Thursday, April 7, 2011

Quote of the Day

From the excellent Ta-Nehisi Coates, on Cathleen Black's resignation
It'd be nice if we'd now stop hearing political appointees and MBA candidates crowing about their private sector successes, their nose for accountability and the perils broken government. Whatever. All I hear in that is the sneering of reformers who actually don't much like democracy. I don't want politicians who are "above politics," anymore then I want a plumber who's "above toilets."

Black's appointment strikes me as a decision endemic from the same line of (wishful) thinking that that made ab belts so marketable. Remember those? The basic pitch was that all you had to do was sit down on the couch, let 'er rip and BAM, washboard abs with zero effort.

It baffles me how decision makers keep coming up with solutions to major public policy issues (urban/suburban education inequality, over decline in public school quality, etc.) the rely on quick fixes.

No comments:

Post a Comment