"No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Yesterday, Joe Biden was continuing the attack on Mitt Romney's Bain Capital experience, stating that Romney's experience as a private equity CEO "no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber." For a vice president whose main role on the ticket is to connect with the blue collar Reagan Democrats, that is a Biden blunder ranking up there with praising Obama as "clean and articulate." No surprise.
I view it as a "Kinsley gaffe," in which a politician reveals what he (and in this case, most of the Democrat leadership) actually does think, about the average blue collar tradesman. Why, exactly, is a plumber unfit to be president? I know one plumber who has built up a substantial contracting business over the last 35 years; I suspect his practical knowledge of how the real world works far better fits him to be president than, say, a lawyer with a lifetime in the US Senate or a community organizer turned law professor. But, in the minds of Biden, Obama, and most of the Democratic leadership and the "Mainstream Media", only people possessing advanced degrees are qualified for elective office. (I suspect Sarah Palin's lack of such a credential was the invitation to her marginalization.)
This obsession with higher academic credentials goes far beyond elective office, though. Over the last 40 years, the whole view of blue collar work has changed profoundly. Parents of children who choose not to go to college are deeply shamed (particularly if they attended college themselves). My father (who had a masters degree) never felt that way about my brothers who went into blue collar jobs, but now even those brothers push their own kids to go to college. (This is the cultural driver of the higher ed bubble that is rarely discussed.)
In the 50s America I grew up in, blue collar men were not ashamed of their work, and it was inconceivable that a Vice President of either party would casually voice the kind of snobbism Biden did. The Left's obsession with income equality can be seen as simple projection, a strategy to divert attention from the reality of the Left's contempt for the noncredentialled serfs they pretend to represent.
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Sep '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Great post-everything that you say is so true. Even some on the right buy into the idea that college educated people live more productive and fulfilling lives than those without degrees. Are college professors ( or community organizers) more happy and fulfilled than plumbers? I doubt it.
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 7:42pmSep '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
The left would collapse without that kind of snobbishness, though. In order for liberals to be enlightened, somebody else must be unenlightened and in need of liberal guidance. If those on the left faced the truth that large numbers of blue collar workers are actually more productive and more necessary than women's studies professors, their ideology would collapse in on itself.
Sep '10
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Joe just went against type. He's supposed to relate to the working man and he just revealed himself and his political persona to be a complete fraud. Biden wouldn't make it as a plumber. He'd be out of business in no time because a plumber at least understands the difference between crap in pipes and crap coming out of a mouth. The latter being the skill most prized in the US Senate.
Sep '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein in The Bell Curve explain this shift in attitudes that Robert notes as a result of our drive towards a "meritocracy". A century ago, intelligence was more evenly distributed among different occupations and walks of life. As a college education became available to a wider swath of society, especially after World War II, a more identifiable intellectual elite emerged and a stigma has attached to blue-collar occupations, where there was none or less before. Can we have it both ways?
I wonder if we may begin to see a partial reversal of this as colleges have priced themselves beyond their worth and more are opting not go to than before the present economic crisis.
Apr '12
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Arrogance exemplified! Romney was able to make Bain Capital profitable which is very hard to achieve in the high risk capital world. Here is where Biden and Romeny should differ - Romney would have met many business owners of large companies, built by themselves or their families. Most of these business owners would have begun as a truck driver, plumber, roofer and Romney would have worked with these guys. He should know they know their business better than Bain.
Biden reveals his paternalistic, we know better than you, attitude. Franco, your comments made me laugh but what a said commentary.
Jun '10
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
So what does qualify you? Going into the U.S. Senate at age 30 and sitting there pontificating for more than 30 years? Give me the plumber--he's actually had to do something.
My dad was a blue collar guy: in his case working his small family farm. He had more wisdom in his little finger that Biden has in what one might call his brain. Which is worse: his arrogance or his stupidity?
Mar '12
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
I think you have hit on something important there. Tocqueville's democracy (i.e., social equality) is sacrificed to the need of the "revolutionary vanguard" to feel superior to the masses they pretend to save.
Dec '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
I have a loathing contempt for biden.
Edited on May 24, 2012 at 8:51pmMar '12
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Maggie Somavilla
I wonder if we may begin to see a partial reversal of this as colleges have priced themselves beyond their worth and more are opting not go to than before the present economic crisis. ยท 37 minutes ago
I sure hope so, but I am concerned about the de-valorization (if that's a word) of blue collar work. It would help to have Presidents (and Vice Presidents) who don't ceaselessly promote college as the only path to a respectable life.
Sep '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
My husband went to college for half a semester and then dropped out; he is usually a very successful salesman/ businessman, and has owned a couple of small businesses that did pretty well. He learned about the business world by working in it. A few years ago, while job hunting, he came across a window company looking for salesmen; this company required a college degree to sell windows. My husband has a proven track record in home improvement sales, but he was told that he need not apply. Ridiculous.
There are definitely risks involved in entering the business world without a degree, but not having the security of a degree has kept my husband on his toes. If liberals really wanted to help others, they would question the idea that people need higher education in order to sell windows. But that would require them to make a personal sacrifice; it's so much easier to raise taxes.
Feb '12
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
"The Left's obsession with income equality can be seen as simple projection, a strategy to divert attention from the reality of the Left's contempt for the noncredentialled serfs they pretend to represent."
Well said.
The Left's gambit has always been a win/win/win from their perspective. They get to punish the robber barons, fill their own pockets as self-appointed tribunes of the people, and feel righteous when they pay off the constituencies that vote them into power and comfort.
From their perspective, what's not to like?
Feb '12
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Judithann Campbell: My husband went to college for half a semester and then dropped out; he is usually a very successful salesman/ businessman, and has owned a couple of small businesses that did pretty well. He learned about the business world by working in it. A few years ago, while job hunting, he came across a window company looking for salesmen; this company required a college degree to sell windows. My husband has a proven track record in home improvement sales, but he was told that he need not apply. Ridiculous.
There are definitely risks involved in entering the business world without a degree, but not having the security of a degree has kept my husband on his toes...
Ridiculous, isn't it? (By the way, there are companies who still accept experience in place of a degree - too few, but they're still out there. Check out CDW, for instance.)
I wish I'd gone into sales (or the military, or both one after the other) instead of going to college. Please let your husband know there are those who envy him.
Apr '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Like Hank Jr. said: "There ain't a whole lot them ol' boys can't do." On the other hand, if you handed Biden a pipe wrench, he'd probably drop it on his foot.
Sep '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Thank You, Leporello :)
Apr '12
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Without farmers wouldn't we all starve? Without builders wouldn't we all be unprotected from the elements? Without the garment industry wouldn't we all be like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, naked?
Master crafts people used to have the well-deserved respect of society, and still do from sensible people. They build business and create jobs. They are the producers of society. Fortunately for the rest of us, they are too busy to talk about themselves, unlike politicians and intellectuals.
Those politicians who don't understand this, like Biden, produce only hot air.
Mar '12
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Red Feline:
Master crafts people used to have the well-deserved respect of society, and still do from sensible people. They build business and create jobs. They are the producers of society. Fortunately for the rest of us, they are too busy to talk about themselves, unlike politicians and intellectuals.
True enough, and probably twas ever thus. What's new today is the rhetoric from Obama and Biden suggesting that practical experience in the real world actually disqualifies one to hold elective office. People should look at our unsustainable US finances, at the 3 year Euro meltdown; these are the product of an elite political class utterly divorced from the common sense of the tradesman.
Apr '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Meanwhile, we get poor plumbers and the best and the brightest are driving us off a cliff.
Quite possibly, higher education is a bubble (one of many, including government).
Edited on May 26, 2012 at 2:22pmJul '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
Excellent post - we need to expose the contempt the Left feels toward those they claim to speak for whenever their masks slip, as happened in this case with Old "Loose Lips" Joe.
Apr '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
This reminds me of the time (1973) Pat Buchanan caught flak for dismissing AFL-CIO President George Meany as an "$80,000 a year plumber". (That would be $418,181 today.)
A generation or two ago, the denigration went in the other direction. One's college ambitions were often mocked by one's blue-collar family and neighbors. Since then, higher education has suffered the same sort of inflation as the dollar.
Apr '11
Re: "No More Qualified than a Plumber"
I'm reminded of the William F. Buckley quote, "I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."