What are the issues? What are the polls saying? Seems like inequality is a hot button. Minimum wage. Helping the poor. Middle class stagnation. What’s our strategy? Whose support can we buy?

Of course you know where this is headed. Yep, it’s an election year. Politicians will be doing what they do 100% of the time, yet with greater brashness. And of course the media’s there to oblige. I just read Charles Blow’s NY Times OP-ED titled Pro-Progressive Is Better Than Anti-Christie. I think he titled it before he wrote it. I can relate—sometimes you start writing, thinking in one direction, then your writing takes you elsewhere. From the title I figured I’d read a piece on how “progressives” ought to focus on their worthwhile issues. Save for his last paragraph, however, Blow—after recommending a pause for the evidence before condemnation on Bridgegate—devoted his message to labeling Chris Christie a needle-threading flip-flopper.

And, you know, I’m sure he’s right. That’s right, despite having paid very little attention to the New Jersey governor, I have no doubt that Blow has hit the nail right on Christie’s head. How can I say such a thing? You ask. How can I agree, without the evidence, that Christie’s a flip-flopper? You’re kidding, right? Shoot me an email, if that’s truly your thinking, and give me 10 minutes, I’ll shoot you back enough links to keep you up till midnight (and I’d be starting completely from scratch). C’mon, he’s a career politician!

Now, my sympathizing notwithstanding, I find Blow’s point utterly laughable. Oh, and you gotta love this line:

We’ve been to this Republican sock hop before — in 2012 with Mitt Romney.

Of course he accurately nailed Romney as well (I wrote on that myself). But the thing is, Blow has the gall to call out Christie and Romney, and make reference to Republicans’ preferred dance genre, while suggesting that this gives “progressives” some political advantage—as if “progressive” politicians don’t cuff their jeans and flip flop all over the dance floor as well.

Give me a name on the left, any name. The President for crying out loud! His dance has been a show-stopper—but that’s because he’s presently the dancer with the flashiest outfit, and he’s very comfortable out there on the floor. I don’t know that he has any more moves than the competition who ache for that spotlight—I suspect he doesn’t. And how about Senator Elizabeth Warren—she just popped into my head. Here’s a hard-core “progressive” who thinks minimum wage should be like $22 an hour, who clearly believes we should be redistributing, big-time. Except, that is, when her state is home to medical device makers who would get hit with an ACA surtax. All of a sudden, she understands economics. In her own words: 

When Congress taxes the sale of a specific product through an excise tax, as the Affordable Care Act does with medical devices, it too often disproportionately impacts the small companies with the narrowest financial margins…

My goodness!! If a 2.3% surtax is a threat to small companies, what do you think a 38% hike (going to $10) in the minimum wage (let alone Ms. Warren’s number) would do to them??

See what I mean? When I started typing I had no intent whatsoever to highlight the flip-flopping of Elizabeth Warren. I only meant to express how the intellectual dishonesty of the likes of Charles Blow blows me away…