The only part of Evan Barker’s book that I didn’t like is the one where she gives prescriptions to Democrats as to how they can improve. Not because her prescriptions are bad, but because I have no ffs left to give about what the Democrats do. They haven’t lost her completely, but they have lost me. I’m not going back, no matter what they do or say in the future. I’ve suffered one indignity too many at the Democrats’ hands ever to consider going back.
I understand why Barker is still hopeful for them. She left the Democrats two years ago, while I was fully done with them back in 2016. I also went through the stage of hoping that they would improve and ditch their lunatic fringe. Since then, the entire Democrat Party has become what used to be just a lunatic fringe. The Democrats are not making a mistake. They are pursuing a coherent and conscious agenda. Asking them to abandon wokeness is similar to asking me to sprout wings and take off in flight. I can’t do it, not because nobody alerted me to the advisability of doing so, but because my physical nature prevents me.
On the other hand, some of the suggestions that Barker has for Republicans are good. Some are crap, but not all. I agree that free marketeering slogans are stupid and do not address some crucial concerns that reasonable people have. There definitely should be healthcare options that are not tied to people’s jobs. There should be guaranteed healthcare for citizens with pre-existing conditions. Like Barker, I’m very much in favor of SNAP benefits, but in a radically revamped form.
I have now finished the book, and to conclude my discussion of it, I want to mention that one part that I found to be very useful is the explanation of why so many politicians behave like social media influencers. Barker explains that people, like, for example, Jasmine Crockett, adopt a scandalous persona that is not congruent with what they are like in normal life in order to gain enough notoriety on social media to avoid having to do fundraising through cold calling. Jasmine Crockett is still a clinical idiot, but I understand the reasoning and don’t blame people for wanting to avoid cold calling at any cost.
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