Tuesday, November 23, 2021

Symbolic And More


Not only descriptive, also prescriptive.

Early in the video below, Bill Maher can be seen lamenting "Democrats have gone from the party that protects people to the party that protects feelings, from 'ask not what your country can do for you' to 'you owe me an apology.'"

That was eight days after Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as President and (at 5:09), Maher is seen noting "what matters is that while you self-involved fools were policing the language at the Kids Choice Awards, a madman talked his way into the White House."

Everyone has an obsession, and his may as well be a healthful one. Lucky for us, Maher is still at it, and thus it was that when recently interviewed by Chris Cuomo, the star of Real Time inevitably went to the theme he has been hammering home for several years.  He commented

I think there's a lot of old-school liberals, like me, who don't like what's going on, on the far of the left. I always keep - I keep saying, when you're doing something that sounds like a headline in "The Onion," that's when you've gone too far, you know? Land of Lincoln cancels Lincoln. That really happened. They tore down Lincoln's.

It's not Illinois, but it'll do. As Cuomo pointed out, roughly 800 miles to the east

A statue of Thomas Jefferson has been removed from city hall in New York, because the founder and third president enslaved people.

A work crew spent several hours on Monday freeing the 884lb, 7ft statue from its pedestal in the council chambers and carefully maneuvering it into a padded wooden crate, for the short journey to the New York Historical Society.

The city public design commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor, Bill de Blasio, voted earlier in the day to exile the statue, sculpted in 1833, to the society on a 10-year loan.

Some members wanted it to remain on public display instead of standing in the lobby of a venue, on Central Park West, that charges $22 admission, the New York Post reported.

Maher stated that most voters are unaware that Democratic officials nationally are united against "defunding the police" but are associated with the harmful slogan, as they are with critical race theory. It is a "disconnect that the Democrats really better address."  Stating "these are 'Onion' headlines," Maher remarked  "and yet, this is where this party is or - I don't think that's where the party is. It's where the faction that gets all the headlines. And again, it goes in the Blue bin. And the average voter sees that and attaches it."

The political impact plays out less in presidential elections, in which the candidates and their views are well known to the average voter, than in elections down-ballot.  Below the presidential level, the effect, though slow-moving and sometimes indirect, could be fatal to many aspiring and incumbent Democrats.  



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