President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

I know all the reasons why it won’t happen, but have the nagging feeling Democrats are going to regret not having a real alternative to Joe Biden in the primaries. Because if the GOP truly moved on from Trump (and Great Value Trump down in Tallahassee), I think they could clean up. Dumber things have happened.

 

I can’t believe the libruhls let it get to this.

 

what do you know, TFG was right for once. CNN really is failing. Sad!

CNN ratings plummet after much-maligned Trump town hall

 

This is how I feel. The Democrats need a good alternative to Biden. I hope he would win again. But I'm not at all certain he actually would.

 

One of my best friends, a former journo, got an English degree from Hillsdale, and is not conservative, much less an ideologue. For its many and varied warts, I think he just wanted to go to a moderately-sized liberal arts school near where he grew up in Southeast Michigan, though I do enjoy making jokes about Margaret Thatcher from time to time.

 

I grew up about 25 minutes south of there and had relatives who lived in the town. More odious to me than any of their respective ideologies is what they charge to attend those little colleges. Even after scholarships, my sister spent double what I spent on a state university, and I was stunned by the things she was and wasn’t taught at a small private college to have the social experience akin to a small rural high school.

I get elite small small liberal arts schools. But middling ones? That’s throwing money in a pit.

 

It's a legit concern, for sure. Hopefully Biden stays healthy and wins as there isn't a great alternative at this point. It's something that has to change either way after the 2024 cycle, of course.

I just don't want that criminal psychopath trump anywhere near the White House again. It can't happen. I'd be unhappy with any of the rest of the trumplican field, but I don't think the rest of them would try to destroy democracy.

 

I mean, it's funny, I've always known they were wacky (they have refused all federal aid since the 1980s so they didn't have to comply with Title IX), but before they got Trumpy, they were mostly just a black sheep GLIAC school (they're not in the GLIAC anymore) going toe to toe with the likes of Tech, Northern Michigan, Grand Valley and Wayne State in the D2 ranks. Heck, their football stadium is named after "Muddy" Waters, who coached there for over a deade.

 

Hillsdale’s value is very high for people of a certain klan. Just like grads of Regent University’s law school suddenly had guaranteed jobs in the GWB DOJ even though their school is garbage. Gov. DeathSentence’s declaration that he wants Hillsdale to be the model for public colleges is an endorsement that will attract a lot of despicable people as students and donors.

 

“Go, you Mannish Boys! Go, Fight, Win!”

 

Muddy Waters was very successful at Hillsdale in the Sixties, then moved to Saginaw Valley in the early mid Seventies, where he was somewhat less successful (although still pretty good), then was thrown into the breach at Michigan State after Daryl Rogers departure and George Perles' first episode of contract breach and extortion against MSU resulted in Sparty suddenly shockingly needing a head football coach a few days before the national signing date.

Waters was 57, looked about 72, bombed out for a number of reasons, but there was never any indication to my knowledge he had problems recruiting or coaching Black players. He had recruited a small handful at Hillsdale, a fair number at SVSU. Mainly he had problems recruiting enough really good ones to play in the Big Ten.

But at the time I don't think Hillsdale had a reputation as an ultra right wing wingnut school. Socially conservative yes, but not off the scale wingnut crazy. (Among Michigan small colleges, Hope and Calvin were the ones identified as really really arch conservative.)

Throughout the Seventies and Eighties if I recall correctly Hillsdale took some kind of weird perverse pride in being the most expensive undergraduate school in the nation.

EDIT: Now that I think back on it, I think thst had something to do with their rock ribbed philosophical decision to never accept even a nickel of government aid (or allow students to, I believe). Which knowing what I know now, should have been an early clue they were shifting into warp drive for the Wingnut Galaxy.

 

In regards to Hillsdale's astronomical price tag, at various times (usually before it became publicly identified as a hotbed of lunatic right wing ravers) I asked several people involved in academic administration at places such as Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Marquette, Georgetown, Notre Dame and Northwestern, what they thought of the value of Hillsdale's education. Let's just say they reacted with derisive bemusement.