Democrat Jeanne Dietsch wants Government to choose for you. Denise Ricciardi, her Republican opponent in NH State Senate District 9, wants YOU to make choices for you and yours. Should be an easy pick but let me get on with the Comments.
Related: Jeanne Dietsch’s Homeschooling Disrespect A Problem for NH Parents
So, two peas in a pod. Jeanne’s brother decided to chime in to help here. I decided to help Steve a bit (not that he needs much help at all!). Steve had a post on Elitism when it comes to homeschooling vs Government Schools (“NH Democrat Jeanne Deitsch – Elitist White-Tower Snob“). If you don’t remember, Jeanne Dietsch (D-NH Senate District 9) was rather condescending about Parents:
“This idea of parental choice, that’s great if the parent is well-educated. There are some families that’s perfect for. But to make it available to everyone? No. I think you’re asking for a huge amount of trouble,” Dietsch said.
… “If the dad’s a carpenter, and you want to become a carpenter, then yes — listen to your dad.”
And Steve took her properly to task. It always seems that Democrats have the Moral Superiority built into their psyche and their mouths – read the post about US Senator Maize Hirono and Rep. Ilhan Omar have said along those same lines. Read the post.
Anyways, like a good brother, Ms. Dietsch’s decided to wade in four months later. Wanted to help. You judge for yourselves (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Neil Dietsch:
A note about my Sister, Jeanne Dietsch:
I suppose it is a favorite tactic of right-wing bloggers to project all their favorite stereotypical buzzwords (“liberal”, “socialist”, “elitist”, etc.) onto their political adversaries, but let me interject a few facts about “elitist” Jeanne Dietsch, whom I have known her whole life.
As opposed to what many Leftists call us: chumps, deplorable, irredeemable, xenophobes, homophobes, racists, misogynists…you get the idea of the differences in wordings
1) She is no elitist. Our father, whom we both adored, worked his whole life at stockyards. I, and sometimes Jeanne, worked there when we were growing up. “White-collar” was something we only read about growing up. Our mother was a teacher in public education. We attended public schools like everyone we knew.
2) Our parents were both Republicans. I even was at one time, until the party started its decades long drift to evangelical rectitude, moral hypocrisy, anti-intellectualism, corruption, and ineptitude.
Well, that’s a nice piece of….bias confirmation. Fits in well with what his sister said, differently and on a different set of self-targeted victims. UNITY! TEAMWORK! But we need to be in charge you buffoons…
3) Nobody in our family ever embraced socialism. I don’t even recall Jeanne ever describing herself as a “liberal” Democrat. Jeanne has been a creative entrepreneur her whole working life. It is thanks to the capitalist system that she has the time, temperament, resources to now give back to a system and society that has rewarded her, and the other hard-working members of our family. She is a person looking to make things work better.
As far as Allen’s points about the value of trade school vs. basket weaving, I think that if you had ever sat in on one of our family Thanksgiving dinners, you would find the Dietsch clan in unanimous agreement.
Yeah, well, I decided to point out a couple of things in return:
GraniteGrok:
1) Elitist isn’t your background – it IS how you think about others and your sister’s attitude was on full display.
2) Elitism is not a function of Party affiliation – although it does seem to manifest itself more with Progressives due to the “Moral Superiority” aspect of donning that mantle.
3) “Progressive” is the word that was chosen when American “intellectuals” returned from Germany in the 1880s believing that Socialism was better than Constitutionalism (to wit: Woodrow Wilson who was the most virulent anti-Constitution President with FDR and Obama giving him a run for his money)
I have no doubt.
Methinks he wasn’t happy and decided to try again. You know, because I missed stuff.
Neil Dietsch:
“Elitist” implies arrogance. That’s not Jeanne.
I’ve know Jeanne my whole life. You’ve latched on to one phrase (“well-educated”), overlaid it with class connotations and are ready to pass judgment. It may not be elitist, but it strikes me as arrogant.
Knowledge is important. Setting educational policy wisely, and even selecting the right school for your kids, is complicated. (I’ve worked with teachers and education administrators professionally; they have to make a lot of tough choices.) There are a lot of people who lack either the knowledge or critical thinking skills to make good judgments for themselves — some highly educated: look at all the maskless government leaders at the White House who proved incapable of making judgments about how to even protect themselves and those around them (much less the nation) from COVID-19.
Admittedly, it would have been clearer if Jeanne had said “parents who know what they are doing” instead of “well-educated”. Our Dad was definitely in the former group, but not the latter. Jeanne and I listened to him and learned from him. We honored him at his memorial service when he passed in 2013. Jeanne is the kind of person you want in government.
GraniteGrok:
“Elitist” implies arrogance. That’s not Jeanne.
Her words were VERY arrogant and condescending towards parents that are (or wish to) homeschool their children. It’s an attitude that says “you WILL outsource and hand over your Constitutional right to raise your children to we who know better than you”. It’s a promulgating the attitude that public schools own the children, not the parents.
…either the knowledge or critical thinking skills to make good judgments for themselves
And that’s a great example of it from you. It is not your decision to make – nor your sister nor anyone else. THAT is Elitism. And then you went all political in the same paragraph.
And that’s the difference – the Collectivist attitude versus the one that I hold in which people have the Freedom to make their own decisions – rightly or wrongly. Elitism vs Live Free or Die. One says I will take choice from you because I cannot allow you to make bad decisions – the other says you get all the choices available (but you must own the consequences thereof) You and your sister apparently have no problem in removing that Choice from them in order to save them from themselves.
Absolutely, I hate the idea of letting ANYONE, Right or Left, near the Levers of Power if they believe they know better than others and therefore are ENTITLED to force everyone to live the way they tell them to you.
Perhaps you and your sister ought to be listening to the ones you both just denigrated like you did with your Dad. He helped to grow and give you agency – you just want to yank it away.
Self-awareness is hard to come by when living in the Progressive Privilege bubble. It is CLEAR that he didn’t even listen to his own words as he typed them in – and realize the “Oops, the Dietsch’s have just done it again”. He didn’t explain away her words and attitude – he fortified it instead.
Now, will he respond? Who knows.
