Stephen Harper and the white trash vote.

By way of setup, start with some 2002 Paul Krugman. Sound disturbingly familiar? It should, given Stephen Harper's increasingly public and contemptuous dismissal of all them high-falutin', hoity-toity, book larnin' types. You know the ones I'm talking about ... the ones in their "ivory towers" , and those pissy "government-subsidized whiners."

Let's all finally accept the obvious: Harper has simply given up trying to appeal to anyone logically or intellectually, and is now blatantly targeting what has been his natural demographic all along -- Canada's pig-ignorant, illiterate, mouth-breathing yobs (Hi, Kate! You too, Hunter!). And, not surprisingly, Harper has lurched into the same yokel-pandering rhetoric as his hero George Dubya, in describing his base as "ordinary people" (emphasis added):

"I think when ordinary working people come home, turn on the TV and see a gala of a bunch of people, you know, at a rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers claiming their subsidies aren't high enough when they know those subsidies have actually gone up - I'm not sure that's something that resonates with ordinary people," Harper said during a campaign stop in Saskatoon...

Every group can't get everything it wants, he added. "Ordinary people understand we have to live within a budget." ...

"We're listening to ordinary people," Harper said in rebuttal to the body of academic research.

That's right, Mr. and Mrs. Canada ... "ordinary people" being code for those of you who are still such intellectual illiterates that you'll happily suck up the latest scientific idiocy that you're spoon fed, and who are mentally deficient to the point where you can still be cowed by spooky stories of nasty Islamojahidafarians and the like. In short, that would be almost the entire membership of the Blogging Tories and their frothing, deranged, slack-jawed readers.

And just for the entertainment value, we should start a pool on when Harper finally jumps the shark on this one and refers to his base as "real Canadians." I haven't noticed that yet so it might have happened already but, really, can it be that far off?

P.S. If anyone can point out exactly when the members of Canada's right-wing Fraser Institute came down from their "ivory towers" and became just "ordinary people," drop me a line. 'Cuz I'd really like to know.

P.P.S. Can you say "class warfare," boys and girls? I knew you could.