The Blue Blazers are being even more self-obtuse than usual about this one. For example,
| She has Native American ancestry -- so what?
This non-story was discussed here yesterday.
The Herald, bastion of women’s rights and tireless protector of minorities, loudly proclaims that Elizabeth Warren is an “affirmative action hire” — that she attempted to “gain promotions a quicker pace than other candidates”. Their sole evidence for this, of course, is that she truthfully answered a form inquiring about her ethnic background “[I]f she in fact didn’t do it”? If she didn’t do WHAT, John? If she didn’t truthfully acknowledge that she is of Native American heritage? Do you have any insight into just how ugly this makes you seem? Once again, the GOP panders to bigotry, prejudice, and false stereotypes. Once again our local right-wing stalwarts repeat the party line. Once again, appeals to bigotry, prejudice, and misogyny dominate the “message” of the GOP. somervilletom @ Tue 1 May 9:18 AM |
| When will you learn, JohnD? Do not expect rational responses from left-wing zealots. They are more interested in nit-picking Brown than discussing facts. They will have the usual egg all over their faces in November as they circle the wagons, once again, around their cloned ideology. edgarthearmenian @ Tue 1 May 10:59 AM |
| Awfully bitter this morning,
Edgar.
This is a non-issue and a half. It has Fehrnstrom’s fingers all over it. The idea is to throw it at Warren and see if any of it sticks. At best, it makes Warren seem like she’s not one of “us” (whoever that is).
And I don’t think it’s fair to question Brown’s story about sexual abuse or his actions afterward. A victim’s a victim regardless of his politics. mark-bail @ Tue 1 May 11:29 AM |
Somevolks *do* have really clever fingers, though, and if there be no ’there’ here (here on the upper slopes of the Great Blue Hill, hard by the Palace of Public Television) yet about fifty metres sociodownhill to the left -- one can almost see it through the murmuring pines and the hemlocks--stands quite a large THERE. I refer to the picture-worthy Institution for Active Affirmation. Let ’Fingers’ Fehrnstrom once link Her Beatitude to *that* joint in the mind of "Archie Bunker," and ¡ . . .!
Senator Fratboy should, perhaps, have been caused to utter the actual A-words. If nobility and gentry who preen themselves on "intellectual foundation" cannot work out what is going on--and it looks as if they can’t--it would be rash to assume that the proles an’ plebes an’ Herald fodder targeted can do so.
Meanwhile, this instructive episode of our backwoods politics has come to the attention of the bright lights of Potomac River City, as follows:
| ... [T]he fact that this story has dribbled on for days shows how aggressive Brown has been, and raises questions about Warren’s ability to respond in kind.
“The Brown campaign has been more effective in the past few weeks and months being on offense and asking a lot of questions of Elizabeth Warren and the campaign, making a lot of accusations,” said Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh. “The Warren campaign should be doing the same — there’s plenty there.” Brown himself told reporters Monday that “if there are questions, she should answer them” but said “I haven’t accused her of anything.” His campaign manager, Jim Barnett, was less coy, saying Warren needs to “apologize for participating in this hypocritical sham.” Warren campaign manager Mindy Myers suggested the line of inquiry was sexist, comparing it to Brown’s argument that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was not experienced enough for confirmation. But the campaign has largely laid low, instead trying to change the subject to the fact that Brown’s 23 year old daughter is benefitting from the federal health care law he opposed. |
Assisted by the mind of Myers, the fingers of Fehrnstrom ought to be invincible. The frathouse ethos is ‘sexist’ as it were by definition. Nevertheless, to expect to profit electorally from pointing that out to the fratboys an’ their ’babes is like assuming that Eskimoes secretly hate blubber and will infallibly make a billionaire of the first stout entrepreneur whobrings tofu and mashed potatoes to the North.
The coyless Neocomrade J. X. Barnett is interesting too. Paddy and Eye take "this hypocritical sham" to refer to the whole goodship "Affirmative Action" from stern to starboard and back again, but the speaker’s meanin’ may well have been only the Law Squaw fuss proper. Ordinarily we would want to subtract a few points from the neocomrade’s score for missin’ a trick, but in this particular case, maybe not so fast.
One may take a very narrow context for the ‘sham’ or the broadest possible as one chooses, and either way it is the same sort of ‘hypocrisy’. The sort of ‘hypocrisy’ that Senator Fratboy was ventriloquized with in the first place, which consists in The Beautiful People [1] advancing social programmes ostensibly to benefit those less fortunate than Themselves, but in fact chielfly to feather their own nests even more lavishly. Vanilla or generic A. A. does this nest redecoration, I presume, by creating a subclass of ‘diverse’ clients and dependents who could never have "made it" [2] on their own and who will therefore -- ¡hah! -- be enternally grateful to Those who helped carry them up Mount Meritocracy lolling in a palanquin.
It may look like a sort of optional epicycle added to the System of Sham when a Beautiful Person like the Frau Prof. Dok. hops in and gets carried a little too, but I suspect that in the eyes of the Plain People of Ire Land this alleged abuse reveals what the really operative rule is in every case. The programme was concocted to benefit its administrators rather than its announced beneficiaries. Bein’ themselves neither the one nor the other, the P. P. I. L. think of Affirmative Action exactly as Count Dracula thinks of crucifixes and garlic frappes.
Paddy and Eye take this background for granted, which means that we can hardly account Kindermeister von Fehrnstrom a second Newton for noticing it. [3]
The Blazers, however, who either have not noticed or do not care to mention, seem almost to deserve the reproaches of Arminius the Edgarite. Maybe even the "cloned ideology" reproach, though it is hard to be sure when one has really no idea what their Armie was goin' on ’bout beyond that he obviously thinks it is a zinger.
Happy days.
--JHM
___
[1] "Thank you, Howie"
[2] "Thank you, Party Neocomrade N. X. Podhòretz"
[3] This is a corrolary of Groucho's Law, the one about not caring to join any club that would admit persons no better than oneself.
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