What is curious is their line of attack. Today Fox returns to the theme that California fires are due to insufficient masculinity.
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You screwed up, Gavin Newsom. You screwed up. There was plenty of water. Last year was record rainfall or the year before, record rainfall. Snowmelt, reservoir the water.
Good times create weak men and weak men create hard times. Weak policy creates hard times. We're now in hard times. We need to have strong men so we can create good times again. That's the way it is. Strong men and women, sound policy. Everybody's going to be in a better position.
Democrats don't concede that feminine means weak. In second wave feminism after publication of The Feminine Mystique in 1963, women can do anything men can do. Women are in the professions. Women can be in combat. Women can pay for dates and initiate sex. Women are men's equals. Trump is saying the opposite. Hillary Clinton "lacked stamina," he said, and Kamala Harris has a "low IQ." Trump communicates that women need protection from strong men.
Presidents and party leaders have a long tradition of representing physical strength and rugged manliness. George Washington was tall and physically imposing. Andrew Jackson fought in duels, carried a bullet inside him, and was nicknamed "Old Hickory" and "Indian Killer." William Henry Harrison was the hero of Tippecanoe; Lincoln was "the Rail Splitter;" Theodore Roosevelt had a rugged cowboy life in the Dakotas, then led the Rough Riders. In my lifetime, JFK praised "vigor" and initiated a presidential physical fitness program. On his ranch Ronald Reagan chopped firewood for the camera. Donald Trump brands himself as a billionaire Lothario, a mix of Hugh Hefner and Rambo.
If the U.S. had a parliamentary system, a woman representing a feminine-branded party might emerge as a consensus candidate, but the U.S. has a presidential system. Here the president is the head of state and commander in chief of the armed forces. This gives an advantage to the party with the male valence and sensibility. The strong-male-protector vibe has traction with voters, including women. This frustrates Democrats. It frustrates me. But Democrats deny this reality of our culture at their peril.
I think Democrats need to fix their branding by adding back some symbols of toughness and vigor. The worst way to do this is with phony bolted-on masculinity symbols, e.g. John Kerry wearing bird-hunting gear. People can see the staged phoniness.
Democrats shouldn't scoff at the notion of Rambo Trump. People seem to like it the idea. Democrats should learn from this. If Americans expect their national leader to be strong, fearless, and tough -- and they do -- then Democrats should give them a candidate with those qualities.
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14 comments:
MARK CUBAN FROM PITTSBURGH, PA ALL THE WAY !!!!!!!
Misogyny is nothing new. Racism is nothing new. Hating on poor immigrants is nothing new. One party trumpets these views and that is nothing new either. Reminder: Weak men fear strong women.
Democrats need to stop taking extreme positions on issues such as gender identity ideology. A little common sense and common decency goes a long way.
By the way, I suspect that Jill Biden, who works in academia, is responsible for some of the nonsense in the Biden administration. But overall, Joe Biden has been a very good president.
John Kerry was awarded the Silver Star Medal. In this cynical era, that isn't important. Sad. Thank you for your service, John.
As for weak policy, our Jackson County Board of Commissioners allows fireworks to be sold in the county in the summer. The BOC must ban fireworks from now on; so should every local city. This is a simple common sense fire prevention issue; it's not a personal-freedom issue any longer. If the BOC cannot enact a complete fireworks ban before summer, we should not take them seriously when they talk about fire prevention/protection; instead, we should look for candidates for commissioner with the intestinal fortitude to ban fireworks.
Sure, that bird hunting photo op really paid off for Tim Waltz. Better yet, why not decide the top office by arm or Sumo wrestling. More exciting and less expensive!
Natural disasters intensified by climate change. The scale overwhelms. A typical house fire brings 2-4 engines...how many do you need for 1000 houses? 5000? 10,000?
The criticism is stupid.
This is not about physical toughness. This is about mental competence. Government is supposed to provide basic services like police and fire, and not focus on frivolous issues like climate change and DEI and "gayness". California and LA have been run by Democrats for decades, and they've failed. If they were "real men", then they'd accept responsibility and "man-up" to their failures.
Trump and his GOP cult blame the LA fires on everything from Gov. “Newscum” to “wokeness” to DEI…and now to a lack of masculinity? I’d like to see some of those “manly” ignoranuses fight the fires or help the many thousands of people who lost everything. Instead, they offer clueless accusations that just add insult to injury.
If being a pathetic excuse for a human being is what it takes to win an election anymore, let the Republicans have it. Making the Democratic Party more like them wouldn’t be an improvement. We don’t need more psychopaths in leadership positions. What we need are people willing and able to address the issues that we continue to ignore at our peril – and they aren’t “wokeness” or a lack of masculinity.
Climate change is estimated to be costing the U.S. about $150 billion per year, our national debt is becoming unsustainable, and many Americans can't even tell fact from fiction. Neither “Rambo Trump” nor any other imaginary superhero is going to fix it.
I just found it curious that Trump got the majority of white women's vote.
The problem with Kerry was that he came across as a wimp, regardless of what his military record may have been.
And then there were his fellow Swift Boaters, who had very uncomplimentary things to say about him during his service.
What Republicans are good at is packaging, in this case masculinity. It seems stupid, but it really does count as something to pay attention to. Maybe democrats need to take the mantle of we are the smart common sense party that doesn’t believe in wacko stuff.
In 2013, when Bobby Jindal was the Republican governor of Louisiana, he referred to the GOP as "the stupid party." It's gone downhill from there.
Here’s a little historical perspective on fires and policy. The National Fire Protection Association was founded in Boston in 1896 by insurance companies that wanted to reduce insurance claims from fires, and sprinkler companies that wanted to sell more fire suppression systems.
After a lot of research, they discovered that prevention was more effective than better fire brigades to put out fires or sprinkler systems (as good as they are)
They studied root causes and found that while sprinkler systems helped, what really would help is better and safer electrical design and material that could prevent fires in the first place. That’s where those pesky electrical buildings codes come from. It turns out they also keep people from being electrocuted.
Studying root causes is handy when you truly want to understand and solve problems. It’s practical - not “elite”. So like most places, Southern California is experiencing tough climate conditions which creates the massive fuel load for these fires - which stresses critical water infrastructure that was designed for a climate and population 100 years ago.
Big trucks, big biceps and most importantly big talk cannot solve these kinds of problems (especially from pretend heroes)
More crises will come in the next 4 years and if Trump’s past record is any indication (Paper towels for Puerto Rico anyone?) he will deny, ignore or blame and defame his predecessors and state and local opponents. And the propaganda machine will do the same.
Banned localities
Eugene: Banned fireworks in 2022 due to fire safety concerns
Milwaukie: Banned the sale, possession, and use of fireworks within city limits
Bend: Has a total ban on fireworks
Sisters: Has a total ban on fireworks
Restricted localities
Medford
Prohibits the use of retail fireworks during fire season, except for July 1–6
Maybe democrats need to take the mantle of we are the smart common sense party that doesn’t believe in wacko stuff.
You misspelled woke. 😀
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