SOTU 2023: Normal vs Crazy
The state of the union is . . . not good.
As has been the norm in recent years, I did not stay up to watch President Biden’s State of the Union address, so am reacting this morning to the press reaction. And it seems unanimous: Biden gave a fairly typical post-midterm SOTU, serving a dual purpose as a case for his own re-election, while Republicans behaved like drug-addled lunatics.
WaPo (“Biden, in State of the Union, mixes bipartisanship with defiance“):
President Biden, facing a vocal and divided Congress, used his second* State of the Union address Tuesday to emphasize popular ideas from job creation to health care, aiming to throw Republicans on the defensive and pitch himself as a friend of ordinary Americans.
In a speech that foreshadowed his potential 2024 campaign message, Biden defended his record, made a direct appeal to blue-collar workers and sought to shift voter attitudes about the economy by touting his administration’s massive investment in the nation’s infrastructure.
Alternating between calls for Republicans to unify with Democrats and condemnation of the GOP’s least popular policies, Biden showcased both the potential for future cooperation and the likelihood of nasty partisan fights over the next two years.
“To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together and find consensus on important things in this Congress as well,” Biden said. “The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict gets us nowhere.”
That remark was met with applause, but the comity quickly gave way to acrimony as GOP lawmakers began interrupting the president with shouts of opposition. The break in decorum came as Republicans took exception to Biden’s remarks on issues ranging from the fentanyl crisis to the national debt — and he often fired back.
The speech, taking place just weeks before Biden’s expected announcement that he will seek reelection, was widely viewed as a soft launch for a campaign for a second term. Adding to the tension of the moment was a looming partisan fight over the debt limit and the approach of the one-year mark of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Biden presented himself as an elder statesman capable of working across the aisle while also cutting the figure of a shrewd politician with strongly held beliefs. He outlined areas for potential bipartisanship including technology, health care and foreign policy, but sharply rejected Republican proposals on issues ranging from immigration to taxes to Social Security and Medicare.
He adopted “Let’s finish the job” as a mantra, a phrase that seemed designed to temper his triumphant declarations with a recognition that many Americans remain anxious and are far from feeling secure or prosperous.
NYT (“Biden Calls on Republicans to Help Him ‘Finish the Job’ and Build the Economy“):
President Biden challenged the new House Republican majority on Tuesday night to work together with him to “finish the job” of repairing America’s unsettled economy and fragile democracy even as the emboldened opposition geared up to try to force him to change course.
In the first State of the Union address of a new era of divided government that at times turned strikingly rowdy, Mr. Biden vowed to cooperate with the other party but offered no concessions to it. Instead, he called on Republicans to embrace his program of raising taxes on the wealthy and extending social aid to the needy, citing bipartisan legislation passed when Democrats were in charge.
[…]
The president’s first major encounter with the newly empowered House Republicans featured stark moments of unscripted drama the likes of which were rarely seen during State of the Union addresses of the past. When he mentioned the fentanyl crisis, introducing a father who lost a daughter to an overdose, some Republicans heckled him over drugs entering the country. “The border! The border!” some shouted. “It’s your fault!”
At another point, Mr. Biden engaged in a remarkable spontaneous colloquy with Republicans when he accused them of threatening Social Security and Medicare, an assertion that drew some of them to their feet as they rejected the assertion loudly and angrily. At least one of them shouted, “Bullshit!”
“Liar!” screamed Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia.
“Contact my office,” the president responded, offering to give her proof of his point.
When Republicans continued to deny they planned to cut the social programs, the president extended the dialogue, pronouncing himself happy that Republicans were committing to leave the programs alone. “I’m glad to see — no, I tell you, I enjoy conversion,” said Mr. Biden, who often refers to his Catholic faith.
He sought to lock in the moment. “So, folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right?” he said. “All right. We’ve got unanimity.” Then he exhorted the lawmakers. “Let’s stand up for seniors!” he commanded, one of the few times Republicans did join Democrats in jumping to their feet to applaud.
But there was little sense that the two sides would agree on much else. He was left to shout at Republicans to pass what he could not in the last two years. “Ban assault weapons now!” he yelled. “Ban them now!”
[…]
The 80-year-old president seemed to draw energy from the feisty exchanges, speaking for 73 minutes to an audience watching to see how he met the test. Mr. Biden, whose age is a source of anxiety for Democrats, at first raced through the early pages of his text, occasionally stumbling over words and flubbing some of his lines. He demoted Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, from majority leader to minority leader.
But after a shaky start, he appeared to gather momentum in the longest speech to Congress of his presidency and gave the impression that he enjoyed the back-and-forth with Republican hecklers. Afterward, he lingered for more than 45 minutes to work the crowd, glad-handing members and posing for selfies. A forgiving Mr. Schumer exulted that Mr. Biden showed “vigor,” and White House aides told reporters that they were charged up by the confrontation over social programs.
NPR (“Biden makes a pitch to ‘finish the job’ in his State of the Union address“):
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Biden touted the economic progress and legislative achievements made under his watch, repeatedly saying “Let’s finish the job” – a refrain likely to be heard as his unofficial pitch for reelection.
It was his first address to Congress since Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives in the November midterms. With newly-elected GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sitting over his shoulder, Biden urged Congress to pass a lengthy list of his unfinished priorities.
“There’s so much more to do,” he said, calling on lawmakers to pass policing reform and immigration legislation; codify abortion rights, and cap the price of insulin for all at $35 a month.
Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history at 80 years old, has said it his intention to run again in the 2024 presidential election. He’s expected to make an official announcement in the near future.
While there are still some adults in the party, including Senator Mitt Romney, who rightly admonished serial fabulist George Santos for showing his face at the event, the GOP caucus as a whole has devolved into an utter embarrassment. We’ve come a long way from the days when it was a major scandal when Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” at President Obama, for which the embarrassed South Carolina Congressman swiftly and rightly apologized.
Hell, they even trotted out former Trump press secretary and current joke of a governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders out to give the opposition party response speech.
Arkansas’ newly elected governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, delivered the Republican Party’s response to President Biden’s State of the Union address, telling Americans: “Biden and the Democrats have failed you.”
“They know it and you know it and it’s time for a change,” she said.
She drew a sharp contrast between the two parties, especially with respect to what she called the “left-wing culture war.”
“The dividing line in America is no longer between right and left — it’s between normal or crazy,” Sanders said in her rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union address.
She’s not wrong. Alas, she’s on the side of the crazy.
_____________
*It was, of course, his third but we have adopted the very strange pretense for many years now that a President’s first State of the Union address is not actually a State of the Union address but a mere presidential speech before a Joint Session of Congress that it in every respects a State of the Union address except in name.
Joe Biden always had seemed easy going and “prone to gaffes” from my earliest awareness of him. But there were reasons Presidents called on him to go behind the scenes in tough negotiations, foreign and domestic. He is remarkably quick on his feet, and never lets his own ego get in the way, and both traits were on display last night.
The first time the Republican circus started hooting he acknowledged them, cracked a joke and then powerfully talked over them. But a few minutes later he appeared to be deliberately provoking them, working them up. For a moment I thought, surely he’s not so naive he still thinks he can reach these malignant clowns? But this was the moment mentioned above when he was talking about Social Security. Within a minute or two he had every one of them feeling obligated to be on their feet and clapping wildly “for the seniors”, and at the end with a touch of irony he praised them all for unanimity on not touching Social Security and Medicare. I was amazed at how deftly he manipulated them, even while they no doubt realized what he was doing. And when they inevitably start attacking those programs again? Well, the campaign ads write themselves.
The contrast of a confident, calm, jovial Biden smiling and joking as Rethugliklans screamed and heckled like the trashy, classless, demonstrably unfit-for-power radical extremists they are is a contrast that works well for him. His team must relieved today — and I’m guessing more confident about his chances running against the GOP clown car in 2024.
Last night was a reminder of why the political graveyard is littered with bodies of people who have underestimated Joe Biden. In that respect he reminds me of George W. Bush, but the comparison stops there. Biden is a more effective president than Bush, and Biden’s critics are less competent than Bush’s opponents. Barring a total deterioration in the economy or of Biden’s health, it’s looking like Biden is on his way to re-election too. Somehow.
As for Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she did a very good job of reminding women, people of color, the queer community, educated whites, suburban families, and especially youth voters why they can’t stand more Republicans. “Woke” is a slang term for “awareness and empathy,” invented by black youth for their own empowerment. So when those addled on right wing narratives brand themselves as “anti-woke,” what they are actually doing is saying they hate young blacks and their allies in the 40-and-under set.
This stuff will not play well for Republicans as the two most diverse and stubbornly liberal generations in US history thus far keep aging into the electorate. This is why clueless and hopelessly unhip politicians and pundits should keep black culture out of their mouths.
Maybe I’m over-analyzing it but I found it interesting that Sanders never mentioned Trump by name when talking about her experiences with “the president” several years prior.
Paine
I haven’t watched a SOTU in years (I don’t find the theatrics useful), but lately it’s been more about my blood pressure. Republicans acting like toddlers who missed their naps/snacks with the outbursts…it’s all just so trashy and classless. These are purportedly adults who hold office. Grow up and act like it.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Pay up! 😉
@DK: I didn’t watch Sanders speech but from what I gathered it was totally aimed solely at the Republican MAGA base. Interesting use of a national non-partisan audience.
@DK: …in the 40-and-under set.
That marker is moving up, too. In my community, it’s pretty reliably the under-50s that have a “the kids are alright” mentality. I think the specter of meaningless 80s moral panics has made it almost comical to think we can judge young people doing their thing in an increasingly diverse society. I mean, we have ample recent evidence that “civilization” (i.e. people giving a shit about each other) only seems to break down when paranoid racist assholes get near it.
“Woke”and “CRT” has become the new “whatever liberals like that we hate” as opposed to anything concrete in terms of policy. I heard a commentator yesterday complaining about how “woke” LeBron James is… because (are you ready for this?)…. he started an elementary school in Akron focused on the city’s most under performing students. That, somehow, is “woke”.
At this point, you can’t say that this is a a MAGA issue. No. This is a GOP issue, and the sooner the mainstream press understands that there is no difference at all between MAGA and the “mainstream” GOP, the sooner we can get to honest debate about the issues.
@MarkedMan:
Makes no sense. She’s not running for president, so what is to be gained from using that platform to further shrink the base given election results since 2018? Do they think white Boomers are going to start aging in reverse?
Anyone looking for the Republican Party we used to vote for, however begrudgingly, got nothing. Not that I was expecting better — or that I care as I am a pretty doctrinaire Demoncrap by now — but I was at least expecting a sound electoral strategy. Maybe Republicans want Biden to win, to bury Trump for good?
@DK: If anything it seems like she was given a national opportunity and used it to shore up her position in Arkansas. Everything she said seems to be targeted squarely at the Deep South.
@DK:
You know what I find ironic? At the same time as they’ve turned “woke” into a four-letter word, they’ve appropriated the “red pill” term from The Matrix (ignoring the fact the films were created by two trans women who have publicly spoken out against these bozos)—even though it’s a similar metaphor. Both are based on the motif of “waking up” to reach a higher level of awareness of the world. But in the case of “red pill,” the right somehow twisted it into the notion of waking up to the truth of their reactionary, conspiratorial worldview—while simultaneously deriding the idea of wokeness.
@DK:
More that Republicans don’t care who wins elections, because politics isn’t about governing, it’s just a marketing strategy:
Red Bull, Elon Musk, and Matt Gaetz
@Stormy Dragon: Indeed! I had no idea of how black Biden actually is. Congratulations on winning!
Every accusation is an admission with this crowd. It’s become as constant as the sun coming over the eastern horizon.
Republicans made fools of themselves last night.
Are there no adults in the GOP with enough spine to say, “enough?”
How does having MTG wearing a Dollar Store fur and acting the fool help your cause?
These are not serious people.
@EddieInCA: “he started an elementary school in Akron focused on the city’s most under performing students. That, somehow, is ‘woke’.”
In fairness, I can see their point. For people who believe there is only so much prosperity, opportunity, and future to go around, focusing educational opportunity “on the city’s most under performing students” is a recipe for disaster for their own children and grandchildren.
Their point is ugly and stupid and will lead to their own destruction if they carry it far enough, but I do get what they’re saying. I offer them the “bless your heart” Lauren Boebert offered at church Sunday:
I saw the section where President Biden, softly lured the Republicans into a trap of their own making on Medicare and Social Security.
Very impressive by the sly old fox. 🙂
Mind you, facing the likes of Marjorie Taylor-Green could make almost anyone this side of Vlad the Impaler look courteous, intelligent and charming.
Why the other Republicans haven’t stuffed her in a box and sat on her beats me.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
But apart from that, all the best!
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
With all due respect, I don’t think you know what the “I Promise” school is trying to do. It’s taking kids that are 2-3 grades BEHIND their peers and attempting to get them educated. These are the worst students of the worst. The students are so bad that even with all the resources, they’re in danger of losing funding because the kids are testing so badly. This school, and more like it, is necessary because “normal” schools have no clue what to do with these kids. This isn’t a magnet school. This isn’t a charter school. This is a public school created specifically to help those kids that system has screwed over.
How is that “woke”? I’ll tell you. It’s because most of the kids in the school are black. If this EXACT school is in the suburbs of Chattanooga, or Memphis, it would be heralded, not decried as “woke.”
@JohnSF: The era of “The era of big government is over” is over.
@EddieInCA:
I totally agree with you. But at the same time I think it’s brilliant of Biden to differentiate the MAGA from normal Republicans. It allows ridiculing the crazy without attacking the few GOPs and GOP leaning “independents” who are gettable. Or perhaps can be motivated to sit out the election. It makes it harder for the supposedly liberal MSM to paint Biden as strident or overly partisan. And they can take the same tack in criticizing GOPs. And it probably makes it easier to deal with McCarthy and McConnell who have their own issues with the MTG’s and Boeberts. (Yes, I know MTG and McCarthy are supposed to be besties. The sincerity of both can be questioned.)
@DK:
So far. And if she does she first has to win the GOP primaries. She can lie her arse off pretending to turn to the center after the primaries.
And she’s reminding me of something I should have remembered.
Deleted.
@JohnSF:
MTG is grotesque.
@gVOR08:
I was kinda half wondering about this as a general election strategy for Biden. Run a “normal” set of dem primaries where its Biden, Newsome and Pritzker, with the understanding that Newsome and Pritzker aren’t really running. They’re there to 1. tune up their own campaigns for next time and 2. POUND like hell on the republicans. Let Biden come across as a moderating father figure. I dunno, just something I’ve been kicking around.
@Stormy Dragon: Thanks. I don’t normally read The Bulwark but that linked piece is useful analysis. Also I follow Formula One racing where Red Bull is a big name and I didn’t know they’re purely a marketing company and don’t make the stuff.
A related bit of F1 and cigarette trivia. There is a company called Mission Winnow. Until 2021 they were a secondary sponsor of Ferrari. They not only don’t make anything, ostensibly they don’t even sell anything. So what are they? They apparently exist solely to put their logo on stuff. The logo is MISSION mirrored at the bottom as WINNOW. They slant the letters so this forms several chevrons. They are a division of Phillip Morris who apparently believe that this subliminally reminds people of the red chevron of the Marlboro pack. To put this on the rear wing of an F1 Ferrari would have cost tens of millions of dollars a year, so presumably they have data supporting this facially silly theory. You can see the logo at their website which is a classic of meaningless marketing gobbledegook.
@gVOR08: This boils down to tactics. Someone tells me that all Engineers believe in QAnon because they are ignorant white male conservative reactionaries and I stop listening. I think, “this is an angry ignorant person who doesn’t want to listen”. On the other hand, someone asks me, “What is going on that in engineering, of all professions, which is all about objective provable results and reality based analysis, there is a subculture that believe absolutely crazy theories without any proof?”, and I immediately want to explore that question.
@MarkedMan: FYI, I’m a retired engineer.
A weird factoid. I’ve never seen data on Party affiliation of engineers but I expect it runs heavily GOP. I did see a claim that engineering faculty are the least religiously affiliated department on campuses, which surprised me.
@gVOR08: And is there a difference on whether they are electrical, chemical, industrial, mechanical, or locomotive engineers?
Arkansas ranks among the worst states in so many metrics – 49th in Healthcare. 41st in Education. 41st in overall economy. 43rd in infrastructure. 48th in crime.
Since being elected Sanders has signed executive orders about CRT, limiting Gov’t outreach, and to protect state IT from foreign Governments.
I say; fail us some more, Brandon!!!
@daryl and his brother darryl: Fun fact: Due in part to the Clintons’ history in the state, Arkansas is the one state that has grown increasingly red in every presidential election since 1992.
@gVOR08:
I am a retired chemical engineer, my entire career was designing petrochemical plants, oil refineries and offshore production platforms.
I am not exactly a big conservative or religious zealot.
My professional musician brother is totally MAGA and Christian (convert) fundie.
@gVOR08:
Based on their donations at least, engineering is significantly Democrat leaning:
http://verdantlabs.com/politics_of_professions/
Broken down by discipline, civil, mechanical, and chemical are Republican, aerospace and electrical are neutral, and everyone else is Democratic
MTG and her fellow harpies turned that speech into a victory for Biden. I think this presages a very hard road ahead for the GOP House. Extremists sound good to themselves, but only to themselves.
Joe Wilson apologized after his “YOU LIE” outburst … sort of. It was done reluctantly and under pressure. But everyone in the GOP noticed that Wilson also raked in a ton of fundraising afterwards.
And the GOP started playing with fire even more aggressively, to rake in the crazy-and-angry bucks.
I wonder why the GQP hasn’t had Benito deliver the “rebuttal” of the SOTU.
A short lecture series I read on conspiracies rather recently, by Michael Shermer, brings up the trumpy style of conspiracy theory. This one consists of simply asserting something. That’s it. no “proofs”, no questions, no justifications, no anomaly hunting, nothing but the assertion.
Exhibit A: the election was stolen.
Benito embellishes his assertions. Calling it the greatest crime ever, etc. But offers no proof.
The GQP is tending in that direction. They could claim the economy was terrible when inflation ravaged the land. And in fairness, the effects of inflation are still affecting millions (though that’s worldwide). But with unemployment really low and wages growing, albeit not enough, they’re reduced to claiming a terrible economy without proof, and with little to even point to.
@Kathy: Hmmm, you’ve reminded me that I read somewhere yesterday that Trump was going to deliver his own rebuttal. Maybe that wasn’t true, or maybe he chickened out?
@Stormy Dragon: That’s an interesting database. I notice a trend, although it’s not absolute: The more interactions a profession has with the general public the more likely they are to go Democratic, and vice versa. An interesting outlier is “Car Salesman”. Given that the stereotype of them as quasi-legal con artists constantly trying to hook their next victim is more often true than not, the fact that they vote heavily Republican is probably not a surprise.
@MarkedMan:
I think over the years the Left partisans maundering on about Biden being naive, deluded in re his bipartisan rhetoric, etc. reflect in fact partisan blindness of the activist sort.
Biden is a savvy judo master with that discourse. I think he always has been.
@JohnSF:Hopefully this will be more appreciated.
@DK: the ‘permanent majority’ quality of analysis with a sprinkling of generational nonsense…
@EddieInCA: I’m sure I don’t, but I also think it’s not particularly hard to remind us how the argument works.
Wow, someone picked the worst photo of Sarah Huckabee Sanders. I hope.
I’ve heard a summary of her speech described as American Carnage 2: More Carnage, and this photo would fit with that, but… makes me a little queasy to see a cheap shot at her looks like that from (checking origin) NPR.
Jesus Christ, that’s just her waiting to start speaking? That’s her resting face? She looks deranged. I might take it back.
I prefer the silly disrespectful photos of politicians. Like the classic John McCain tongue photo: https://www.theguardian.com/world/oliverburkemanblog/2008/oct/16/uselections2008-johnmccain1
(Searching for “McCain tongue photo” reveals a bunch of different weird McCain photos where his tongue is out)
@Lounsbury:
The “Red Wave 2022 is coming” type of fact-free denial with a sprinkling of empty desperation.
People like you are out-of-touch. That’s why people who think like you were so wrong about the 2022 elections. You’re still wrong, and my generation is going to continue to prove you wrong in the future.
The old rules do not apply: you’ve never seen a generational cohort like us. Maybe it’ll take a few more election cycles for that to sink in with the pundit class and it’s minions.
Carry on.
@Gustopher:
She looks like Bill Bixby trying not to turn into The Incredible Hulk…
@Stormy Dragon: As Mr. Spock might say, “Fascinating”. I remember reading, maybe a couple decades ago, that medical doctors were 90% Republican. That seems to have changed rather markedly. I suspect a classic case of the Party leaving them. Odd that Urologists are such an exception.
@DK: Desperation, desperation over what? Perhaps the sheer innumeracy and Astrology level magical thinking of people who blither on about “generations” when they really mean “my personal circle of like-minded geographical-similar age-cohort and socio-economic class which I innumerately then extrapolate to grand generalisations”…
Leaving aside going on and on with astrology level “my generation” blather, the cyclical predictions of This Generation whatever are useless and empty. The specifics of geography and ethnic and socio-economic class distribution within electoral geographies in particular given you in the USA do not have a genuinely national election scheme nor results, and the type of electoral constituencies you have, that is what counts. Not the astrology of “generations” however adored by innumerates.
Poorly developed analytical thinking of course being age-indifferent.
Flooding polling with partisan lean polls in the autumn turned out for the Republicans to have had a poor return with over-performance in their partisan districts and weak margins, and poor candidates of extreme nature costing in narrowly fought races. Dr Taylor has it rather right, geography, district structure are your structural explainers.
Or you can lean on astrology.
Biden was brilliant – he mocked the MAGA GOP. They’ve been busy sending out defensive emails all day, and getting mocked in return by Democrats who are finally getting it. They’re also sending out the latest video of DeSantis “rebutting” Trump’s accusations that he’s a groomer. It’s mostly whining but doesn’t actually address the accusation – which is interesting.
Anyway, you can survive anything except mockery. And McCarthy looked like someone who can’t control the children sitting at the kiddie table – not that he tried hard. Everytime he shook his head behind Biden’s back he looked like someone too cowardly to face him directly. Who would have thought the GOP would ever be this bad at optics?
I see I got interrupted and left a thought hanging @gVOR08:. I’ll take it up. Sanders is being touted as a new generation GOP, a young, fresh (?) face. It seems like the party really is moving away from the Romney’s and toward George Santos and “populist” performative nihilism. I’ve been wrestling with how the Koch Bro. et al, who bought the establishment mantle fair and square, lose control to the crazies. Sanders is taking the baton from her father. Mike Huckleberry was of the generation that made their bones lying on FOX “News”. Sanders is the generation who believe, or at least pretend to believe for professional purposes, the lies on FOX. I’ve never studied how the Whigs failed and were replaced by the Republicans. But maybe party shifts happen like the physicist’s line about how physics changes, one funeral at a time.
@Lounsbury:
I mean, the FT link @DK provided is based on a statistical analysis. Does that mean it is correct? No. But given the “innumeracy” barbs you throw in your post, it appears that you aren’t even attempting to understand exactly what is being claimed.
Take it easy, man. You have a way of making people not want to agree with you even if they mostly agree with you.
@Lounsbury:
Over the fact don’t know your azz from a hole-in-the-ground when it comes to millennials and Gen Z. No extrapolation needed on my part: aside from decades of direct experience as part of large, diverse peer group spanning several states, subcultures, ideologies, demographics, and backgrounds — experience that you don’t have — it’s called data and results.
The magical thinking is your inability to accept the data because you don’t like its implications, then ranting and raving about “astrology” and “cyclical predictions” when data and results show this youth cohort is breaking the cycle. That is the reality, whether it’s convenient for you or not.
But when we are incapable of listening or incorporating new information into our belief systems, we will find ourselves repeating tired, outdated tropes. That’s fine, you can believe what you want. Not going to change that I’m pointing out true facts about my peers, and not going to make your phony, psuedo-intellectual psychobabble about astrology any less irrelevant. Facts don’t care about our feelings, as they say.
Sorry that you’re having a triggered meltdown because the old rules do not apply to my generation, the contours and complexities of which, yes, I do know better than you.
It turned out badly for the pundits who demonstrate the same arrogance you do here, making laughably wrong declarations about youth voters while stubbornly refusing to listen to actual youth voters. Magical thinking indeed.
You could lean on commenting in clear, digestible English for once, too. But hey, free country. Anything, thanks for showing why conservatives keep losing my generation. Winning us back would start with listening instead of jumping on the defensive. Modern conservatives aren’t capable of this. Exhibit A here.
My Dad was an engineer and there are a lot fo engineers in the family. That’s why when I was reading heavy on terrorism and counterinsurgency I was interested in the body of literature talking about who becomes a terrorist. Engineers were high on the list. The theory seemed to be that engineers were more likely to see things in black and white and also to be convinced that they are always right about everything. Their superior analytical skills help them see things others cant figure out. While I am sure that is not true of all engineers certainly fits the ones in my family.
Steve
@Lounsbury: Apparently Lounsbury has just discovered the word “astrology” and is so keen to make up for having missed it all these years is desperate to cram it into every post as many times as possible. Maybe we should all chip in and make it easier for him:
Hey, Louns, what’s your sign, man?
@gVOR08: “Sanders is taking the baton from her father.”
The thing about Huckabee is that while he has always been a sanctimonious lying scumbag, he comes across as cheerful and friendly, even when explaining why everyone who won’t kiss his ass is going to hell. The daughter just presents herself as an oozing sack of resentment, bitterness and hate. I’m willing to dismiss the way she looks in this picture — because I’m old enough to remember the discussions of “resting bitch face” — but once she starts talking she’s even worse. She comes across as a combination of Aunt Lydia and the Piper Laurie incarnation of Carrie’s mother…
I too have given up watching these events and now resort to the written descriptions of such proceedings. Moreover, I agree with your understanding and point of view in this matter.