Hiding and avoiding as political tactic (and more on Fetterman versus Oz)
In 2020, Joe Biden’s approach to campaigning was to keep an extremely low profile. His surface excuse was COVID, but it obviously wasn’t the real reason. The real reason was that, the more we saw of Joe, the more apparent it would be that he was cognitively challenged and lacking the required energy to function well as president. So it made sense to keep him under wraps as much as possible.
He got away with it for a number of reasons. One was that a lot of people had been primed to hate Donald Trump and would have voted for literally anyone who opposed him. Another was the full cooperation of the MSM (including the laptop coverup). Another may have been voter fraud on the part of the Democrats, although we’ll never know the extent of that. Still another was that a lot of Obama voters were favorably inclined towards him because he had served for eight loyal years as Biden’s VP, and so some of that Obama glow had rubbed off on him in their eyes.
And so Joe Biden became president while mostly hiding in his basement. And it seems like quite a few Democrat candidates in 2022 are following that playbook, to the best of their ability now that COVID has diminished as an excuse. The form it’s taking now is to haughtily refuse to debate opponents.
One such candidate is Katie Hobbs of Arizona:
Arizona Democrat Katie Hobbs: “This debate about debates is over.”
Reporter: “Standing up to your opponent is one aspect of leadership. And you didn’t debate in the primary either…why no debates this go around?”
Hobbs: “It’s a distraction.” pic.twitter.com/XwEcsKlJRI
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) October 19, 2022
Hobbs’ decision has been criticized even by Democrats. But it probably gives Hobbs her best shot, because her opponent Lake is a formidable debater who would probably win such a one-on-one exchange.
And then there’s John Fetterman, who is in a class by himself. He tried and tried to avoid debating Oz, but finally committed to one debate that is scheduled to take place next Tuesday – although early voting has already been going on in Pennsylvania:
The Oz statement said the Republican would agree to the debate under three conditions: if the moderator explained to the audience that Fetterman was using a closed-captioning system, if the practice debate did not include real debate questions and if the debate was 90 minutes instead of 60.
“If those three reasonable requests are acceptable to the Fetterman campaign, then we accept the debate invitation on October 25th” the Oz campaign said in a statement, continuing to slam Fetterman for agreeing to only one debate.
Like them or not – and I don’t like them – debates have become one of the rites of passage of political contests these days. Shying away from them with a bunch of lame excuses doesn’t ordinarily enhance a candidate’s appeal. But for some politicians, the risks of debate appear to be worse than the risks of refusing to do so.
NOTE: I’m not exactly sure where to place this tidbit of news, but I guess right here is as good a place as any:
President Biden raised eyebrows Thursday when he said that Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s wife would be a “great lady in the Senate” — appearing to imply that the Democrat would be unable to serve due to his poor health.
“John, thank you very much for running, I really do appreciate it,” Biden said at an event in Pittsburgh. “And Gisele, you’re going to be a great, great lady in the Senate.”
And then there’s this:
Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman has said he thinks of the 1994 classic “The Shawshank Redemption” when he’s deciding whether to vote to free criminals as head of the commonwealth’s Board of Pardons.
Fetterman, who has been hammered by his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz, over his soft-on-crime approach, was asked during an interview how he determines whether a person who has committed first-degree murder deserves clemency.
Fetterman answered that it was a “very simple choice.”
“I believe the perfect metaphor is ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’” Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor said in an interview with online news outlet Semafor that was published Tuesday. That’s a touchstone that virtually everybody has seen, everybody understands.”
“I’ve asked people, ‘Would you want Morgan Freeman to die in prison or not?’ And I’ve never met anybody that says, ’Yeah, he should die in prison. I would have voted to have him die in prison,’” added Fetterman.
Wow. Just wow.
Oz’s response:
“Does Fetterman know that Shawshank Redemption is … a movie … with actors? And that this is real life — and these are brutal murders?,” Oz said on Twitter, linking to articles reacting to Fetterman’s analogy.
That these two people are even close in the polls is a depressing fact. In one recent poll, Oz is leading among Independents (51 to 44), men (54 to 41), and rural voters (60 to 41). Fetterman is leading among “Shawshank Rebellion” fans.
No, I just made that last sentence up. Actually, Fetterman is leading with women (56 to 38), college-educated voters (56 to 41), and urban (63 to 32) and suburban voters (50 to 44). Black voters support Fetterman 84 to 8, while white voters support Oz 51 to 46.
Neo notes Brandon’s ongoing cognitive decline: “President Biden raised eyebrows Thursday when he said that Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s wife would be a ‘great lady in the Senate’ — appearing to imply that the Democrat would be unable to serve due to his poor health.”
Well, Brandon raised eyebrows again on Friday when asked whether “Doctor” Jill wants him to run for reelection in 2024: “Dr. Biden is for it?” [the reporter] asked as a follow-up — but was met with a long, awkward silence as Biden appeared to glance toward the floor in the sit-down interview that aired Friday night.
“Mr. President —,” the interviewer eventually interjected.
“Dr. Biden thinks that — my wife thinks that I, uh — that we’re doing something very important,” Biden finally said.
https://nypost.com/2022/10/22/biden-appears-to-zone-out-when-asked-what-wife-jill-thinks-about-him-running-again-in-2024/
It’s hard to say at this point whether the duck-and-cover tactic of debate avoidance will help or harm other politicians this year, but Biden’s hiding in his bunker in 2020 may prove to be his eventual undoing: “All polling points to Biden’s majorities in the House and Senate being wiped out come the November midterm elections. When that happens . . . [media] innuendos and grumblings for Biden to step aside will become full-bore primal screams, and he won’t be able to survive them.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/patriotism-unity/the-media-bail-on-biden
“When that happens”…the EOs emanating from “Biden”‘s “office” will multiply like rabbits.
I look for Biden to be out of office sometime in January or February of next year. IMO the only reason he is still in office is that getting him out now would bring even more negative attention to the Dems before the mid-terms which they can ill afford.
Re: The Shawshank Redemption
I don’t remember the movie well, but I didn’t care for it even at the time. The happy ending seemed tacked-on and silly.
Checking wiki, it seems neither the book nor the movie explain why Morgan Freeman is serving a life sentence. However, he is paroled after 40 years.
I don’t get Fetterman’s point at all beyond most people wouldn’t want to see a beloved actor be imprisoned for life.
No, I just made that last sentence up. Actually, Fetterman is leading with women (56 to 38), college-educated voters (56 to 41), and urban (63 to 32) and suburban voters (50 to 44). Black voters support Fetterman 84 to 8, while white voters support Oz 51 to 46.
What I find interesting about it is that each of the political parties in our time is much less internally variegated on policy questions than was the case 50 years ago. At the same time, voting appears to be more and more an identity affirmation and people are less and less influenced by the properties of particular candidates.
I think perhaps the panel shows Richard Nixon did in 1968 might be a better format to inform any voter who would be influenced by the answers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Dg6yfOpYYY&t=1543s
Inexplicably, Martha McSally the Republican candidate who lost to Sinema and Kelly in 2018 and 2020, declined to debate either. I knew Martha and knew that she was very sharp on policy. She either got very bad advice or chickened out. Hobbs is a very poor speaker and dull and I don’t blame her but it will cost her the election. Kelly is also dull but has a huge funding advantage. He has been running thousands of negative ads on Masters since last summer.
I don’t like debates–but only because they end up being the moderator and the Democrat candidate ganging up on the Republican candidate who was stupid enough to agree to a format that has been stacked conservatives for many years. I also don’t like the shouting and talking over answers.
How about this for a debate format, instead? I’d look forward to watching such a debate:
1. Each candidate is in a sound isolated booth. They can hear, but can only speak if their microphone’s on.
2. Each candidate gets 45 minutes to talk. Use a chess clock and one candidate has the floor at all times (other than when questions are being asked).
3. The “moderator” reads public opinion polling questions (Rasmussan, Gallup, etc.). The moderator is offscreen and does nothing but ask the short, pointed question (e.g., What restrictions, if any, do you support on abortion?). Then the moderator is done until it’s time for the next question.
4. Candidate 1 answers (take as long as you want, the clock’s running). Candidate 2 responds. Candidate 1 has a one minute rebuttal opportunity. Next question. Repeat.
5. The questioning continues until a candidate runs out of time. At that point, the other candidate is asked questions and has a chance to give unrebutted responses. When the second candidate runs out of time, the debate is finished.
Generating the questions would require negotiation. I’d suggest extracting 100 questions from recent polls. But this will be difficult. Adults ought to be able to agree on questions that address the concerns of the electorate (of course, many candidates will not wish to have to answer in short sentences and small words). But maybe I’m kidding myself.
In my view, this type arrangement would get rid of my biggest objections (the moderators being part of the show and the bullying behavior exhibited by both Trump and Biden, for instance). You could see how each candidate chose to use his/her time and evaluate how they behave.
Do those people who are pro-Fetterman NEVER watch TV or the news or even surf the Internet?
What is WRONG with people?!??
I was married to a ‘well-educated’, White woman from a well-off ex-urb for over a decade. This kind of cross-referenced polling is exactly why I will NEVER do anything so stupid and destructive to my well-being, my progeny’s well-being, and my own life ever again.
I’m done with the Democrat demographics well defined herein.
Finished.
Neo, if you’re ‘Man Enough’ to be even morning coffee-group ‘friends’ after high-minded, culturally elevated, fine arts, classical music, and ballet events with these kinds of… creatures… more power to you, but I am out.
There is no more talking to that demographic for me.
No more deals.
They are completely insane and are weaponizing their insanity with State violence.
Sounds about right, unfortunately….
(Of course it helps if one has an insane media and info-tech drumming up that insanity, even as they desperately try to hide, censor, ignore and deny any and all instances of it!…And yet, even so, the insanity contnues to pop up, indiscriminately, awfully, weirdly, gruesomely, in spite of everything they do to hide it…which means that if it’s still “visible” in spite of the Democrats & Friends concerted, unstinting efforts, just imagine how much more of it is out there….)
Neo’s poll data show America is in terrible, irrational distress: “Actually, Fetterman is leading with women (56 to 38), college-educated voters (56 to 41), and urban (63 to 32) and suburban voters (50 to 44). Black voters support Fetterman 84 to 8, while white voters support Oz 51 to 46.”
College-educated people prefer Fetterman?
Marxists are at our doorstep.
Keep in mind, though, that these are…POLLS—questionable at the best of times and especially now that Republican supporters are justifiably leery of responding to them…
OTOH, if Oz wins, does that mean that Russia’s involved?
P.S. Good to see your comment!
Wow. Just wow.
Amen, and a chuckle. Idiocracy may not have arrived just yet, but clearly Fetterman hopes it has. I agree with huxley on Shawshank, and always thought it was highly overrated.
Giselle Fetterman is quite full of herself and an opportunist.
Those who imagine that after the midterms, Biden will be escorted off the stage are implying that the democrat leadership imagines that a Pres. Kamala Harris will make a viable Presidential candidate in 2024. It’s not that the dems don’t want to get rid of Biden, it’s that they can’t. Newsome is their golden boy.
The Shawshank Redemption is a nearly perfect movie. And a young Morgan Freeman definitely belonged in prison. Age leached out of him his anger. Fetterman hasn’t the acumen to grasp the difference, just as he fails to grasp the difference between fiction and reality. But then he’s a democrat and that goes with the territory.
” . . . implying that the democrat leadership imagines that a Pres. Kamala Harris will make a viable Presidential candidate in 2024.” [Geoffry Britain @ 7:10]
It may have something to do with who is more controllable moving forward (i.e., which one will f*** things up less) Under the present circumstances, I can’t see the Dem power structure wanting Biden in office any longer than necessary, he has proven to be a disaster and would continue to be a sure disaster leading up to 2024 especialy as he continues to rapidly deteriorate. At least Harris will give them bragging rights (the first woman president) and some positive spin as she blathers away. Harris might be stupid, but Biden is stupid, angry, and verbally vengeful (e.g., Biden’s comment about having improved the economy he was handed). This is a lousy combination leading up to the next presidential election. He has already proven himself to be a failure in the eyes of many (especially independents).
I don’t think they expected either one of them to be this bad. They did it to themselves and it couldn’t have happened to a more desrerving bunch of politicians.
Furthermore, can anyone imagine Biden being in office in early 2024 after a 4 year disastrous run and making off-the-cuff comments about supporting Newsome or any Democrat candidate?
It boggles the mind.
Fetterman was anything but a roaring success as mayor of Braddock: in the words of a reporter, “Fetterman’s failures in Braddock are well-documented. It was a struggling town with not much going on when he got there, but by all accounts, he didn’t do much to help anyone but himself over more than a dozen years in office. In fact, it seems he somehow managed to make things worse, because by failing to follow through on his promises, he broke the spirit of the Braddock people and incited the anger of those who were initially motivated to vote for a candidate who offered hope.
Even voters who were initially captivated must realize Fetterman isn’t capable of doing the work that matters, such as fixing the economy (he lived on his parents’ dime until he was forty-nine) and keeping communities safe. If you don’t believe me, just spend five minutes walking the streets of Braddock, Pennsylvania, the most damning Dr. Oz ad of all.”
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2022/10/21/the-town-that-john-fetterman-governed-for-12-years-as-mayor-is-still-a-hell-hole-n1638857
“Mayor John” seems to be shaping up to be another “Mayor Pete”– i.e., a vastly overrated mediocrity at best.
Remember the other people that Pennsylvania has been electing. It might help.
Remember Arlen Spector whose claim to fame was defending Ira Eihorn, who was a murderer of his girlfriend.
His most famous case, however, came in 1979, when he was in private practice and thinking about running for the Senate. A man named Ira Einhorn, better known as the “Unicorn,” had been arrested for the murder of his girlfriend; she had been missing for a year and a half when police found her mummified corpse squeezed into a trunk hidden in Einhorn’s closet.
Einhorn was a celebrated leftist and is credited with helping found Earth Day. He also had strong ties to Philadelphia elites — a group of people Specter was cultivating for his prospective Senate campaign when he agreed to become Einhorn’s lawyer.
Then
Then began the parade. One after another at Einhorn’s bail hearing, his supporters took the stand in his defense. A minister, a corporate lawyer, a playwright, an economist, a telephone-company executive. They couldn’t imagine Einhorn’s harming any living thing. Release of murder defendants pending trial was unheard of, but Einhorn’s attorney was soon-to-be U.S. senator Arlen Specter, and bail was set at a staggeringly low $40,000 — only $4,000 of it needed to walk free.
Einhorn fled to France which allowed him to live free for 16 years. They refused extradition because of the death penalty. I have forgotten why they finally let him be extradited. He had been sending postcards to the Philly police for years.
“Fetterman leading [with] college-educated voters” … by 18 points no less.
Words fail me.
Hobbs is smart to refuse to debate Kari Lake. Lake would trounce her.
I’m very impressed by Lake. She is a female Trump but much smoother. She worked in TV for many years and knows how the “sausage” is made. She has no fear of the MSM because she knows they are losing viewers and readers. (She reads the ratings.) Thus, they’re not as powerful as they once were. More GOP candidates need to wake up to this.
If she can do what she plans as governor of Arizona, (“Kari Lake: Arizona Will Do What Washington Won’t – Finish the Wall and Defend Our State.”) I think she has a future in national politics should she choose to seek it. Keep an eye on her.
It’s the format of candidacy for our time. Biden campaigned from the seclusion of his basement, claiming pandemic excuses. And this year, a double-handful of Congressional Democrats, some of them in office for a very long time, are also avoiding a public airing, avoiding debates or hostile audiences entirely and choosing instead to stick with carefully crafted interviews or discussions in friendly, secured territory – or limiting their campaigning to just making statements in isolation of any possible rebuttal. Watch my commercial and vote for me!
After all, we’re in the TikTok age. It’s all about ME, influencing. And many in the public seem to be buying into this new product-advertising style of politics. Unless they’re mad. And that seems to be landing in the provinces of the challengers, who have the public riled up behind them, and are demanding answers and debate opportunities and contests of the minds and ideas.
For the life of me I can’t understand why anybody would buy the shtick of a politician that demands complete control of their airspace, and an uncontested forum for their message. Life is too damn easy in the US! But: We are humans, dammit – we’re used to battle and heated conflict and that merit and mettle are an honest look at character, they determine who wins the contest. Don’t tell me you want political and social power without proving to me first that it would be in capable hands. And if you can’t argue convincingly with an opponent, how can I have any faith that you would prevail in a Parliamentary setting?
@ PA Cat > “Fetterman was anything but a roaring success as mayor of Braddock: in the words of a reporter”
I read the story by Teresa Mull that Rick Moran comments on. It’s pretty dismal.
However, I have not yet seen anyone explain how he kept getting re-elected for another 3 terms, if he was so bad. So I went to Wikipedia:
My first, admittedly uncharitable, response is that the citizens of Braddock got what they voted for, good and hard.
Wikipedia, of course, puts out all the best spin they can on the things Fetterman did accomplish, and plays down the negatives, so maybe things looked better “on the ground” than they do from this late vantage point.
At least, they looked good enough to win him the spot as Lt-Gov.
However, the Democrats seem to be specializing in elevating failures to higher offices, almost as if they are taking the Peter Principle as a recommendation rather than a warning.
“…Giselle…”
That’s DR. GISELLE to YOU!
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
“… Biden will be escorted off the stage…”
Biden is MOST useful where he is at the moment (and will be for the foreseeable future).
Ditto for Harris (she may be even more useful, actually).
Fentanyl and all, word salad and all, destruction of the country and all….
If there is any “escorting off the stage” to be done, my hunch is that the happy, happy couple—that pair of strategic dunces—will be escorted off the stage TOGETHER under circumstances that are probably best left to the imagination…
File under: But Hu knows?
I am heartened by the number of good candidates the GOP is fielding this year, but I am stunned and saddened by the number of really sub-par candidates who are running for various offices under the Democrat banner.
Biden and Harris are the standard bearers, or course, (or is it “race-to-the-bottom” candidates?). but others such as Hochul, Fetterman, Whitmer and Hobbs, just as quick examples, make me wonder if the Democrat party doesn’t care or just can’t attract qualified candidates. Really, is this the best they can do?
Even more shocking is how can so many of these really abysmal candidates be doing so well in public opinion polling? It will be instructive to see how accurate these polls turn out to be. This election might be not only a red wave, but also the death knell for the public opinion polling industry.
“college-educated”
Haven’t been a college student in more than half a century. My kids graduated in 2000. So they’re in their mid-forties. Lots of room for younger college grads behind them and whatever I learned about college from them.
So. What’s going on?
To the extent I can recall any classes other than the hard sciences…there’s plenty of room for profs to promote classism. If so, one can be seduced into various world views. Believe this and you’ll be one of the elect, superior to the rest. Maybe it’s gotten worse?
Maybe you have to believe even nuttier, further-left stuff to make yourself believe you’re superior?
As a general rule, when discussing politics and policies, people are not discussing their own areas of expertise. We’re all in the same arena with the same access to, you should excuse the metaphor, the same weapons. IMO, this reduces the supposed benefit of a college education vis a vis a person without.
But the college-educated seem to….like Fetterman. Those who are supposed to know more?
That last paragraph. This is why I am always pounding the voter responsibility drum. We hold voters above any responsibility for their choices and…poof…here Pennsy is.
Honestly I can’t believe that Fetterman is all that appealing to women. To me, he gives off a dangerous and unstable vibe, like a derelict in ragged and dirty clothes, holding up a cardboard sign asking for money. Seeing someone like that, I’d be hastily rolling up the windows and making certain the car doors are all locked.
but others such as Hochul, Fetterman, Whitmer and Hobbs, just as quick examples, make me wonder if the Democrat party doesn’t care or just can’t attract qualified candidates. Really, is this the best they can do?
Hochul and Whitmer are standard-issue Democratic pols, just moreso. Dribs and drabs of time in ordinary occupations followed by some years on the staffs of elected officials followed by public office. Hochul lasted less than a year as a working lawyer (though, curiously, has kept up the dues to remain an attorney in good standing in DC). Whitmer’s career in law was of similar duration.
Hochul’s involvement in Democratic politics began during her time at Syracuse University ca. 1978, and was originally avocational. She appears to have repudiated her suburban Catholic upbringing around that time. She, her husband, her son, and her daughter all have nomenklatura occupations. She has many siblings. Would be interesting to look at their biographies, and to hear what her mother and father had to say about how she has lived her life.
Whitmer’s a half-generation younger than Hochul. She grew up in an affluent and well-connected family, which Hochul did not.
“Mayor John” seems to be shaping up to be another “Mayor Pete”– i.e., a vastly overrated mediocrity at best.
Buttigieg was mayor of a core city with 100,000 people in it. Fetterman was mayor of a moth-eaten postage stamp suburb. Not really comparable.
There’s little doubt that Buttigieg has the smarts to be doing something with his life other than holding public office. The problem is that he has little interest in much of anything other than adding another entry to his resume.
As for Fetterman, his occupational development seems to have been distorted and disfigured by the willingness of his father to subsidize him. I’ve known of wealthy people who gave their children large discrete gifts, e.g. a house as a wedding present. Giving your middle-aged son an income is very peculiar and suggests there’s a story there which hasn’t been told. That his wife married him while he was on his father’s dole also suggests there’s a story there as well. The regime media are remarkably incurious when it suits them.
He used this small rundown town as his personal social experiment and the crime increased the deprivation increased (as jobs left as electricity became unaffordable) yet he learned no lessons
“The regime media are remarkably incurious when it suits them.”
Indeed.
And that’s about as good a definition of “cover up” as one could find….
– – – – – – – – – –
“…yet he learned no lessons.”
Ah but maybe he did.
(Sickos ALWAYS learn the lessons one doesn’t expect them to.)
“Fetterman leading [with] college-educated voters” … by 18 points no less.
About 1/3 of the baccalaureate degrees issued each year are in the following areas:
Psychology
Interdisciplinary programs
Social sciences and History, bar economics
Communications
Teacher preparation
Humanities and adjacent
Social work and public administration
Family and consumer sciences
I’m going to wager that about 3/4 of the hypertrophied share Fetterman has among the ‘college educated’ can be attributed to graduates of these programs.
Most ironic that in this bizarro race, the wrong candidate’s name is Oz…
Fetterman won Demo primary in PA. That says Philly and Pittsburgh stink.
Barry- thanks for your kind words.
Seen Sundowner is on his 56th Wilmington weekend or vacation, why is still unknown but if as keep reading visitors to see him are not logged in there.
On Fetterman, if he and Shapiro win, sure Fetterman will vote with the hardest Leftists as long as it works but will not do any public speaking and will be replaced asap, maybe by wife.
As a note, NewNeo your thread on Koba the Dread few weeks ago, it’s a great book, have previous read all on Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s trilogy Gulag Archipelago and adds quite a lot to that
Art Deco. Thanks for the college research. Imagine one of those folks thinking he knows more about anything important than, say, a guy running a small HVAC company.
If I recall my look-ups correctly, the average farm in Iowa has a value of 2.5 mill. Not a bad size for a small business. You have to know stuff.
Keep up the good fight…you inspire us all.
– – – – – – – – –
…Speaking of fight, might it be just the time for “Biden” to pull off the surprisingest of November surprises? (In fact it may be all “he” has left…)
Muh fellow Americans, “I” have tried “my” very best to keep our beloved country out of the war in Ukraine…alas…war may be the only card “I” have left to play (seeing that you don’t appreciate everything “I”‘ve done for you and the country, NO, YOU FOOLS, IMBECILES AND INGRATES DON’T DESERVE “ME”!!! YOU HAVE LET “ME” DOWN TERRIBLY. YOU HAVE BETRAYED “ME”…)…so—and “I” say this with a heavy heart—“I”‘m afraid war it’ll have to be….
…And may we remain forever UNITED!!…God Bless Our Intrepid Country!!
“Biden’s Energy Strategy Is Seriously Backfiring Ahead Of November Elections;
Democrat’s odds in the November elections are plummeting fast. Energy, crime, and inflation are three reasons why.”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bidens-energy-strategy-seriously-backfiring-ahead-november-elections
There are topics the mainstream establishment is blatantly hiding from and avoiding:
Professor Zenkus: In my field, we often say that child sex predators don’t just groom children, they groom families and communities… Everyone, regardless of their gender expression or age, deserves to walk through this world with their physical boundaries intact and not living in fear that they’ll be violated. Offenders have depended not only on the silence of their victims, but our silence. If we allow children the permission to say no or speak up for them when they can’t, we’re going to go a long way in preventing so much harm.
Funny business with our election system is yet another type of violation. At the moment, we are a buggered nation.
Regarding “education and politics”: I was a “high-IQ” kid, very good academically and high scores on SAT-type tests. I did not vote for a Republican for President until 2004. Looking back, the vote I am most embarrassed about, even more than Clinton, was voting for Carter over Reagan in 1980. And before taking into account Carter turned out to be quite antisemitic. How could I have been so blind? Then I recall the “Reagan Democrats”, typically blue-collar workers with high school educations or even less. They saw what I could not see and understood what I did not understand. A humbling lesson in the difference between intelligence and wisdom.
At the time of that election I had a “soft” degree, a BA in broadcast communications. Later on I earned a much harder STEM degree in engineering. Did that cause my “change”? Probably not so much as the two trends in my politics and career reinforced each other.
FOAF
Interesting discussion of change.
In terms of seeing or not seeing…. The folks I know who do puzzle me. Perhaps they can’t afford to let themselves see because it might take them out of the cohort of Righteous People.
The lack of education is not seen as a “thing” which affects some people. It’s a moral judgement.
Now, sitting in a chair long enough to absorb what’s put out to you sufficient to regurgitate three quarters of it on a test is your idea of “education”? ( Hear the sneer tone.)
I know some people who are “educated” and whose knowledge of practically anything is frighteningly minimal compared to their certainty. It’s so bad I wonder if they’re lying or if they really believe……
Richard, I am not anti-education. In general it is useful to learn information and knowledge is better than ignorance. However the type and quality of the knowledge is important – “Drag Queen Story Hour” is questionable to say the least. And just “knowing things” is not enough, there must be the ability to use the knowledge in a constructive way.
The problem Democrats have is the independent voters see them as the source of all their policies.
Chad King,
I like your suggested format. It would be really fun; a good test of a lot of skills. It’ll never happen, but a clever idea.
In an odd coincidence, I have spent a lot of time in Braddock, PA. There is a business incubator site at an old, Westinghouse plant there where I did a lot of work during Fetterman’s terms as mayor.
Really interesting area (don’t miss Vincent’s Pizza Park) in the history of the industrial revolution. I am very underwhelmed by Fetterman, but in his defense, there are a lot of issues there that would take more than a talented mayor to turn around. It is in rough, rough shape.
Glenn Beck recently said he would pay money for someone to make a parody video showing Gene Wilder dancing next to Fetterman to, “Puttin’ on the Ritz.” 😉
FOAF I’m not anti-education. I’m against the presumption that having a sheepskin–especially in the softer areas–is all that’s necessary to be current with reality.
I have a BA in psychology. It interested me but a couple of years into it, I concluded I don’t have the personality for it. But I had two years sunk and I needed a degree for OCS so I finished it. Due to circumstances, I took a number of classes post grad before going into the service.
But if I want to make my case, I don’t tell people I have a degree and they don’t. Or I have a degree, too. I do my homework. But if somebody who does his homework doesn’t have a degree, the ignorant sheepskin bearers diss him out of the room.
Re: Gene Wilder dancing next to Fetterman to, “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”
Rufus T. Firefly:
I would watch!
Back in 2008 I had the idea of a video based on the “Rocky Horror” “Time Warp” song making fun of the Obama campaign:
____________________________
It’s just a jump to the left
Then a step to the right
With your hands on your hips
You bring your knees in tight
But it’s the pelvic thrusts
That really drive you insane
Let’s do the Time Warp again!
–“The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) – The Time Warp Scene ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w0WPkB3XJ4
____________________________
Damn. I’d forgotten how good that scene was. Once upon a time it was fun to be on the left.
Heigh-ho. Halcyon days.
Pretty much agreed, Richard. In engineering the idea was that a degree would get you in the door but then you had to prove yourself. I believe the justification for entry-level jobs was that a degree proved you had been able to focus and succeed in your environment, and that a degree from a “better” school e.g. Ivies vs. state U meant you had succeeded against tougher competition. More that than whether the teaching was actually better. But what degrees prove gets more questionable as schools go more “woke”. Not as bad in engineering schools but apparently it is gaining a foothold even there.
Captain Jane? I’m not a big fan of Star Trek. But I’ve actually seen DEOMI (Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute) cite such a TV show as “proof” women can do anything men can do. Including I guess command star ships. Which we all know men are doing proficiently because Bill Shatner.
Your tax dollars at work. DEOMI is an arm of the DoD.
Really interesting area (don’t miss Vincent’s Pizza Park) in the history of the industrial revolution. I am very underwhelmed by Fetterman, but in his defense, there are a lot of issues there that would take more than a talented mayor to turn around. It is in rough, rough shape.
Pennsylvania is notable for the abnormal degree to which local government is fragmented. In Allegheny and Beaver Counties, there are at this time 184 municipalities, of which 76 have a non-institutional population lower than 2,500. Merging the postage stamps with neighboring municipalities would leave you with a body of suburban municipalities north of 100 in number whose mean population was roughly 9,500.
FOAF. My father said college is how you show potential employers you’re trainable and have some organization and self-discipline. He, his two brothers, and my mother’s two brothers, all got to college with football help, although my mom’s brothers–Bowdoin–had to take a couple of years off to go lumberjacking.
They all graduated into WW II. None were killed although only one was not in combat. Four of the five were commissioned–required college.
One, possibly, worked in his major after the war.
So college was important before Griggs.
But not, necessarily, the course of study.
I may have said it before; I have a relation who thinks the resort towns on the west side of Michigan’s lower peninsula are cooler in the summer than, say, Cincinnati, due to global warming. But she has a degree and doesn’t care much for the opinions of those who don’t.