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conulyWhat else are we not hearing from our representatives?
As always, I'm gonna focus on one small thing, namely, the defense of "Well, it was a private conversation!"
This ought to be self-evident and probably is to everybody who isn't a raging hypocrite, but when you're a public figure in a public place, your conversation is not private. And when you, an elected official, go and air your private opinions in public, they are no longer your personal private opinions that are nobody's business but your own. They're information that the public can use when deciding whether or not to vote for you in the upcoming election or, better yet, to mobilize for you to leave office.
Sorry.
It's one thing to say that Joe Q. Random Truck Driver shouldn't be fired from his job for the things he said at a bar one day, or Dr. Random Doctorperson. Elected officials are doing a very different job, and they got it in no small part based on their opinions, so they're SOL on that front.
As always, I'm gonna focus on one small thing, namely, the defense of "Well, it was a private conversation!"
This ought to be self-evident and probably is to everybody who isn't a raging hypocrite, but when you're a public figure in a public place, your conversation is not private. And when you, an elected official, go and air your private opinions in public, they are no longer your personal private opinions that are nobody's business but your own. They're information that the public can use when deciding whether or not to vote for you in the upcoming election or, better yet, to mobilize for you to leave office.
Sorry.
It's one thing to say that Joe Q. Random Truck Driver shouldn't be fired from his job for the things he said at a bar one day, or Dr. Random Doctorperson. Elected officials are doing a very different job, and they got it in no small part based on their opinions, so they're SOL on that front.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-22 02:31 pm (UTC)It's one thing to say that Joe Q. Random Truck Driver shouldn't be fired from his job for the things he said at a bar one day, or Dr. Random Doctorperson.
So if Joe Q. Truck Driver or Dr. Random made comments in a bar that revealed they can't be trusted to do their job, they can and should be fired. If Dr. Random believes that proven treatments should be replaced with quackery, or only offered to $population_segment in ways that don't line up with science, it damn well ought to make it back to whoever employs them. If J. Q. Truck Driver likes to brag in public about running around weigh stations, driving high, and dodging the inspector, they should expect a visit from the authorities.
Politicians run on public trust* and thus if they declare in public that half or more of the public cannot trust them, they should expect public outrage in exactly the same way.
*ideally
no subject
Date: 2019-05-22 05:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-22 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-22 06:12 pm (UTC)