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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Built on firm french fry foundations
Most solidly conservative
Ham Burglin' buggery
And new fast food preservatives..
I agree wholeheartedly with most of what you said, but the name you needed to leave out was Jesse Jackson, Jr. Yes, he has a name, but he ran for the House, not the Senate, and is now an experienced legislator whose elevation to the Senate would stand on his merits, not his father's name. I was appalled at the Biden manipulations and, much as I admire Robert Kennedy, Jr., I would not want to see him step into a Senate seat as his first legislative position. Even if you have a name, it's important to work your way up, in my never humble opinion.
I did not vote for Hillary. I'm tired of Clintons and Bushes. There are 300,000,000 people in the U.S.: surely someone without one of those last names is capable of governing the country?
Thanks for writing this Glenn. I'm tired of spouses, offspring, and children viewing elected offices as some kind of vested right.
Yglesias:
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/12/thought_of_the_day_12.php
"It would have surprised me — a lot — if two years ago you’d told me that conservatives would be hailing Hillary Clinton’s appointment as Secretary of State as a great ideological victory for the American right."
~
Please Lady P. And please no comment until doomsday.
But. "My Great Grandfather" was a Baltimore City Sheriff.
He was in a bare-knuckle boxing match. He merited it.
Political famlies is really nothing new, it has been going on since the inception of the United States. It mkes sinse as the desire to serve is probably an inherited gene. Besides mnay politicians, such as the Kennedys believe in pubic service.
Since public office does not pays as much as the private sector many of those who serve do so because they have family money to rely on, or as in Biden's case he lives simply.
Look at Axelrod who is oging to work in the White house with Obama. He is giving up a big income to take a job that pays a lot less.
Those who run for public office make sacrifices that many who work in the private sector are unwilling to do. Besides these family members all have political experience. Like any any other career ,politicians need experience, connections and ability to compromise to get anywhere.
Maybe those who complain should put their money where their mouth is.
The following items might be relevant to the discussion:
Kuznar, Lawrence A., William G. Frederick, and Robert L. Sedlmeyer. "The Effect of Nepotism on the Evolution of Social Inequality," in Studying Societies and Cultures: Marvin Harris's Cultural Materialism and Its Legacy. Boulder: Paradigm, 2007. 168-79.
White, Richard D. "Consanguinity by degrees: Inconsistent Efforts to Restrict Nepotism in State Government." State and Local Government Review 32 (2000): 108-20.
White, Richard D. "A Tale of Two Bureaucrats: Joseph Nourse, Oliver Wolcott Jr., and the Forerunners of American Public Administration." Administration & Society 40 (2008): 384-408.
There is of course also Adam Bellow's In Praise of Nepotism: A Natural History, but I get the feeling (evoked from both academic and popular reviews) that the work relies more on the Natural and less on the History; for myself, I can do unto eternity without people making claims from "human nature."
FYI, being not a student of the Social Sciences, I managed to turn up only those few records above using the short list of Poli-Sci databases with which I am familiar; were the conversation to steer itself toward the finer points of nepotism among the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England or within the world of Beowulf, I'd probably fare better.
It's so disappointing to come too late to the thread to not see why the troll of the day has been named!
"Conservatism is and has been since the early 80s in the DNA of most Americans."--ehillesum
A people unwise enough to fall for the bait-and-switch shenanigans of conservatism will always fall for new & equally dumb things to believe in tomorrow - but rarely the same thing they've already been fooled by.
Don't forget, one of the top acts of the late 80's & early 90's was Milli Vanilli.
Diplomatic experiences
All include
White House
Crumpets and tea...
You two are truly amazing.
Of plumber's butts and cockelshells.
link at sig
How many people want a job where you have to bare your financial soul to the world, put up with reporters poking around in your past in search of any dirt they can find (and, if they find any, putting it on the front page), tolerate ad hominem attacks from your opponent, and have to respond to lies, half-truths, and obfuscations from you opponent.
You want that job? Good. Because you couldn't pay me enough to put up with that kind of crap.
For the past 33 years (PLUS for likely the next 8-16 years- because Biden is ALSO part of this group), all presidents save for two have been left-handed.
The two that were right-handed, Carter and Bush the Second, are pretty universally acknowledged as two of the worst presidents not only of the past half century but of our entire history. (and if you want to throw in another right-hander, Nixon, the list of worst presidents all being right-handed goes back to 1968, or forty years)
As a left-hander myself, I have a particular interest and some first hand (heh heh) familiarity with some of the potential psychology or physiology that may inform this set of occurrences.
I do have some theories as to why this might be, but I am interested in throwing the question out to others first.
Love it. Check it daily. (The daily video, esp.)
I do have a little suggestion. When you name the Toll o' the Day, could you add a little quote? For those latecomers who never see the original post. Heck, you could just make something up if you had to, but I'm sure you'd have pleny of material.
...the revolution wasn't against monarchies per se. Just against someone else's.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
Salon headlines in your mailbox
