A confession: I used the ''whiner'' talking point in a job interview a few years ago

[yurbud]

I teach part time at a couple of community colleges and was applying for a full time job at one school.

I recited my various qualifications, student success, and transfers who came back and told me I gave them good prep even for the Ivys, and successfully tweaking some legislation part time faculty wanted, so it would finally pass after 40 years without a change.

In addition to that though, I felt compelled to tell them that they would be foolish to hire someone who hadn't been working at the school as they had last time, an instructor who almost literally drove students from her class and quit after a year. I told them they had been snookered when they could have gone with someone whose performance they had seen first hand.

I didn't go to the Rahm & Biden extreme of calling the hiring committee whiners and retards, but the sentiment and tone were the pretty much the same.

Do you think I got the job?

[hlthe2b]

1. I'm guessing you didn't really want the job?

[yurbud]

2. that would make my analogy even worse for the current users of this tactic

[gateley]

3. I don't care.

You're taking Biden's comment and intent out of context. And Rahm was probably just frustrated and called us names, like we do to them all the time.

[yurbud]

5. then you've missed the context of the last year and a half of their governing

[gateley]

8. I disagree, but that's cool. nt

[Mimosa]

4. I'd be surprised if you didn't get hired. n/t

[CakeGrrl]

6. Is this another way of saying you're not voting Obama in 2012?

Or is this another spin on the "Be nice to me or ELSE" theme?

We get it. You're offended.

Some of us have thicker skins and know who the REAL problem is going to be if they get their hands back on the levers of power.

[yurbud]

7. they are applying for a job, and insulting the hiring committee that includes progressives

is not the way to get the job done.

I will vote for them, but it would be nice to do it without feeling like the DLC has made me their bitch.

[niceypoo]

9. "Some of us have thicker skins"

Oh the irony... If the administration had a thick skin, they wouldn't have lashed out in the first place.

[boppers]

10. "The beatings will continue until morale improves"

Sometimes fighting back is the best way to confront bullies.

[KoKo]

13. You know...what you say about those "beatings will continue" and morale.......

well they seem more realistic day by day! Who would have thought it would come to this? We were so excited...we really believed our 8 years of Hell were over.

But, then...some of us who voted for Clinton thought our 12 years of Hell were over.. Look how that turned out. It was a truly magnificent Election. I cried my eyes out when Clinton won! My daughter attended the convention and I was so proud that she was there to see that moment in History! Young Southern Governor makes it to Presidency! But, then...I was just as excited when Jimmy Carter won...because I had worked for him and when he and his mother did their "Whistlestop Campaign" and "Miss Lillian" spoke to us in a train stop in Ridgefield, Ct...those long years ago....I thought we finally had a true Dem Populist we had elected.

It's a trail of tears.....we always keep hope alive though. It's what we Dems do. We are so idealistic..but without the Idealists...what would the world be?

[CakeGrrl]

14. Oh brother...seriously, how long are people going to be stung over this?

Beatings?

People who sit behind their keyboards and who have no clue what it takes to work with some of these congressional jackasses and nitwits who have been bestowed with voting power by their consitituents complain how slowly things are going, how nothing is being done (as far as they can actually see) despite a list of accomplishments that previous Presidents Dem or Repub couldn't put up in a comparable span of time, and then they get their collective panties in a big twist when they're asked to suck it up?

But of course, they pile recs onto a thread asking the President to "man up".

Okay.

:eyes:

[yurbud]

17. on some issues, he needed to ''win'' in irreversible ways otherwise the GOP can undo it the

next time they have the levers of power.

Breaking up banks and hedge funds and figuring out a way to prosecute the principals in the Wall Street meltdown, and pushing for the strongest possible financial reform rather than weakening it through back channels would not have just made the progressive base happy, it would have put off the next major near-depression by decades instead of years.

Likewise, health care reform with a public option was the only thing that would have put the fear of God into health insurance companies because they would know if they didn't behave, everyone would jump ship and they would be dead by their own hands (instead of by lethal injection as they truly deserve).

Even on a change that I really appreciated, to student loans that cut my payments dramatically and will forgive my loans after ten years of repayment at the new rate, when I told my college students about it, instead of having the grateful reaction I did, they said, ''Why isn't college free like in Europe?''

Incremental change is not only easily rolled back, it often doesn't even register with the people it helps.

[treestar]

12. Even so, you can lash out and still be the best one for the job

But they were entitled to lash out at the unreasonable whining they get. People don't get to complain when someone responds to what they do. I'm getting here a sense of entitlement: I can lash out at the administration but they can't respond to it. Not the way life works.

[niceypoo]

19. Entitled, perhaps, but it was politically foolish

Besides, reacting to the reaction (drama) is what I expect from Palin, not Obama

[area51]

18. +1 n/t

[dave29]

22. and then what would ya'll have to whine about!

the circle of life continues

[treestar]

11. It's not the same thing

And when people have been insulting someone over and over and that someone defends themselves or even insults them back, it behooves them to take it gracefully as they've been doing it themselves. You do not individually hire a President.

Or you hire the person who called you a whiner, and get over it, if the only other candidate available for the job is a fire-breathing idiot who will destroy your company if you give them the job.

[yurbud]

16. I'm going to ''hire'' him and every other Democrat. It's the rest of the committee I'm not so sure

about.

[KoKo]

15. Who would Unrec this post? I hit Rec...and it doesn't even show up...

What in the world could be offense about what the OP says? :shrug:

[mkultra]

20. depends on how you framed it.

If you chided them at all. NO

[dave29]

21. If you think this is an apples to apples comparison,

you shouldn't get any job

[yurbud]

23. to make this a perfect analogy, I would have to seek the advice of the shitty instructor

and then chide them for hiring her instead of me and warn them not to hire someone else like that again.

[dave29]

24. There really is no perfect analogy

I can think of countless work scenarios where one may be labeled a whiner. For example, When my job of nine years was outsourced, my bosses got an earful the entire time I was kept on to train my replacement (as well as be his chauffeur). Ultimately it was a pointless exercise in talking to the hand. They knew what they had wrought, and the money they had decided to save could have potentially disastrous effects for the security of a major fiber-optics carrier. I was unimportant and they were in charge. Did whining make me feel better, sure. Did it have an impact, nope.

However, we are talking about elected officials complaining about some in the base who are not seeing the progress they hoped to see. Did we hire them, sure. But not to accomplish what some projected on this administration as an immediate liberal utopia. I don't think Joe Biden or Barack Obama or whomever you perceive as attacking you directly are really so dumb as to not recognize that the type of progress we hoped to see has been unobtainable. They have openly said so. What they are getting at is reality. We are a center-left country dealing with center-right politicians. Your perceived enemies are in Congress, not the administration. Whine all you want, but work towards getting more liberals in power on top of that if you want to be taken seriously.

The whining comments are exasperation, in my opinion. And you think what they said was bad? Look at what happened to Karl Rove when he dared to bash O'Donnell. The Republican spin machine has zero tolerance for dissent. Zero. Let me say that again Z - E - R - O. This administration has done more to help YOU than any in the last 20+ years. And you are telling them they have failed less than two years in to fixing the monumental shit pile the last zero tolerance team left in place for our team.

While I see no apples to apples comparison for this in your example, I think it would be much more accurate if you gave the school some credit for even talking to you in the first place.

You perceived they did not give you the job because you complained about another worker. It seems more fitting that your situation was more of a George W. Bush Justice Department type scenario where the appointments were purely political and the consequences led to jail time for good people. You spoke up, in your situation, and the zero tolerance machine did it's work.

As with so many of the other posters on this board, it seems to me you are still fighting the demons in the last administration, and projecting them on the current. In light of these types of accusations against them, I would not hesitate to call some of my fellow progressives whiners, and encourage them to work harder for the changes we all want. The work is always "In Progress" That's what being a progressive is all about. Moving forward, regardless of the pace. And don't take that as an admission that major progress has not been made, it has. One other bit about being taken seriously, is giving credit where it is due. Failing that, you are likely talking to the hand.

You must know by now that running this country never goes according to plan. Politicians do everything they can to be elected. Promises are made, and not kept. It happens EVERY election cycle regardless of politician. I honestly believe Obama wants all of the things he campaigned on. He is working with an intransigent right and an ungrateful left and still making considerable progress. That he has done so is a testament to his ability to find solutions where all there is is a desire to remain entrenched in partisan rancor.

So go ahead, fire them, that's your prerogative. You've certainly given them an unbiased look and decided, ultimately, you would rather see the demons you hate in power so your whining will be labelled a fighting spirit once again. Good for you, it's always fun to be on the attack. I wish you the best, but do not expect you'll get much in the way of progress.

To each their own.

[yurbud]

25. You missed the point entirely.

Obama, Biden, Gibbs, et al are applying for a job and I'm telling them their interview strategy sucks even though I'm going to vote for them anyway.

The ''shit on your base'' tactic amounts to epic political incompetence unless their real goal is to appease the very wealthy so they don't turn the big guns on the administration.