Courtesy of National Journal, here’s a flyer for a fun party next week in Washington, DC:

Hey y’all – get gussied up in your Sunday jorts, mullets, and fullets and come on down to the White Trash Reception.

White Trash Reception
July 19, 2012
5:30 – 9:30 pm
[address clipped]

Grab some suds and grub with Strategic Health Care! Please RSVP (rite so vittles pre-pared) to [email clipped].

Peggy Tighe, Beth Swickard, Jason Gromley, and Kyah Flickinger

“What’s the big deal?” you ask. “White trash is cool. White trash made Larry the Cable Guy a millionaire. There’s a whole channel for white trash on satellite radio. People who once bristled at the epithet ‘white trash’ have embraced it, transformed it into a badge of honor. Settle down, hayseed.”

All that is true. But it seems like something different when it’s coming from a lobbying group that helped write Obamacare. It’s one thing to be self-deprecating. It’s another thing when a bunch of rich Washington pricks are sneering at you. “Hey, we’re better than you. You’re poor. Ha ha ha! Now shut up and pay your taxes, rednecks.”

Hey, if our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters want to have their ironic little “white trash” party, fine. But just try to imagine the reaction if they held a party centered around pretty much any other ethnic, racial, or socioeconomic group you want to name. I’d be more specific, but that would be racist.

Here’s a closer look at those two dudes, being all hilarious and stuff:

I know the 1880s-bare-knuckle-boxer mustache is back in style, but is it really white trash? Isn’t it more of a hipster thing? Am I allowed to say “hipster”? Sorry.

P.S. A counterpoint from an anonymous National Journal commenter who claims to work for Strategic Health Care (all typos in the original):

Hi everyone,

I work for the company. I will not say my name, but I will say that this party’s theme is not a poke at anyone. In fact, no one will be at that party actually dressed as white trash, or even talking about ‘white trash’. There may be a few silly decorations, but this is not some back room party where we talk about poor white folks. It is a place for GOP and Democratic staffers and lobbyists to basically unwind after all the seriousness that engulfs this town. Last year, we had an equally harmless pirate themed party.

BTW, this is not a liberal organization. Far from it. Our employees range from Conservative Republicans, to a few liberals.

And FWIW, all of us are white. Many of us come from the rural midwest. Myself? I come from an impoverished, white family with conservative leanings. I am hardly racist.

This is simply a relaxing get together. We will have a few finger foods, a couple of drinks, an a lot of laughs.