I Brook No Dissent

Today's NYT (dead trees division) has a pundit fest, topic being Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists version 2. David Brooks is among them, and, once again, reveals himself to be a Waffler.

He rides his recent hobby horse: the sub-GED knuckledraggers are put-upon Good Guys persecuted by the educated folks.

It's a turn away from rule by the educated class to rule by people who think the educated class is self-serving and incompetent.

Like hydroxychloroquine being the cure of Covid-19 came from the mouths of educated elite? And so on. All Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists offers the sub-GED class is Class Warfare.

I'll revert to my core theory of the last decade. Trump is the wrong answer to the right question. He became president because over the last many decades we in the educated class built a system that is rigged. The children of affluent parents have advantages at every step of the way &mash; from preschool through college and the job market. And we passed a series of immigration, trade and education policies that benefit us, and hurt those without our degrees. High-school-educated people die eight years sooner. They have many fewer friends. They marry less and divorce more.

Of course, this applies only to the Ivy League and the near-to. I've not the total count off the top of my bean, but the Pundit Class has pointed out that Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists has been filling his administration from the Ivy League ruling class. Not the sub-GED knuckledraggers. Of course, the sub-GED class are so stupid, they buy his grift that he's on their side. He only uses them as cannon fodder in their War on intelligence. While it is true that private college is expensive, the so-called Land Grant Colleges, aka State U, were created just so that poor families' kids could get better education than their parents. That's been true in Blue states; Red states are more interested in spending hundreds of millions of Bongo Bucks on football and hoop. Show's where their priorities are.

Of course, Brooks never does assert that a country runs better when the ruling class is from the sub-GED knuckledraggers. Of course, not.

The Biden administration was built on the theory that if you redistribute huge amounts of money to people and places left behind, they will return to the Democratic fold. It didn't happen because you can't use money to solve a problem primarily about recognition and respect.

Many things wrong with that excuse. First, if Uncle Sugar sends Bongo Bucks to Red states, with no strings attached, what's the odds that they'll use the money to facilitate better access to material education for the poor? Zero. Second, it's been the Right Wing Economist's mantra going back to Adam Smith, that a worker's wages are only what the employer decides they're worth. So, employers (the true ruling class) always decide that sub-GED knuckledraggers ain't be worth a shit. They always have, and always will. There's a reason they ship jobs to slave wage dictatorships, and hire sub-GED knuckledraggers for shit jobs. That's all such jobs are worth.

And, of course, the sub-GED class continues to elect politicians (at all levels of Damn Gummint) who play to the Culture War, but not to offering them better education and healthcare and such. And, why, exactly, should the the sub-GED class deserve "recognition and respect" from the Rest of Us when what they say and do is God Damned Stupid 99.44% of the time? How should this "recognition and respect" be manifest? "Congratulations on passing the biggest stool of the week in this here county"? A gold Participation in Life trophy for all? Anathema to the Right Wingnuts, and they've said so enough times. Yes global climate change is a hoax because The Bible says that God won't send another Flood? Riddle me that Batman. Again, I say, the Right Wingnuts have always been driven by the mantra that you get what you can earn. If you don't know your ass from your elbow, you won't earn much.

Party likes it's 1829!! That notion wins votes from the simple minded (but more voted for someone not named Kim Don-Felon and his Merry Band of Fascists than voted for him; aka no majority), but does little to cure what ails the simple minded.

Mellencamp put it perfectly:

The simple minded and the uninformed can be easily led astray.

We live there now.