"Hillary Clinton viciously demonizing hard-working people like you."

You've probably already seen this Trump ad...



... I'm just blogging it today — after choosing not to blog it before — because I've hit on this theme of "working hard." As I said 3 posts down: "The candidates and their proxies are continually referring to the citizenry as 'hard working.' Why?! Some Americans are hard working, but plenty of us are pacing ourselves comfortably or lazily shirking. Why are we always getting buttered up this way?"

"There’s a satisfying moral clarity in being able to out-and-out call people deplorable for their racist views, but there simply isn’t a bright line between 'racist' and 'not racist.'"

"There are quiet biases, and degrees of awareness, that even people who don’t support Donald Trump — even 'hard-working Americans' — need to be aware of. And there is more to racism than what lies within people’s hearts. All of that gets blissfully elided when you sort people into baskets, calling some of them 'irredeemable' and others morally sound. It allows everyone to feel superior. And it’s especially painful to see the racial progressives who’ve done so much to bring nuance into the conversation — to keep white America, regardless of its ideology, in a state of productive discomfort — now leading the cheerleading charge."

Wrote Dara Lind, quoted in "Clinton’s 'Deplorables' Remark Misunderstands Racism — and Might Make It Worse."

***

By the way, there's that "working hard" meme again. The candidates and their proxies are continually referring to the citizenry as "hard working." Why?! Some Americans are hard working, but plenty of us are pacing ourselves comfortably or lazily shirking. Why are we always getting buttered up this way?

The "working hard" meme, continued.

I was just talking about an annoying NYT editorial lavishing praise on John Kerry for working so damned hard (on things they pretty obviously think will fail). We entrust people with power because we want them not just to work but to do what works. The fact that someone worked hard is a ridiculous distraction. And if what they did is bad, we should be more bothered that they put a lot of effort into it. They were not merely ineffective, they were inefficient. Double failure, in my book.

A related question is whether it's even true that the person is working hard. Working hard shouldn't distract us from whether what was done works, but it does, so there's an incentive to create the impression that one is working hard. In that view, let's look at Hillary Clinton.

Here's Rush Limbaugh on his show yesterday:

[T]here are people out there saying she got pneumonia 'cause she's working so hard. Even General Powell in one of the emails talks about, my God, she's working so hard. She's working so hard she can barely climb the steps to the podium.  You know how General Powell defined working hard?  Going to three fundraisers in a day and having to fly to two of them.  She's just burning at both ends. She's gonna have to slow down.  But that's why she's getting pneumonia....

The "working hard" meme — it's propaganda to cover for failure.

That's on the front page of the NYT right now. The link goes to an editorial:

Since becoming secretary of state more than three years ago, John Kerry has been a man on a mission — multiple missions, in fact — relentlessly traveling the globe.... [T]here has been something honorable, even heroic, about the persistence, hard work and faith in diplomacy....

Mr. Kerry sometimes displays a naïve belief in his ability to win people to his side if he keeps talking long enough....

To get the current cease-fire [in Syria], he warned Moscow that if the violence was not halted, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states would send more weapons to the rebel groups. He insists he is not being unrealistic, although he knows from past experience that Russia could be playing a cynical game and that the cease-fire could fall apart. But you can hear the anguish when he says that this “may be the last chance we have to save a united Syria.” He deserves immense credit for trying.

Work, work, work. Trying very, very hard.  Relentlessly traveling the globe.... But even your friends call you naïve and unrealistic. And do you think maybe Vladimir Putin might take advantage of your earnest strenuousness and play a cynical game? Let me take several days to think about that, because I'm sure putting more effort into the enterprise will be laudable... honorable, even heroic... and I will deserve immense credit for working so damned hard.