As you probably know, there are two special elections for US Senate seats in Georgia. Normally, you’d expect these to be shoo-ins for the Republicans. But Biden did narrowly carry the state and, maybe, just maybe, all the cries of “rigged elections” by the Republicans might just backfire:
The Republicans now have to explain to these people that their lies were just an attempt to “work the referees” and not “the election REALLY is hopelessly rigged against you.” Words have consequences.
The Republicans should heed the fable about “Crying Wolf.”
Speaking of consequences: top Republicans downplaying COVID might well have some consequences as well:
Health care workers are tired, some are sick, a few have died, and most appear to be burnt out. Bad..very bad. There are other issues too, such as K-12 education where teachers are strained to the breaking point. Even worse is the pervasive attitude that teachers are somehow expendable.
Democrats There is continuing anguish concerning how many people STILL voted for Trump and how well the Republicans did downticket. The reality appears to be that while Trump was very, very unpopular as an individual, the Democrats do not offer and attractive alternative to Republicanism.
My guess is that Democrats are horrible at messaging. For one: Defund the Police is a horrible slogan. No one wants less police (or only a statistically small number of people).
The actual IDEA, which is to let police keep the peace and quit burdening them with too many of society’s problems, isn’t a bad one.
But, as they say in politics, “if you are explaining, you are losing” or “if you have to explain, you’ve already lost.”
The protests certainly hurt, as did the idea: “your large gatherings are superspreader events but ours are not..”
Yes, you might say the protests were done by masked people who took precautions AFTER the fact but, again, if you are explaining…
And besides, protests…there is a saturation level at which point they turn people against the cause, no matter how sanctimonious the protesters are.
And yes, they WERE a stupid idea…still are..large gatherings in this environment. COVID doesn’t care about your cause, and protesters can still spread it.
Yes, I’ve read about the “no unusual spikes in the protest cities” but that doesn’t mean they weren’t spreading events; there was just not evidence that there were unusual increases in those locations.
Anyway, the hypocrisy was very noticeable.
And there is the whole attitude toward achievement: Democrats seem hostile to it and they seem to not understand why something like “raise the minimum wage” isn’t inspirational.
Yes, it is popular but one major goal is to not be stuck in a low wage job to begin with! No one wants to remain poor, and some Democratic attitudes seem to be aimed at “ok, stats show that most people live in the economic class they are born in so we are trying to make your life suck a little bit less.“
The thing that really gets me is that Democrats try to offer policies (paid sick leave! minimum wage!) that would help the working class,” a friend just wrote me. A few days’ paid leave ain’t gonna support a family. Neither is minimum wage. WWC men aren’t interested in working at McDonald’s for $15 per hour instead of $9.50. What they want is what my father-in-law had: steady, stable, full-time jobs that deliver a solid middle-class life to the 75% of Americans who don’t have a college degree. Trump promises that. I doubt he’ll deliver, but at least he understands what they need.
People WANT to be rich and, well, the rich…are …admired:
One little-known element of that gap is that the white working class (WWC) resents professionals but admires the rich. Class migrants (white-collar professionals born to blue-collar families) report that “professional people were generally suspect” and that managers are college kids “who don’t know shit about how to do anything but are full of ideas about how I have to do my job,” said Alfred Lubrano in Limbo. Barbara Ehrenreich recalled in 1990 that her blue-collar dad “could not say the word doctor without the virtual prefix quack. Lawyers were shysters…and professors were without exception phonies.” Annette Lareau found tremendous resentment against teachers, who were perceived as condescending and unhelpful.
Michèle Lamont, in The Dignity of Working Men, also found resentment of professionals — but not of the rich. “[I] can’t knock anyone for succeeding,” a laborer told her. “There’s a lot of people out there who are wealthy and I’m sure they worked darned hard for every cent they have,” chimed in a receiving clerk. Why the difference? For one thing, most blue-collar workers have little direct contact with the rich outside of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. But professionals order them around every day. The dream is not to become upper-middle-class, with its different food, family, and friendship patterns; the dream is to live in your own class milieu, where you feel comfortable — just with more money. “The main thing is to be independent and give your own orders and not have to take them from anybody else,” a machine operator told Lamont. Owning one’s own business — that’s the goal. That’s another part of Trump’s appeal.
And yes, the poor are resented. Scroll to the end of this artcie.
I have other thoughts (e. g. the attack on males really isn’t a political winner; most women don’t hate men).
You might protest “well, the Democrats nominated Biden, not one of the liberal workes” and that is true, but the party as a whole has been tarred by the liberal woke brush.
That albatross will be difficult to be rid of.
Commentary: much ado about nothing
This mundane squib type kick occurred in 41-0 blowout. And this is supposed to be “historic” because the kicker is a female?
Sorry, but no one doubted that a D-1 soccer player of either sex would be capable of such a routine play. “Historic” would be a 40 yard FG or a booming kick into the endzone. Not this: this is like sending in a female to play quaterback to take a knee at the end of the game.
And before I get crap from the “ha, you are an out of shape old man who…”
yes, I follow female lifters on Instagram including some on the US National Olympic lifting team.
This lifter has gotten almost 300 lb over her head in the clean and jerk; a weight that I struggle to handle in the “high handle” trap bar dead lift.
This is why I think that something as mundane squib kick should not receive such effusive praise.
Life of an old goat 