Pauline Kael Syndrome
By Mitch Berg
To: Lieutenant Governor Flanagan
From: Mitch Berg, Irascible Peasant
Re: This…
Lieutant Governor Flanagan,
About this appearance, on a local, uh, livestream, I guess?
I have so many questions.
Baaaaaaaaaaahb: For starters: Does anyone really care how you dress? And by “anyone”, I don’t mean “Baaaaaaahb from FRIDley” – although we’ll come back to him, and to there. You’re a public figure. You’re going to get, uh, “Feedback”.
But you are one of the four most powerful people in MInnesota; you are arguably the most powerful Lieutenant Governor in recent Minnesota history, since the Governor only serves at the pleasure of the extreme “progressive” caucus you lead. Beyond that, yoiu’re a member of the political class, from a social echo chamber in you can do pretty much anything you want, without any consequences whatsoever (and, indeed, have done just that). You (and your family) have a lifetime sinecure, on the taxpayer’s dime. You could wear aluminum foil pants and a 2LiveCrew t-shirt, or pretty much anything but a MAGA cap, with complete impunity.
(Indeed – given that you’ve never, not once in your life, worked in the private sector, you are in the very rare position of never having had to obey any sort of conventional dress code, outside whatever rules the MN House of Representatives imposes – and if you had any problems about any rules you had to follow on that steppingstone to power, the record is silent).
So even if some (fictional?) “Baaaaaaaaaahb from FRIDley” dunks on your attire – so what?
Does it affect you, your life, your living, your power, in any way?
Because if not, it isn’t unreasonable to think you’re doing it to drum up some phony grievance, a bloody shirt of phony victimization for one of the most powerful, entitled people in Minnesota to wave about. .
Beyond that?
FRIDley?: I was struck by the contempt you clearly felt for Baaaaaaaaahb from Fridley. I was more struck by the laugn your audience shared with you about the reference.
You seem to feel a palpable contempt for people who aren’t like you and your neighbors in the leftist echo chamber, and to feed off the contempt you, plural, feel for them.
Why is that?
That is all.
July 19th, 2022 at 11:52 am
Flanagan is clearly punching down, but of course white men can’t get hurt enough for being who they are. It doesn’t change my opinion of her.
July 19th, 2022 at 12:08 pm
Bob from Fridley e-mails:
“@jonlovett is joined by Lt. Governor @peggyflanagan, @MayorCarter”
They are also joined by pervasive violence, strong arm robbery, rape, killing, financial disaster and failure.
Fuck her Mumu. Fuck her Step and Fetch-it boy.
Fuck her and her and anti-White hate dog whistle.
July 19th, 2022 at 12:08 pm
Bob from Fridley e-mails:
“jonlovett is joined by Lt. Governor peggyflanagan, MayorCarter”
They are also joined by pervasive violence, strong arm robbery, rape, killing, financial disaster and failure.
Fuck her Mumu. Fuck her Step and Fetch-it boy.
Fuck her and her and anti-White hate dog whistle.
July 19th, 2022 at 12:09 pm
Bob from Fridley’s response is in moderation….
July 19th, 2022 at 12:21 pm
I’m from Fridley.
July 19th, 2022 at 1:38 pm
Well, you’re a bigot UMMP.
July 19th, 2022 at 1:38 pm
Wait, I mean you’re a racist…
July 19th, 2022 at 1:39 pm
No, wait, a Nazi. Yeah, you’re a Nazi UMMP. Neck yourself pls. ty
July 19th, 2022 at 1:41 pm
BTW, UMMP. You hear about the tidal surge in Kona? Not that it has any bearing on your NAzism.
July 19th, 2022 at 2:13 pm
Boy, she really does hit all the stereotypes about the angry progressive politician, doesn’t she? Overweight, attacking her detractors, gaudy clothing, blames everything on race and ethnicity….
July 19th, 2022 at 2:54 pm
Basically this. Office politics is bad enough, but constituency politics is something else apart. From your very first day till you’re in front of some journalist as a aspirant for higher office, you have people trying to trip you up for the sake of it. The primary qualification for success is a thick neck and a weak compass. Lot of better things to be off doing with your time if you’re so inclined.
July 19th, 2022 at 2:57 pm
Say rAT? Sober up and try that again tomorrow, before the eye opener.
July 19th, 2022 at 4:20 pm
Zillow tells me that the house I grew up in, in Fridley, is now valued at $320,000.
My parents paid $14,000 for it in 1962. They got the $1000 down payment from my grandfather. The mortgage payment was well under $100/month and believe me, sometimes they had a hard time making that payment.
I guess Fridley is no longer the place where poor, working class Minnesotans moved to so they could find a decent paying factory job and buy an affordable house.
July 19th, 2022 at 4:38 pm
Emery, nobody tripped her up. She responded to a letter from a constituent (or constituents) by accusing them of living in their mother’s basement, being opposed to minority women in positions of authority, and then addresses them as children. She was playing it for laughs–she had obviously rehearsed what she was going to say, and knew very well that she was on camera for this.
Maybe that plays well in some deep blue districts of Minneapolis, but for me, it’s about as appealing as a lot of the shenanigans that Trump pulled. And in doing so–Fridley is represented by a DFL state senator–she probably ticked off a number of people who’d voted for her and who genuinely thought they were trying to help her.
July 19th, 2022 at 6:29 pm
I can see why a politician in a safe district might play up to his or her base by insulting the 30% who will never vote for him or her. In those districts it’s all about playing to the base to get the party nomination.
But a politician with state wide or national ambitions?
You want every f’n vote. You actually have to ask people who aren’t party loyalists to vote for you.
OTOH, maybe cut her some slack. it’s gotta be tough for a woman named Margaret Flanagan to pass as a “Native American.”
July 19th, 2022 at 6:55 pm
UMMP, wouldn’t be anything like that old Cher song, would it?
July 19th, 2022 at 7:00 pm
I have a huge problem with politicians who have never worked in the private sector, as they have absolutely no comprehension as to how the private sector operates. Examples….Obama and his last minute changes to the ACA, with the expectation that the business models that had been set up could change on a dime. Or…..Walz feeling sorry for Mpls teachers last fall and giving them a spontaneous long weekend, with no regard to how that would affect working parents. Lisa Bender….well, that speaks for itself. (BTW…..did you know that Lisa moved……to Minnetonka?) They are simply clueless.
July 19th, 2022 at 8:22 pm
UMMP:
Similar story. My folks bought their house in Bloomington in 1958 for $17,500. It was brand new. I know that their payment was $113 per month and heard them on at least 3 occasions, agonizing over whether or not they would be able to pay it. They told us years later that they couldn’t find as big a value for the price. In 2005, my mom remodeled and turned the galley kitchen and attached den, into a much larger kitchen/family room/dining room. After she passed in 2018, we sold the house for $310,000 and had three offers.
July 20th, 2022 at 8:14 am
[…] Feminism? Shark Tank: RNC Tags Crist As The “Joe Biden Of Florida” Shot In The Dark: Pauline Kael Syndrome, also, Yet Another Good Guy With A Gun The Political Hat: Florida To Gaia: No Rights For You! […]
July 20th, 2022 at 12:47 pm
Starbuck, well said, except I would say it even more bluntly; too many people who’ve never worked a day in the private sector seem to have not only no clue about how the private sector works, but really how human nature works absent the use of government force. That’s why the Lt. Gov. acted this way–she simply has no idea of the ordinary give & take between human beings in ordinary life. Unfortunately, the government is imposing this “lack of coherent psychology” on many professions, starting with medicine.
August 24th, 2022 at 8:43 am
[…] if you say otherwise, you’re probably from Fridley and live in your mom’s […]
October 14th, 2022 at 11:00 am
[…] As I noted at the time, I found the whole thing implausibe at best, gratingly classist at worst: you are, after all, one of the four most powerful people in MInnesota. You are arguably the most powerful Lieutenant Governor in recent Minnesota history, since the Governor only serves at the pleasure of the extreme “progressive” caucus you lead, and to court whom Governor Walz put you on his ticket in the first place. […]