I like that Shoe on Head did a Barbie movie review. I'm a fan of hers. She reminds me of New Jersey girls, whom I got to know as a high school faculty guy at an academy for young women. And elsewhere. A certain toughness and irreverence, with an accent...
However my rant today is not about Barbie, although one could argue it's about social roles, and the role of US president in particular. I'm one of those who thinks a president should not go in with a fixed agenda of all the stuff she or he wants to change, some crusader reformer. Rather, a president should simply preside, observing the machinery of government, and report back to the people what's going on, like an insider with outsiders for an audience.
Instead, voters think the president is some kind of monarch with overarching powers to make stuff happen. That stereotype helps effect wars, as presidents get to play commander in chief in a war situation. The USA likes to keep a war simmering, sometimes boiling over, just to give the president a semblance of power that voters understand.
Outward war is a way of dumbing it down enough for everyone to follow. That's my elitism showing. War is a cheap way to prop up a chief executive. "Cheap" in the sense of tacky.
Presidents are going to get educated and their views will change. More important than sticking to their guns, is explaining to voters what their transitions are all about. Why the shift? What did you learn?
Unfortunately, what a lot of careerists want to do with a president is use scare tactics. Frighten this elected leader into obeying the right cues. Presidents with a high degree of suspicion versus automatic trust, are more likely to create a conscious record of how they're being influenced...
In practical terms, it doesn't matter much to me exactly what RFK Jr. believes about vaccinations. I see that he believes in doing his homework and he's willing to take some unpopular positions. However the details don't matter much, because as president RFK Jr. would have very limited authority over future health policy.
Presidents are not authority figures in my book, so much a witnesses to history. Of course they may see themselves differently.
