Political Theatre category archive

As my two or three regular readers know, I am no fan of Hillary Clinton.

I thought her run against Barrack Obama for the 2008 nomination was characterized by rather distasteful tactics, but I also thought she redeemed herself with a steady and responsible performance as Secretary of State in the Obama administration.

I supported her for the Presidency in 2016, even though I did not particularly “like” her (whatever that means), because it was clear to me that she was the only sane choice (as current events are making more and more clear), because I try to vote with my head and am willing to vote for someone I do not “like,” if I think he or she is the competent choice.

For Pete’s sake, elections are not about “likes” (and certainly not about who you would like to have a beer with, if you drink beer, rather than ambrosia Scotch). They are about competence and policy.

Over at Progress Pond, Martin Longman makes a good case that the “likeability” factor may have been much more important in the 2016 election than one would–er–like.

Via Job’s Anger.

They are not the judges you have been told they are.

Via Job’s Anger.

Bob Cesca points out that, as the coronavirus spreads, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the United States is suffering a crisis of competence at the highest levels. A snippet; follow the link for the rest:

The presidency isn’t a show, elections aren’t a game and the president should never be a game-show host.

Shorter Dan Casey: That word does not mean what they tell you it means.

Ed at Gin and Tacos analyzes the internal contradictions between long- and short-term goals facing both the Democratic and Republican parties. Here’s a bit of what he has to say about the latter; follow the link for the rest. It’s an interesting take.

In the GOP, as I’ve written about many times in the past, some people seem to realize that the party base of older, white, and largely rural voters is rapidly shrinking in comparison to more diverse and urbanized America. They are forever coming up with some new strategy to broaden the party’s appeal, the kind of thing that 20 years ago would have been called “minority outreach” without causing widespread cringing. The problem, of course, is that the party’s best short-term strategy for maximizing its success is to double down on white nationalism, something they’ve done with increasing regularity since 1980. Each election cycle someone in the Party says “Ok this time let’s try to appeal to Hispanics, it’s important!” and then when it doesn’t work immediately, and when they sense that it’s not going to gain them anywhere near as many votes as the usual dog-whistle (or plain old whistle) stuff, they go back to what they know.

Gordon Weil makes a convincing case that the current Federal Administration values cronies over competence.

Via Job’s Anger.

Afterthought:

Werner Herzog’s Bear has some thoughts for the Bernie Bros.