Something there is about the Donks closing message that reminds me of the psychotic HAL 9000 computer, or perhaps the abusive spouse. "I know everything hasn't been quite right with me...but I can assure you now...very confidently...that it's going to be all right again. I feel much better now. I really do."
A plea by Brown economist Emily Oster captures it perfectly. "[M]ost errors were made by people who were working in earnest for the good of society." You'd think an economist who is an economist's kid would remember that line about not much good being done by people who affected to trade for the public interest.
How about "no" to moving on? "They refused to see what was right in front of them. And, in almost every case, they refused to apologize." So it always is with narcissists. "We can only move forward when people like you and Randi Weingarten and Leana Wen fully realize the PAIN and HARM you caused." But like that abusive spouse, or HAL, they're confident everything will be fine. "The only remorse I can sense is the panic of the progressive activists as they see the scale of the retribution for the over two years of bureaucratic bullying and media misinformation that Americans have been treated to. Being sorry for receiving the just punishment to which you are due is NOT remorse." We're on to the scam. "What they are hoping, is that their female base will believe the lie that Dr. Oster is peddling, that it was all just an unfortunate mistake, and could never happen again. It’s in the past!"
No, it's reality dawning. "Because there’s an election coming up that Democrats might lose?"
The authoritarianism of the lockdown years must never be forgotten. The reckoning has not yet begun.
After that lengthy prologue, the usual roundup of pithy elaborations of traditional Cold Spring Shops themes follows.
1. Apology accepted, Democrats. “Unfortunately, these results show that premises I have articulated for years now are just not true. I’m not sure what to say about the results except that I have been wrong about everything.” Now, turf them out! "[I]f they don’t want us pushing back, they should not push us first."
2. Democrats suck at governance, and logic. "Along these lines, we’re voting Republican because we’re sick of being told that every policy disagreement we have with the Left is rooted in racism, sexism, or some other mean-spirited 'ism' on our part."
3. Easier to abolish the People? "There is a contempt for the voters that we see from today's Democrats that I think is new and dangerous."
4. "Our Democracy" is another cudgel. "If the norms of our system are at risk, one might also think it'd be important to foster and protect them in every way possible." Bonus quote: "If they have to choose between protecting democracy and advancing their pet left-wing causes, the pet left-wing causes win every time."
5. Real women in politics. "They are running as Americans, Republican Americans, and that refusal to play the gender card itself owns the libs."
6. Jeffrey Sachs, court intellectual, bails. "Biden inherited a difficult economic hand—the pandemic, excess Fed liquidity created in 2020, large budget deficits in 2020, and pre-existing global tensions. Yet he has greatly exacerbated the economic and geopolitical crises rather than solved them. We need a change of foreign policy."
7. Technocracy. "The lockdowns, I believe history will show, were probably the stupidest thing that the government will have done in the 21st century unless they get into a nuclear war. It was idiotic."
8. Trick or treat. "While inflation is haunting many food products, candyflation could be lower if the U.S. government did not cartelize sugar."
9. Perception. "Illinois is only known for Chicago, but it's really just 99% corn."
10. Reduce the administrivia. "There is so much we could be doing to encourage seasoned teachers to stay in the classroom beyond increased pay." Hold the line on classroom discipline as well.
11. How's that transition working out? "Rather than understanding that Russia would lose its leverage if the United States supported its domestic oil and gas industry, and the Keystone XL pipeline, the administration proposes a long-term, high risk green revolution as the best way to counter Russia’s aggression."
12. Rape, incest, life of the mother, and convenience. "Abortion Is 'Our Society's Insurance Policy' for Easy Sex."
13. Jaw-jaw in time of war. "If we can't talk about how to end the war, the war won't end."
14. An anti-immigrant bundle, to boot. "We think of Prohibition today as a quasi-moral crusade and ignore the suffrage part."
15. Stocks and flows. "Wealth turns out to run way bigger than income." Barrel. Fish. So-called progressives.
16. Isn't that what democracy looks like? "The real threat that has them upset is the American public threatening their hold on power by voting their worthless selves out of office."
17. Losing the good of the intellect. "Faculty in the liberal arts can’t give a persuasive defense of the liberal arts anymore."
18. Epistemic closure. "There is no greater echo chamber today than higher education, which has felt emboldened to institutionalize management’s intolerance of conservative ideas precisely because there has been no cost to do so."
19. Presentism is at odds with Marxism. "Shakespeare lived hundreds of years before the British Empire. He can hardly be held responsible for how his plays were misused after his death." The rising bourgeoisie required "beautiful language."
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