On racism, what about GWB’s record re no-child left behind?
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To think people are still focused on petty (and frequently heavily classism-laden) critiques of personality and affect more than on substantive matters of policy.
But then, as now, the avoidance of deep policy critique is because the most serious policy sins of the US parties are bipartisan.
Non-American lives have zero value in mainstream US political discourse.
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I guess it depends on your metric. He may not have been deliberately malicious like his puppet-master veep, and he may indeed be a nice enough spoiled rich kid at the BBQ, but the practical consequences of his political career were pretty horrible. That they seem to stem from astounding incompetence and vacuity doesn’t alter the fact that he’s responsible for them.
I’m not the first to point out that America might maybe have been spared his presidency if his painting had been encouraged. Failed painters are bad for history.
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Shrub is a millionaire born to billionaires and Toadstool is a maybe billionaire born to hundreds-millionaires. They’re the definition of wealthy white male scions failing upwards.
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Support your local artists!
Or else.
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Yes, Bush and Trump were both hyper-privileged heirs of wealth. The classist nature of the critique lies in the aspect that they are attacked for failing to present an educated and polished upper-class affect. Middle & upper class liberals attack them by implicitly comparing them to lower class people.
It’s somewhat related to this:
And this:
Middle & upper class liberal America is absolutely awash in classism. It goes unnoticed because it is so ubiquitous.
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With Bush I can agree, though critiques of his incompetence are different from critiques of his intelligence, which I’ll agree are petty.
With Trump I disagree. Trump’s ridiculous personality and affect are that of, as I said in the part of my rambling comment I deleted, a colossal douche-canoe. His stupidity is incidental.
That said, just because smarmy blue-nosed neolibs are themselves willfully ignorant enough to falsely assume the working poor are stupid doesn’t make actual stupidity any less deserving of scorn and mockery. If someone wants to think Trump isn’t stupid and willfully ignorant, that’s their prerogative to ignore the avalanche of evidence to the contrary.
Do you regard mocking actual stupidity and/or willful ignorance as intrinsically classist?
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Interesting thought experiment. if he was a regular guy born to regular parents and not in any way politically connected, would I invite him to a backyard barbecue? We wouldn’t have anything in common, so conversation would be awkward. That’s not exactly uncharted territory for me, but maybe he and the other bro-dads can talk about sportsball and motorcycles and home improvement projects they will never finish. Minor issue, but nothing i wouldn’t invite him over.
In terms of personality, he wouldn’t be a jerk exactly, just someone who always insists that he’s right even if he has nothing to back himself up. That’s what he was like as president, and I’m pretty sure that’s what he would be like as an insurance salesman from Fort Worth, or whatever he is in this thought experiment. Every time he would open his mouth, I’d think “this fucking guy…” and I don’t think I’d be alone in that. I don’t think anyone in this hypothetical neighborhood would hate him, but he wouldn’t be anyone’s favorite person. So I suppose if I invited Laura, he could tag along. He wouldn’t be at the top of my invite list by any means, but he wouldn’t be some weirdo I’d have to keep away for everyone’s protection.
That weirdo would be Trump, Pence, Ted Cruz,* and any of the interchangeable neo nazis in the Trump administration.
*because he’s the zodiac killer
I get what you’re saying, but this is a hypothetical GWB who never got anywhere near politics. He’s not a war criminal in this situation, and will never be one.* So, I would grudgingly invite this non war criminal Bush to my barbecue, as long as there are other guests there to keep him occupied.
In this universe, however, Ellen DeGeneres can invite her to her barbecues and he can stay the hell away from mine.
- However, in this hypothetical alternate universe, Kevin the IT guy from my work was born into a politically connected family, got elected president, and started WWIII. Dammit Kevin.
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He wasn’t explicitly so when I had written that post. But I’m a little curious. George W. Bush who never went anywhere near politics – so apparently besides all the things that he is notorious for doing, that pretty much define his whole life and career, he probably never had governor Jeb Bush as a brother, president George H. W. Bush as a father, senator Prescott Sheldon Bush as a grandfather, etc.
What, exactly, is there about the hypothetical figure with a completely different life and upbringing that allows me to identify him with the real-world war criminal? It’s like asking about what I think about a pro-Roman Hannibal or a Karl Marx who was cool with capitalism. I don’t understand who those are.
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Someone with the personality of GWB who isn’t GWB, but is just an ordinary guy.
- Is this possible?
- Who would that person be?
- Would you invite them to a barbecue?
My answers are:
- Easily yes
- A bland yet overconfident guy, with a conservative yet unexamined belief system, who is both willfully ignorant and a know-it-all
- Grudgingly, yes
Now try it with Trump. I get:
- Not really
- A complete jerk, unable to control his temper, holds onto grudges like they’re a life preserver, nothing is ever his fault. A criminal who has been in and out of institutions his entire life. Does not lead a normal life.
- Fuck no
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I never trusted Kevin. Too many bobbleheads.
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Intrinsically? No.
OTOH, given the hyper-capitalist and class-stratified nature of American educational systems, mocking someone for lacking formal education generally is.
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