It may go unnoted as such, but when Bernie Sanders said "do you have serious questions?" when asked about Hillary Clinton's hair vis a vis his own, we witnessed the collision between serious cultural criticism (the reporter was trying to get Sen. Sanders to say it's sexist that the "liberal" media pay so much attention to Mrs. Clinton's hair) and serious political discussion ("we're the only major country on Earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people," and yet we're talking about hair). I guess it wouldn't have killed Mr. Sanders to say the media is sexist in addition to being frivolous, but actually hearing a candidate say the hair obsession is frivolous is itself a major step forward.
Another day, another member of the "liberal" media, in this case Steve Rattner, claiming that manufacturing job losses haven't fallen to trade deficits but to the alleged inevitability of "productivity growth." Ah, no -- American corporations are, in fact, paying foreign workers in dung pellets to make products consumed by Americans, and no allusion to "productivity growth" can change that. When people like Steve Rattner (the fellow who oversaw the destruction of autoworker jobs and pensions during the 2009 automaker corporation bailout, you may recall) tell you something is "inevitable," they're trying to take the fight out of you. Don't let people do that to you.
Mike Huckabee says Dr. King would be "appalled" with the Black Lives Matter movement if he were alive today. Because, of course, "all lives matter." But context is important here -- the "black lives matter" slogan occurs in the context of a society that too often acts like black lives don't matter, and folks who retort "all lives matter" typically have never had to worry that their next police contact might be the one that kills them.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (E-WI) proposes an Affordable Care Act "replacement" plan, one that would give sliding-scale tax credits to folks without insurance based on age. By coupling tax-credits-which-are-not-insurance and the "sliding scale" concept, Mr. Walker's plan is dumb and eggheaded at the same time, a feat usually only Democrats accomplish. But the "liberal" media will no doubt call the eggheadedness intelligence, since, you know, Scott Walker is bold and rides a Harley.
Finally, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), still running for President as of this writing, says birthright citizenship is a "bad practice" that he'd work to end. Why is it a "bad practice"? Because of anecdotal evidence of "birth tourism"? Also, it's not changing a "law," as he puts it, but changing the Constitution -- specifically, the 14th Amendment. I'd wondered if Republicans would get into a big swordfight over who wants to repeal the 14th Amendment fastest, but not all of them have taken the bait -- I guess the really big swordfight is for 2020! If Scott Walker thinks he's getting away with that non-answer, though, then maybe he's not such a skillful politician after all.
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