Pandering ‘R Us

Suffering through last week has driven me to suggest the addition of an eighth deadly sin to the traditional seven:

1. Lust
2. Gluttony
3. Greed
4. Sloth
5. Wrath
6. Envy
7. Pride
8. Pandering

I suspect every politician is guilty of some or all of the original 7, they are all guilty of pandering. How can they not, when their primary job once elected is to get re-elected? Even so, the George Floyd death has given them a new performance platform and boy, did they take advantage.

Joe Biden set the tone by taking a knee in submission:

Although he might have thought he was there for a football game. Watch for his next major pandering move: selecting a black female running mate to hold his reins.

There can be no misinterpreting LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s pandering to a group of local Black Leaders last Thursday. He called his own police force (as well as all others) “killers.” That’s bold, even for a professional panderer.

“That’s exactly the point. It starts someplace and we say we are going to be who we want to be or we are going to continue to be the killers that we are.”

Followed by the knee of submission. To show his good faith. This guy’s definitely good a good future.

And of course my personal favorite, Governor “Lock ‘em Down” Whitmer who got caught up in the moment as she was marching with local Faith Leaders in Detroit: in response to the crowd chant “Hands Up!” she raised her arms in solitude with the submissive “Don’t Shoot” response. Strangely, it’s now difficult to find the video of her participation as her team thought that might have been taking the pandering a bit too far, but it’s still out there.

Of course they had no objection to the stills of her obligatory knee of submission: that’s how pols role these days.

So yeah, I definitely think pandering should qualify as one of the Deadly Sins. 

This is essentially how I feel about political pandering.