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I have a master's in educational administration, and I taught public school for six years. Then I went into the skilled trades. Two different worlds. The mistake that too many college graduates make is in thinking that their 'advanced' education indicates that they are smarter and more intelligent. It does not. It serves only to make you a legend in your own mind. I have said many times, and will keep saying it; manipulating people is easy, manipulating reality is tough. Teachers manipulate people. Skilled tradesmen manipulate reality. As I said, two different worlds.

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1dEdited

I think. Ms. Elba was spot on when she asked Mr. Cass if the new coalition was reality or what he wished it to be. There is no arguing with the electoral preferences of the "working class" that he cited. However, the question remains what in the Republican platform--such that any exists--justifies that electoral support? Is this not another case of voters forgoing their economic interests in lieu of some other motivation (ie, cultural, perceived loss of status, objections to trade, etc)?

The first Trump term saw a proliferation of politicians at the federal and state level, along with judicial appointments hostile to union rights. These are hardly the hallmark of a party committed to strengthening the labor class. Add to that the Republicans' continued hostility to policy reforms that would truly benefit the labor class (expanded access to health care, funding cancer research, etc), and I think Mr. Cass is left floating in a fantasy.

ETA: Much of what Mr. Cass said struck me as similarly naive or wishful as what Michael Brendan Dougherty had to say in his WoC interview. MBD ascribed far too much credit, in my opinion, to Trump's supposed to desire to do right by the country and take a level of interest beyond surface-level in any particular matter. Perhaps that's because I spent four years watching Trump and drawing the opposite conclusions; be that as it may, I wonder what examples of serious policy/legislation both Mr. Cass and MBD would point to as evidence of Trump's and the new Republican Party's interest in improving the lives and burdens of America's non-wealthy class. I've yet to hear any from either of them.

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