My good friend and Army buddy Sam and I were chatting over coffee one morning. The subject turned to Punxsutawney Phil and his annual Winter-Spring prediction. We discussed how much Phil reminded us of the predictions and promotions of some of the younger and some of the younger members of the Democrat caucus of the House of Representatives. We asked ourselves, “Why do we listen to these rodents?”
We listen to Punxsutawney Phil to predict whether or not this egregious winter is going to continue or whether Spring might come early. It’s all in good fun of course. Nobody really believes in this sort of thing. Spoiler alert….Spring is coming early…or maybe not.
On the other side, some in our society listen to a young New York bartender elected to the House of Representatives, as she predicts and promotes a rosy future for us all if we would only embrace Socialism. Socialism, as we know, has never been proven to help societies and lately has demonstrated a singular ability to impoverish a once thriving economy—Venezuela.
Both Phil and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez are singularly unqualified in their respective areas of “expertise.” There is a huge difference, however. Phil is part of a humorous tradition we embrace as we make light of what can sometimes be some pretty tough, cold weather. Nobody takes him seriously and we certainly don’t bet our economic futures on his “predictions.” We just watch him on the news, laugh, bundle up and go back to work and paying taxes.
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez however, is another matter. Although like Phil, she is singularly unqualified to opine on the subjects she does, also like Phil, she’s really never produced anything. She’s pretty much lived off of the largess of the producers in her environment. Yet Rep. Ocasio-Cortez presumes to have the knowledge and experience to propose fundamental changes to our economy that any thinking person realizes would destroy it, making us just like Venezuela. However Big Media hype has resulted in her being rewarded with a seat on the House Financial Services Committee, a place where she can do a lot of damage.
My good friend Streiff who writes over at Red State, when introducing me to a group of fellow writers, wrote of the standard ritual when two military guys meet,
“The Army is the quintessential big-city-small-town kind of organization. Whenever two Army guys first meet it’s always, a) what’s your MOS, b) where’d you serve, and c) do you know so-and-so. That’s the way it was when Mike and I first met. We’re both infantrymen with many of the same schools. We’ve both commanded line companies, we’ve both done the pilgrimage to Leavenworth and we found we had a lot of mutual friends/acquaintances.”
When you meet in the military, you go through that ritual to establish expectations based on common language, training, experiences and acquaintances.
In our political environment, the press is supposed to be on our side of this process, asking those questions—What’s your MOS? (Field of Study/Degree); Where did you serve? (Real World Experience); Do you know so and so? (Your associations—ANTIFA perhaps?). The press has refused to do this regarding Ocasio-Cortes. Instead they continue to cheerlead her and other junior leftists, people who have little if any relevant training, a dearth of experience and in many cases, folks who associate with groups who are the antithesis of the philosophy undergirding this great big thing we call “These United States of America.”
In 2024, are we going to elect leaders who care about America, or are we going to listen to the rodents
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I guess that’s why they had to drive Tom DeLay out of politics- he was an exterminator.
I take exception to you comparing my neighbor Punxsutawney Phil to the AOC/China Joey gang.
Phil’s record is more accurate than China Joey’s, Phil does not lie, and Phil does not use his name to enrich his fellow rodents.
America will listen to the rodents.
I can see the resemblance between AOC and a rodent.
We’ll probably continue to listen to rodents, too, because they are funny little scavengers, like AOC.