I made a point of using the term “accomplishment” rather than “experience” as I do not wish to reward mere time serving.
Worked in government and solved a problem? You can get my vote.
Worked in government and just applied years of bandaids and layers of bureaucracy without solving the underlying problem, because never-quite-solving-it provided lots of phony baloney jobs for your cronies? Naaaahh. Go away.
Ross Douthat has correctly characteized Oprah, not as a Marxist, but as America’s high priestess of the religion of Sentimentalist Therapeutic Deism.
This is an important distinction indeed. Not a fan of far-too-comfortable career politicians.
Meh. That kind of complaining feeds the myth that the real problem with government isn’t its takeover by wealthy bastards, but rather career politicians, bureaucracy, and “inefficiency” (so its services should be taken over by the “free” market, etc.).
Note that I specified “far-too-comfortable” career politicians. There’s a huge difference between people who spend their lives in public service and wealthy bastards who find a nice comfy gerrymandered voting district that’ll never run anyone against them and can enjoy the privilege of a lack of term limits.
Got it.
And just to also be clear, I meant wealthy bastards rich enough to buy politicians (though yes, those who become politicians tend to be part of the problem too).
Kill Neoliberalism!
The sad thing is that even the character portrayed in that film would still be an improvement over Trump…
It’s like they think “cultural Marxist” just means “anyone we politically disagree with.”
I’m not sure you can be smart, compassionate, have high integrity AND endorse the anti-vaxxers and other woo peddlers.
Frankly I do suspect the integrity is the aspect that’s missing since being open to a bit of BS goes a long way if you want to connect with people.
I’m not saying I think she’s corrupt or anything, but I wouldn’t count on her to take an unpopular stand because it’s the right thing to do.
It’s got to be very comforting to live in a world where (almost) nothing that goes wrong is due to basic human nature and incompetence, and (almost) everything that goes wrong is due to the machinations of the “wealthy bastards” and assorted other people you don’t like.
Comforting in the short run at least.
Sometimes those are the best targets for a certain type of con man. The grifter preys on the compassionate person’s desire to help, reads the smart person well enough to tailor a case for their woo that will seem plausible*, and flatters the person’s self-image of personal integrity all the way along.
I have no doubt that Dr. Oz and “Doctor” Phil both did all of those things. McCarthy was more a shill for con artists, and also had the attractive celebrity factor going for her since we’re talking about TV.
[* this is how the anti-vaxxers tend to rope in people who are otherwise educated and smart]
Hey, when you’re right, you’re right.
Oprah has:
If she runs, I can’t imagine which serious Democrat will want to try a kamikaze attack on the USS Winfrey.
Exactly. As I said above, that’s my biggest worry, beyond the nebulous and vague idea of a celebrity running for president, or her alleged antivax beliefs, etc ---- that when a juggernaut like Oprah runs for office, it will deter far better candidates with smaller war chests and their names on fewer broadcast networks.
Naw, that one’s easy, just pick the most dislikable cretin for a VP and you’re good to go.
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