Hence all this ire aimed specifically at Warren, who came to be the scapegoat for keeping the "educated progressive wing" from coalescing around Bernie, which was all they thought they needed
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The Super Tuesday results kind of make it seem this was a strategic disaster Bernie *already had* a big chunk of the college political wonk crowd, and probably hit his ceiling with them a while ago But that crowd isn't important, such is why Warren ended up not being important
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Replying to @arthur_affect
I think people resist the "the college educated wonk crowd aren't important" because if so, it basically means political science and theory isn't important and we just don't give a shit about academic or intellectual qualifications. It would be the death knell for democracy.
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Replying to @loudpenitent @arthur_affect
It would be basically an entire demographic accepting that they do not matter, that they will never matter, and they may as well just despair and flock to populist candidates. Nobody can really tolerate that idea.
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Replying to @loudpenitent
Nobody's *completely* unimportant, they're just obviously not the majority
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Replying to @arthur_affect
But you understand what I am saying. It is extremely dangerous and demoralizing to internalize the idea that no, voters just don't care about policy or intellectual framework of academic qualification or "merit" and just want some asshole they can have a beer with.
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Replying to @loudpenitent
That's what "democracy" means tbh Like if you don't want that then what you do want is called "technocracy" (and people usually say that as a bad thing)
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Replying to @arthur_affect
I am aware. But we play a game in America where we act like democracy produces justice and intellect, it's why we consider it valid at all.
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Replying to @loudpenitent
Well, I mean, we're closer to technocracy than democracy in many many ways A lot of people have produced the hot take that the state bureaucracy is the unelected "fifth branch of government", and the whole world of expert advisory councils the sixth
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Replying to @arthur_affect @loudpenitent
Elected officials don't directly do that much, their role in our government is to be a democratic oversight over a system that mostly hires based on meritocracy and mostly runs itself YMMV on whether this is a good thing, but "democracy = idiocracy" has mostly been false
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Well, under normal circumstances Maybe Trump is the sign of that whole system finally breaking down, I dunno
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Replying to @arthur_affect
I can definitely say between Trump and Brexit I've seen a whole lot less paeans to Democracy from my educated leftist / cosmopolitan friends and a whole lot more naked "maybe the People just really truly suck. Maybe they are just evil and capricious."
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Replying to @loudpenitent @arthur_affect
I think the panic reaction from some Sanders supporters is related to this. They assumed the People were the moral arbiter of legitimacy and their world view can't really handle the idea maybe they really are just a bunch of easily manipulated mobs
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