House of Eratosthenes

Same way I don’t trust liberals who don’t own shoes that cover their toes; I have a similar distrust against conservatives that don’t own any shoes with laces. More to the point: Don’t own any shoes that do not need polishing.

These are the guys putting Jeb Bush over Donald Trump, because, manners. Oh they say things about Trump being a showboat and a jerk, and they’re completely right. Where they’re wrong, is in thinking that we vote for a President to give us our manners. Silly.

In truth, we’ve been voting for a President to figure out what excuses should be used to suck money away from the industries that give us the things we really need, and where else that money should be diverted among the professions that make things nobody wanted. Republicans and democrats have both been doing it. And so the professions that give us the things we really need, while allowed to stagger on in the background while the loud people make a lot of noise, have been dwindling.

No, not software engineers. We wear lace-up shoes that don’t require polishing, but that’s just because we’re allowed to dress like we’re still fourteen. That kicks ass by the way. But let’s face it, if we’re building something you really need, we won’t know for sure for another two, three years…and that’s at best.

I’m talking about the people Mike Rowe would have been interviewing. People who have to wear actual boots.

And, their bosses who started their respective companies. Companies that bake your bread, build the bottles for your water, build the cardboard boxes for your Amazon shipments, clean the poop out of your sewer lines. Oh yeah, and put together your “transportation equipment.” Passenger jets. That’s up at the top of the U.S. exports right now, the stuff the other countries want to buy…*choose* to buy. You know what else is on that list? Software is on there…but way down. Probably doesn’t include anything I’ve written, as of yet…

Sneakers Nothing liberals build, is on that list. Psychological help isn’t on it. Crazy new rules about guns, written by people who’ve sworn not to ever own any guns — those aren’t on the exports list. Come to think of it, I don’t see anybody clamoring for those things inland, either. They’re such great ideas they have to be forced.

Back to Trump. I doubt he owns any sneakers either. He’s non-specific, it is true, and he’s a bit of a doofus. And no, he’s not my doofus. What he is, is a rejection of the traditional classes of candidacy. He’s a reset switch, a spoiler, an auto-destruct device. Where liberals are divided between those who loathe success because they hate money, and those who loathe success in others because they love money and want to keep their level of prosperity exclusive and elite…and somehow these two halves emulsify just fine. Conservatives are divided between those who think we vote for a government that will give us our manners, and those who know we vote for a government that is going to take away our money and freedom, and we have to look for ways to slow this process. Maybe even stop it. Reversing it would be wonderful. These halves do not get along at all. And you can tell them apart by their shoes.

Those who ply me with all their reasons why Trump should not be my pick, are preaching to the choir. He’s not my preference. And these people, and I, have no quarrel…unless they’re part of the “We vote for presidents to give us our manners” crowd. Because that’s nuts. To them I say, man up, buy yourself some hiking boots or sneakers.

Choose somebody else? Eminently reasonable. Take him off the table entirely? Out of the question folks, sorry. We need the destruct device. The loud people who get all the air time and make all the big important decisions, have to have it. Used to be, they’d indulge in shenanigans after an election but at least would behave properly before. These days they’re not even bothering with that much. There has to be some kind of Sword of Damocles over their heads. That used to be the election process, and that’s not good enough anymore. It’s not good enough to make them wonder if they’ve still got a job. We’ve got to make the whole class wonder if it still has a job.

This is not a new idea at all. The political class that we know today, with these affluent, effeminate, slippers-and-loafers “men,” is what’s new. Washington would, today, own work boots and sneakers. So would Jefferson. Madison, Adams, Hamilton, they might have owned a few more of the shiny dress shoes than the others, but they’d have good rugged hiking boots as well. In a world that has weekends, and doesn’t rely on horses to get people from Point A to Point B, what would they be wearing from the ankles down as they chilled on Saturday mornings at the coffee shop? Or watched the big game together, maybe waited for the cable guy to arrive? Probably Nike or Adidas. And as far as how to vote…the criticism is that Trump is a kooky populist businessman who does non-politics things for a living. Who do you think started this country?

Lawyers, yes, but not the lawyers we see in Washington DC today, babbling endlessly about “reaching across the aisle and getting things done.” One of these guys got killed in a duel, that says it all right there. Sure they went along to get along…occasionally. That’s why slavery was legal when this country first got started. Fact is, the things they built that have turned out for the best, were products of steel-toed work-boot politicking. The kind that doesn’t have anything to do with getting along with anybody. The kind that involves protesting. The country, itself, is a product of self-exile, of self-estrangement, of saying “we will not be a part of this anymore.”

And leaving a room. Not giving a hang about who can or can’t hear the door close, or whether it closes at all…

In rough-and-tumble, working-man’s shoes.

[…] Freeberg shares his insight. […]
- DYSPEPSIA GENERATION » Blog Archive » Shoes | 01/31/2016 @ 09:47
As much as I hate minutia…
FOR THE RECORD.
Chippewa boots, one has to seek out the Made in USA ones of course.
When folks need lifts built into the soles, usually, but not always, to address different leg length, I end up
cutting the originals for a “spacer” (up to 2.5″), for the nearby custom boot maker.
I’ve SEEN what goes into the construction of astonishingly overpriced “designer” shoes, and sneakers for actual working folk.
While it may have been bemoaned that “Men NEVER notice shoes”, (it’s just that we’re not impressed sweetie!) , ANY loafers with tassels let’s me know that I ALWAYS have to double check the “work” (and billing)of the “professional” sporting them.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I AM rather fond of Sperry Topsider leather moccasins. Sure, you can call them “boat shoes”, or tennis shoes, if it makes you feel better. but they lace up…FULLY around the heal, unlike Asian made knock-offs from…uh…American sounding shoe companies.
Oddly, I know how to repair them, after long abuse, for an even LONGER term of abuse.
I refer to them as Work Slippers.
- CaptDMO | 02/01/2016 @ 05:35
[…] blog of the day is House of Eratosthenes, with a post thinking about […]
- If All You See… » Pirate's Cove | 02/01/2016 @ 11:01
But… where do Marco Rubio’s faaaaabulous! boots fit into your theory?
- Severian | 02/02/2016 @ 10:59
I’m trusting him less and less all the time.
- mkfreeberg | 02/02/2016 @ 12:43
It seems someone actually did the work to prove you right.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/03/why-your-flight-attendant-is-probably-a-democrat/

(I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of the chart there.)
- Nate Winchester | 02/09/2016 @ 19:53

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ShoesSunday, January 31st, 2016

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Sunday, January 31st, 2016