There is much truth to this. One of my most fond memories of the last time I saw my uncle was the night before we caught our bus out of Monterrey.
We stayed up until three in the morning, drinking beer and cooking various chickens over his tiny grill, talking with the neighbors, warming up tortillas and picking meat off of the bird and snacking.
I did not know it was the last I would ever see of him but I couldn’t have planned it any better.
So, this teacher is in Kansas and is front and center in the war on education and basic logic. His complaint -and it is valid – is that he faces all kinds of hatred and opposition from those who feel that being an expert in his field actually makes him unable to access how his job should be. And he makes some good analogies.
That said, he forgets one thing. Four years ago, the same people damning him – literally – for having an opinion on how he should be evaluated made a hero out of “Joe the Plumber”.
“Joe” was actually named Samuel. Samuel had no plumber’s license, had a history of domestic disturbance, and began the long line of Republicans disrespecting Barack Obama to his face, namely because the color of said face made it seemingly okay to be rude to.
Samuel the unlicensed plumber was making about $40k a year. His complaint was that if he started his own business Obama’s proposed tax rates would bankrupt his small business. His small fictional business.
The higher taxes would kick in at either $200,000 or $250,000 a year. Even with a shitty accountant, Samuel would have had to make at least $400,000 before his tax rate would fall into that range. Most small businesses, particularly new ones, would have a lot of write-offs, like, say, salaries.
So, the unlicensed plumber would have to a) have a business that made 10 times more than he currently was, b) gain clients even though he didn’t have a license, and b) would have to be completely inept at tax accounting.
But people accepted this concept as reality. They made a hero out of an uncertified wife beater.
THAT is the kind of person who does not trust a licensed, trained educator. That is the kind of person whose opinion really shouldn’t matter, but strangely does all the time.
While this article argues the the GOP is a textbook case of adapt or die, it may be missing the point.
Gingrich may be challenging a few of the economic fundamentals or the GOP, but he embraces and exemplifies the hypocrisy, bigotry, and faux patriotism the party has come to be known by many Americans.
Sure, he – for the moment – sees unbridled capitalism as a threat to democracy. Then again, I knew that pretty much by my 12th birthday with no coaching or degrees required. So, really, how smart is he to have just had that occur to him?
No, this is a party increasingly made up of and working for those who have wealth or think if they pray hard enough, they’ll earn it. Or at least be able to keep a better standard of living than the mud people taking over “their” country. Newt is just a splinter off of the twisted branch they are cultivating.