"Compared to..." is one of my favorite questions whenever a person or group is being criticised. The British Empire created this or that depredation... Compared to? American businesses operating abroad exploited this Caribbean, or Pacific, or Middle Eastern nation... Compared to? Israel did this, Pinochet did that, UMichigan skirted this, Mrs Wagner interfered with that...black musicians, Cambridge dons, Chicago police, Taylor Swift...
I thought Donald Trump was going to get us into senseless wars because he would feel personal enmity. Didn't happen. He was blindingly arrogant, but it was an arrogance that said "I can successfully negotiate with anyone." That is insane, but compared to...?
Each of these might be deeply corrupt, and their individual or collective souls may be in peril and we should indeed care about justice. Yet in all judgements we need to know what the peer group is/was, what the choices were, whether it is likely to be a stupid one-off or an ongoing problem.
As you know, I have paid little attention to the NH presidential primary, even though I have one of the supposedly most valuable votes in the country, where I count at the fifth decimal place instead of the seventh. Yay, me. I have cared every cycle since 1968, but this time, not so much. I know, I know, this is the most important election of my lifetime. But somehow, they all have been the most important in my lifetime, amiright? My wife has gradually decided she likes Nikki Haley, and her new mission is to find Chris Christie voters to persuade. I have had a few things that worried me, especially her tendency to get trapped in questions she should be sidestepping...but Compared to whom? And I'm looking at you, Donnie from Queens calling into the radio show for the 75th time. I get it. You think the Giants suck and think you could do better. Well, the Giants do suck, but...
We vote in two weeks. I still might just not vote at all for the first time. But I'm otherwise voting for Haley. Talk me out of it, but always with the background of "Compared to..."
Your other scorecard is to track all the sympathetic comments from prominent Democratic women who have made their careers largely off not being men, yet achieving great things...well no, that's not really so, is it? Hillary Clinton, sound off! I said, Hillary Cl...
Never mind. They told us it was only because Sarah Palin was so terrible. They lied.
"But the reader of the Deerslayer tale dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together."
ReplyDeleteWho you vote for is your business, and I’m not a Republican anyway. I will note on Haley her refusal to list slavery as the cause of the Civil War, which she followed up by defending herself by claiming to have many black friends. I feel like a vote for her is a vote to restore a Republican leadership that goes around stepping on rakes clearly marked “property of cartoon mouse, for cartoon cat use only.”
ReplyDeleteThat was the very incident I was thinking of. Good image.
ReplyDeleteSeems to be a moot point now though there may be some utility in keeping people from selecting him.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/chris-christie-drops-2024-presidential-race-rcna127993