Whatever else, her idiot convictions and tribal loyalty will cause her to do exactly as you say - empathy and introspection are not, apparently, Hutchinson’s store in trade.
She was a grown-up who made the choice to love and trust the worst people in the world. She doesn't deserve hate for this, or malice. She does deserve to manage a Quik-Trip in the middle of the country, because that's the level of judgment she has shown.
There’s a difference in degree, I think, between ‘did nothing in your 20s which you regret’ and ‘openly embracing a fascist attempt to take over the government and only backpedaling when you realize that legal sanctions directed at you are on the menu.’
She did the latter.
Letting her off the hook for it is one more way we erase the effects of her abhorrent politics on the citizens who suffered to make scared old racist white people feel safe vote rethug..
Seriously, are you so sure in your opinions of the world that you cannot even acknowledge that people can change? Can grow? Can realize they made bad decisions? Can want to offer some recompense for those decisions? That’s the kind of philosophy which means that we as a country will never be able to move past the disease of trumpism, if you need everyone who ever enabled/voted for/supported him in any way to die off before you are satisfied.
I’ve been around long enough to have come to the conclusion that people who are willing to set aside principles for personal gain generally don’t change over time.
Certainly there is the possibility of a change, but Hutchinson’s entire history and persona inveighs against the likelihood of that. She bought stupid GQP arguments without questioning them, and such arguments are easily refuted with a bit of thought,
I think that it’s entirely likely that, with the possibility of criminal sanction removed, she will revert to type. I don’t think she has any essential need to learn from this - the people who surround her will reinforce GQP mimetics, and consequently she’ll come to see even the desire for some sort of empathy or contrition as a error.
This is, ftr, a similar cognitive exercise to how the GQP claims to refute ‘woke’ - it’s privileging weakness, at least in their minds.
This is 100% how I feel too. Some politicians are better than others, but it's hard to maintain any kind of 100% purity in politics. It's not ideal, just that the system itself inherently doesn't work that way.
I interned for a Congressmen when I was in college, and the scales fell from my eyes a bit. There was no corruption, harassment, or anything else untoward that I know about from my time there, but it became so clear to me who does the actual work. It's all of the unsung lower-level staff in the various offices actually getting constituents the help they need from the federal government, whether it is the SSA, USCIS, etc. The Congressman spent all of his time campaigning, making speeches, or fundraising. Maybe I was just a hopelessly naive 21 year old, but it became a lot more clear they don't care that much about the people they were there to serve.
I also met him like 5 times and he never remembered my name, or even having met me before. I wasn't important as a lowly intern, but it was another indication of the whole thing. This was in 2012 and he is still a Congressman today (I had to look it up, he's been in Congress since 1997), though one who isn't well-known or on TV all the time. Maybe that makes it worse, I don't know—that even a backbencher didn't seem too concerned with his constituents, and was only concerned with continuing to be a Congressman.
This makes her more sympathetic to me, especially given how young she was/is. That doesn't maker her a hero or anything, but it is more understandable how she ended up where she was, even if I disagree with it.
I was raised by well-educated liberal parents without any religion in a big city in a red state. It's not surprising I turned out to be liberal myself once I was aware of politics. I'd like to think I'd still have ended up liberal if I was raised in a super evangelical conservative family in a tiny rural town in the south, but I honestly have no idea.
My dad's brother's family is kind of a test case for this—while also fairly educated, he raised his kids with religion in a rural town in Alabama—and they are certainly more conservative than my family. My uncle is pretty MAGA, and the rest of the family is conservative to various degrees. I suspect my cousin is the most liberal of them (she's a psychiatrist that works with prisoners), but she's still in Alabama and doesn't really talk about it. The whole family stayed in Alabama, though most of my cousins left the rural town.
I know there are liberal parents who raise asshole conservative kids (see: Santa Monica fascist Steven Miller), and vice versa. But there's also a lot of kids raised in super evangelical families who never break out, for whatever reason, with all of the brainwashing from a young age. It sucks and I guess I just feel bad for kids raised in that environment.
It's kinda like in Huckleberry Finn where the interrogators grow tired of Huck's ignorance about even the most rudimentary knowledge of England feel it's best to leave the lying up to the experts. Twain also pointed out somewhere that if you only speak the truth, you won't need such a good memory.
I imagine it's all different if you're parents are Republicans and you're trying to get jobs and get on in life. Very poignant to imagine her aunt and uncle-- Very poignant.
That's what they demand.
Not them. They are too low class for her. But she will glom onto whatever rightwing think tank Cheney and Kinziger end up at.
Whatever else, her idiot convictions and tribal loyalty will cause her to do exactly as you say - empathy and introspection are not, apparently, Hutchinson’s store in trade.
In this case, no. She’s a callow coward trying to avoid going to prison.
Guess you, unlike me, did nothing in your 20s which you regret. So good for you.
I've read this post three times and I get madder each time. Disbar all of them!
She was a grown-up who made the choice to love and trust the worst people in the world. She doesn't deserve hate for this, or malice. She does deserve to manage a Quik-Trip in the middle of the country, because that's the level of judgment she has shown.
There’s a difference in degree, I think, between ‘did nothing in your 20s which you regret’ and ‘openly embracing a fascist attempt to take over the government and only backpedaling when you realize that legal sanctions directed at you are on the menu.’
She did the latter.
Letting her off the hook for it is one more way we erase the effects of her abhorrent politics on the citizens who suffered to make scared old racist white people feel safe vote rethug..
If she believes that, she’s still not at all contrite. Her politics are the politics of exclusion and fear.
Seriously, are you so sure in your opinions of the world that you cannot even acknowledge that people can change? Can grow? Can realize they made bad decisions? Can want to offer some recompense for those decisions? That’s the kind of philosophy which means that we as a country will never be able to move past the disease of trumpism, if you need everyone who ever enabled/voted for/supported him in any way to die off before you are satisfied.
I’ve been around long enough to have come to the conclusion that people who are willing to set aside principles for personal gain generally don’t change over time.
Certainly there is the possibility of a change, but Hutchinson’s entire history and persona inveighs against the likelihood of that. She bought stupid GQP arguments without questioning them, and such arguments are easily refuted with a bit of thought,
I think that it’s entirely likely that, with the possibility of criminal sanction removed, she will revert to type. I don’t think she has any essential need to learn from this - the people who surround her will reinforce GQP mimetics, and consequently she’ll come to see even the desire for some sort of empathy or contrition as a error.
This is, ftr, a similar cognitive exercise to how the GQP claims to refute ‘woke’ - it’s privileging weakness, at least in their minds.
So, TL/DR, she’s not going to change.
Getting chills just reading this
This is 100% how I feel too. Some politicians are better than others, but it's hard to maintain any kind of 100% purity in politics. It's not ideal, just that the system itself inherently doesn't work that way.
I interned for a Congressmen when I was in college, and the scales fell from my eyes a bit. There was no corruption, harassment, or anything else untoward that I know about from my time there, but it became so clear to me who does the actual work. It's all of the unsung lower-level staff in the various offices actually getting constituents the help they need from the federal government, whether it is the SSA, USCIS, etc. The Congressman spent all of his time campaigning, making speeches, or fundraising. Maybe I was just a hopelessly naive 21 year old, but it became a lot more clear they don't care that much about the people they were there to serve.
I also met him like 5 times and he never remembered my name, or even having met me before. I wasn't important as a lowly intern, but it was another indication of the whole thing. This was in 2012 and he is still a Congressman today (I had to look it up, he's been in Congress since 1997), though one who isn't well-known or on TV all the time. Maybe that makes it worse, I don't know—that even a backbencher didn't seem too concerned with his constituents, and was only concerned with continuing to be a Congressman.
This makes her more sympathetic to me, especially given how young she was/is. That doesn't maker her a hero or anything, but it is more understandable how she ended up where she was, even if I disagree with it.
I was raised by well-educated liberal parents without any religion in a big city in a red state. It's not surprising I turned out to be liberal myself once I was aware of politics. I'd like to think I'd still have ended up liberal if I was raised in a super evangelical conservative family in a tiny rural town in the south, but I honestly have no idea.
My dad's brother's family is kind of a test case for this—while also fairly educated, he raised his kids with religion in a rural town in Alabama—and they are certainly more conservative than my family. My uncle is pretty MAGA, and the rest of the family is conservative to various degrees. I suspect my cousin is the most liberal of them (she's a psychiatrist that works with prisoners), but she's still in Alabama and doesn't really talk about it. The whole family stayed in Alabama, though most of my cousins left the rural town.
I know there are liberal parents who raise asshole conservative kids (see: Santa Monica fascist Steven Miller), and vice versa. But there's also a lot of kids raised in super evangelical families who never break out, for whatever reason, with all of the brainwashing from a young age. It sucks and I guess I just feel bad for kids raised in that environment.
It's kinda like in Huckleberry Finn where the interrogators grow tired of Huck's ignorance about even the most rudimentary knowledge of England feel it's best to leave the lying up to the experts. Twain also pointed out somewhere that if you only speak the truth, you won't need such a good memory.
I imagine it's all different if you're parents are Republicans and you're trying to get jobs and get on in life. Very poignant to imagine her aunt and uncle-- Very poignant.