prius driving, Europe traveling, NPR listening, Crate and Barrel shopping limousine liberals. It's Nancy Pelosi meets this guy.

"Question a person of this type, and you will often get the semi-frivolous answer: "I don't object to Socialism, but I do object to Socialists." Logically it is a poor argument, but it carries weight with many people. As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.

The first thing that must strike any outside observer is that Socialism in its developed form is a theory confined entirely to the middle class. The typical Socialist is not, as tremulous old ladies imagine, a ferocious-looking working man with greasy overalls and a raucous voice. He is either a youthful snob-Bolshevik who in five years' time will quite probably have made a wealthy marriage and been converted to Roman Catholicism; or, still more typically, a prim little man with a white-collar drive, usually a secret teetotaller and often with vegetarian leanings, with a history of Nonconformity behind him, and, above all, with a social position which he has no intention of forfeiting. This last type is surprisingly common in Socialist parties of every shade; it has perhaps been taken over en bloc from the old Liberal Party. In addition to this there is the horrible- the really disquieting- prevalence of cranks wherever Socialists are gathered together. Once sometime gets the impression that the mere words "Socialism" and "Communism" draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, "Nature Cure" quack, pacifist and feminist in England. One day this summer I was riding through Letchworth when the bus stopped and two dreadful-looking old men got on to it. They were both about sixty, both very short, pink and chubby, and both hatless. One of them was obscenely bald, the other has long grey hair bobbed in the Lloyd George style. They were dressed in pistachio-coloured shirts and khaki shorts into which their huge bottoms were crammed so tightly that you could study every dimple. Their appearance created a mild stir of horror on top of the bus. The man next to me, a commercial traveller I should say, glanced at me, at them, and back again at me, and murmured, "Socialists," as who should say, "Red Indians."

Labels: liberals, obama