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Clarissa

July 1, 2018

The problem in politics is that many people are still fighting ancient battles that have lost all relevance a long time ago. It’s like that old joke about an 80-year-old guerrilla fighter who was never told that WWII ended, so he’s still blowing up trains to stop the enemy.

Take the obsession with Citizens United. One after another candidate beats a heavily outspending opponent with a roster of rich donors. Because it’s all about social media these days. The world has changed, time to move on. Yet people are still obsessed with the case.

Or take the recent hoopla over the flyers about abortion providers in anti-abortion clinics. Who do these folks think is looking for abortions? Ninety-year-old grandmas? Or women of a fertile age who never lift their eyes from their devices to read printed notices on walls? In the age of Google, crowds of people are fretting over wall notices. And then we wonder why so many people don’t even vote.

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6 responses to “Outdated”

Z

July 1, 2018

Citizens United is about much more than campaign funding.

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Anonymous

July 1, 2018

Money still seems to make a difference in less hyped state house elections. Not that that’s what any of the citizens united crowd is thinking about.

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Anon

July 1, 2018

Court decision can be reversed. Would you have claim that the Dred Scott decision would never be overturned and people agitating against it were wasting their time?

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1. Clarissa
  
  July 1, 2018
  
  That was 1856 or something like that, right?
  
  A curious example to give in this particular thread. 🙂
  
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  1. Z
    
    July 1, 2018
    
    Well, the recent (and disastrous) Janus v. AFSCME overruled a 1977 decision, if you want a current example.
    
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thelyniezian

July 1, 2018

“It’s like that old joke about an 80-year-old guerrilla fighter who was never told that WWII ended, so he’s still blowing up trains to stop the enemy.”

I was given to understand that there was an actual Japanese soldier who was pretty much like that, although that was more because he didn’t believe the orders he was receiving until the postwar Japanese government sent in his old commanding officer from out of retirement to deliver the orders in person. Perhaps that was the origin of the joke in question?

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