"My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,
Or else my heart concealing it will break." - The Bard....
“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of a Republic.”
- Plutarch....
Need Little. Want Less. Love More.
Ever hear the expression, "He's a hairdo"? This is what it what it means; it's what's known in salon circles as the "Half- coif".
Photo from the NY Times. This struck me of one of the best photos of Trump, his back turned to the public, his vanity on full display. The photographer, Ms. Demczuk, captured Trump's sinister half-assed essence for posterity, and deserves a Pulitzer for her efforts in this series.
The Democratic presidential hopeful said: ‘Man, I’m just born to be in it.’ He is, after all, a rich kid from a well-connected family
Who is 2020 presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke? – video profile
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Lord give me the confidence of a mediocre white man! Specifically, I wouldn’t mind the confidence of Beto O’Rourke. A dude so assured of his inner greatness that, after losing a Senate bid, he decided the next logical step would be to run for president. Not only did he lose, by the way, he lost to Ted Cruz: a man so unlikable there’s even a conspiracy theory floating around that he’s the Zodiac killer.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think losing one election disqualifies someone from jumping into the presidential nominations. Stacey Abrams has said “2020 is definitely on the table”, and I’d be 100% behind her running. (Then again, Abrams didn’t really lose the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial contest; she had the election stolen from her because of voter suppression tactics.)
No, it’s not Beto’s loss last year that bothers me, it’s his entitlement. His certainty that he’s qualified for the most powerful job in the world despite his lack of experience. His belief that he is qualified for the role despite the fact that he himself has absolutely no idea what he stands for. “I don’t know where I am on a [political] spectrum and I almost could care less,” Beto recently boasted during a stop in Wisconsin.
I’ll tell you where Beto is on the political spectrum: he’s wherever it’s most convenient for him to be. He announced his presidential bid by talking about the environment but his six-year record in Congress shows him to be a friend of the fossil fuel industry. His voting record is characterized by flip-flopping and he is vague about his position on healthcare and raising taxes. The only strong conviction he really seems to have is that he deserves to be president. “Man, I’m just born to be in it,” he recently enthused to Vanity Fair.
In many senses Beto is right: he was born to be successful. He is, after all, a rich kid from a well-connected family. His dad, Pat O’Rourke was a county judge and got 19-year-old Beto (who had no interest in politics at the time) an internship with the West Texas congressman Ron Coleman. Like many privileged people, Beto seems to have confused his luck for God-given talent; a talent so spectacular that he doesn’t need to do the hard work mere mortals do. “I don’t ever prepare a speech,” he boasted to Vanity Fair. Can you imagine a woman boasting about how she never prepares? No, because women know they need to be overprepared just to get a foot in the door.
Ultimately, what might be most frustrating about Beto is that we all know someone like him. He’s the guy in the meeting who hasn’t done any of the work but who repeats a woman’s points and immediately gets a round of applause and a promotion. He’s the guy who pays eloquent lip service to the importance of diversity, but would never go so far as conceding a woman might be better qualified for a job than him. He’s the epitome of mediocre white male confidence. And if there is one thing America does not need at the moment, it’s more mediocre white guys running things.
