浮世離れ ― out of touch

アメリカ大統領選が引き続き過熱しています。目下の争点は如何に中産階級（middle class）の支持を取り付けるか、というところにあるようですが、オバマ大統領、ロムニー候補共に揚足取りに終始しているようです。


Washington (CNN) -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is a multimillionaire who wanted elevators for his luxury cars and whose wife wears $1,000 designer T-shirts.

Barack Obama, even before being elected president, was an academic intellectual who made millions writing books and then became a professorial media darling who hobnobbed with Hollywood celebrities and Wall Street investment bankers.

Yet each candidate accuses the other of being out of touch, unable to connect with everyday people. Just look at their gaffes last week over the ailing economy.

Romney called Obama "out of touch" on Friday after the president declared the "private sector is doing just fine." The Obama campaign hit back in a video accusing Romney of being insensitive to the middle class because "he wants to cut jobs for firefighters, police and teachers."
(Halimah Abdullah. Romney, Obama: Why they have trouble connecting. CNN. June 12, 2012.)


両政治家共に資産家、つまりお金持ちですが、自分自身のことは棚に上げてお互いを“浮世離れしている”と批判している、というところでしょうか。多くの日本の政治家もそうですが、資産情報などが公開されているのを見ると、庶民感覚との違いを感じざるを得ません。

そんなギャップ感を、”out of touch”と表現しています。

“touch”とは触れること、接触を意味しますが、“共感”や“同情”といった意味もあります。”out of touch”は、そうした“共感”が無いことを示しています。逆は、”in touch”であり、“共感”している状態を意味します。どちらの表現も前置詞”with”と共に用いられることが多いです。


Republican tax schemes since the Reagan administration have created a widening wealth gap in this country to the point where the U.S. has the worst economic disparity among industrialized nations. One wonders if these overpaid CEOs believe they are in touch with the average voter. Fortune Magazine disclosed that companies are paid an average of 200 times the average worker's salary. In economically successful countries like Japan and Germany, the average is only 15-20 times.
(San Francisco Chronicle. 1996.)