On the surface, it looks like a game of political brinksmanship.
And it is. But it’s also a conversation. The likelihood that Donovan will run as a spoiler is far exceeded by the likelihood that this is the progressive/labor wing tapping Esty on the shoulder and saying: “You have to show us why we should support you. You want an alliance? Fine. That’s a two-way street. So let’s talk about some of our issues.”
It might even make her — if she listens and participates — a better candidate, a little less of an obvious Lee-Whitnum-word for big business, a little more connected to people who aren’t also corporations.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
4 Responses to Game of Thrones
- -- ADVERTISEMENT --
- -- ADVERTISEMENT --
I don’t know what you are talking about. For instance it is true she did vote against mandated sick time that time it didn’t pass. But she has since said that she would have voted in favor (had she not been defeated because vote on Capital Punishment) of the version that did become law because it exempted non-profits.
So you see, she does hate For-Profit operations after all. Profits are bad! That should be enough for you.
As Congresswoman she will make sure companies that make profits will be suitably punished.
Dont confuse Labor and the Public Sector Unions wooing Esty. What they are doing is demanding that their cadillac policies will never be confused with SustiNet or any kind of “One policy to heal them all” type of Universal Coverage for the working classes.
If you confuse public sector unions with organized crime, racketeering, and a need for RICO charges involving their leadership and the politicians then you’d be much closer than confusing them with labor.
Uconn estimated in 2010 that “According to Census data, Connecticut boasted $3.5 million souls as of July 1,
2009, which works out to $7,395 in unfunded OPEB (Other Post Employment Benefits) per capita.
http://cteconomy.uconn.edu/articles/AW_Su2010.pdf
Given that CT’s state employees and retireed make up a small portion of CT workforce it seems impossible that every household owes approx $20,000 in OPEB not including pension shortfalls?
In my neighborhood, if a state employee held a meeting with 23 neighbors and said “Each of these 23 households owe me $20,000 in benefits plus at least as much in a lump sum pension payout” and I have the political clout to demand it from you by court order there would be a riot. And a killing or two.
That is not Labor. That is organized crime.
Bill Whittle has nailed it.
He has spoken the truth about how liberals view conservatives (skip to the 1:55 mark for this part):
Liberals think that conservatives are:
a) Old
b) Stupid
c) Evil
d) Some of the above
e) All of the above
Indeed.
When I was a liberal, this was exactly the way I saw conservatives.
Let’s start with Evil.
I would have a knee jerk reaction to any conservative assuming – knowing – they were rich, greedy, uncaring, selfish, and arrogant. Oh, and they liked to go to war just for the hell of it. In a word: Evil. I would not listen to conservatives talk on any issue because of my rock solid belief that they were horrible human beings who cared not a whit for others.
In this way, a feedback loop was created such that when a conservative would speak, I knew they were evil and felt no desire to listen. (Why get aggravated, right?) Or, if for some reason I was compelled to listen for a few minutes, every word that came out of their mouth was tainted with the awful truth that I knew. Yes, they were evil.
Next up: Stupid.
Like my conviction that conservatives were evil, so too was my firm belief that they were also, for the most part, stupid. (If a conservative somehow managed to squeak past my stupid label, it didn’t matter because they were at the very least, evil.) There were all sorts of ways stupid played out. For sure, if they were from the south, they were dumb. If they were from the mid-west, well I just knew they couldn’t be that bright. I mean, the great plains? How could anyone from there be smart? Any other geographic pockets of conservatives were also stupid because of the obvious fact that they were stupid. (Yeah, I know. Really pathetic.) In my view, only people from major cities could be smart. And then, only the highly educated. The intelligentsia.
As a student, I expected my professors and fellow students to be super liberal. If I got a whiff of anyone who seemed like they may not be toeing the party line to the fullest, I was disgusted. I also looked down on those who viewed college as a place to get job training. College was about study. It had nothing to do with anything concrete related to functioning as an independent adult in the real world.
(sigh)
And lastly: Old
Old was often part of a larger category that was about blandness and sameness. Conservatives were old, but also male, and also white. This fueled my feedback loop because all of these things were, well, you guessed it. Evil.
I would scratch my head in wonder about how any black person could be conservative. I thought
J. C. Watts was insane. I simply could not fathom how any black person could be a Republican. I felt bad for him. It seemed as if he was bamboozled. Yup. He was an Uncle Tom without a doubt.
Needless to say I did not appreciate the hypocrisy of my views. I was liberal. I was about freedom and opportunity for all. Yet here I was holding a view of a black man that dictated he must think a certain way.
I also had an incredible sense of entitlement regarding the media. If a conservative was interviewed, I was outraged. How dare they give that person air time! And if a conservative was interviewed on NPR, well that was just way over the line.
Seriously. This was my thinking.
All the while, I felt an extraordinary sense of self-righteousness. America was about liberalism. There was no room – no room! – for conservative ideas.
Needless to say (again), I did not appreciate my own hypocrisy. Here I was walking around, taking full advantage of living in a free and open society, while having a view of our society that was not free and open at all.
But of course I didn’t see that. I didn’t see any of it.
I’ve traveled a long journey since then and I would like to express my gratitude to American Thinker for being such an important place that helped me along the way.
Sometimes I wonder, and perhaps some of you do as well: Are we just preaching to the converted on these blogs? Then I remind myself that I was a non-conservative who visited AT, peered in, and stayed a little while, reading articles and comments. And I returned. And bit by bit ideas began to percolate. And questions arose. Perspectives began to shift. I started to seek out information and views contrary to what was familiar to me. And step by step I strayed far away from a lifetime of liberal “thinking.”
Bill Whittle has it right about how liberals view conservatives. But change can, and does, occur.
Don’t underestimate the power of your comments on these threads. You never know who may read a comment, follow a train of thought, become curious, and maybe, just maybe, begin a journey.
Best game of thrones this week: Steve King in Indiana throwing some gas on the fire and saying “I Never Heard of Anyone Getting Pregnant by Rape”
If the GOP had a sense of humor they’d all pile on and echo the same statement. How else do you real with the faux outrage of the “War On Women” types?
Akins real sin is picking up points in the polls after the ‘War on Women’ poseurs started in. Now the GOP has a clear path to victory: spoof the militants on the LEFT. Game them. Look at them and say “Gee I didn’t know that late term fetus was viable. Did you? Ooow. Gee Willikers. How do you like them apples?”