By now I imagine a fair number of the readers of this blog have seen the foregoing video of Barbara Boxer being accused of racism by the head of the Black Chamber of Commerce. What’s interesting about it is Boxer’s startled reaction, her surprise at something that is totally unsurprising. I think this comes from the obvious – that she has lived a remarkably cosseted life as a Senator, but also from a general lack of basic emotional intelligence enhanced by the insecurity evident in her other recent celebrated appearance at a Congressional hearing, when she berated a general for calling her “ma’am” and not “Senator.”
Boxer reveals herself in this video as being of another era, with the reified views of a consciousness raising group circa 1971 draped in an expensive designer suit. Boxer, an extremely rich woman, dresses well and is well tended. But this race politics, as practiced by Boxer and others, is not only unconscious, tedious and manipulative, it is highly reactionary.
Senator from our most populous state, she has run for all intents and purposes, unopposed in her last couple of elections. She is also the one leading the charge on global warming in the Senate, in essence the Senatorial partner of Henry Waxman . A glance at her educational background yields the information that she has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brooklyn College after which she worked as a stock broker. As with Waxman, no evidence of any background in science whatsoever. That the Republicans struggle to upend someone like this is evidence of their ineptitude.
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