IN - Or OUT?

The Introvert/Extrovert split is way too simplified. Some Introverts do veer toward the hermit-like existence, particularly as this pandemic had become a year-long imposition.

But, even Introverts like being around other people - at least, in measured doses. I like to socialize - just not ALL the time. Giver me that 'Alone Time' regularly, and I'm happy to also spend some time with others.

Ann Althouse has some similar thoughts on this, that sparked this post - worth reading.

Most worktimes should have a blend of activities - some quiet and contemplative, some interactive, some 1-on-1, and others perhaps involving a lecture/presentation-type communication, with time and ability to take some questions for clarification.

That includes school, as well. Too often, the move away from desks in rows, recitation and rote learning, and quiet practice of skills, has lead to not much more productive lessons. Such new-style lessons involve a lot of group work, writing - whether journaling, essays, or questions for later follow-up, and "projects" and slideshows. Not necessarily more creative, nor even all that conducive to learning.

Just different. And, catering to the idea that ALL students will benefit from activities designed to appeal to those who are more extroverted. And, more chatty.

At this point, it's anathema to suggest that some time for quiet work alone, or time to think/write/reflect might be useful or productive. But, for some, that's the best part of their day.

And, so, it has been found with the year-long experiment in social/work/life activities.

When there is NO social life, people miss it intensively - even the Introverts.

When there is NO opportunity to talk to a co-worker during a break in work, people REALLY hate it.

When there is ONLY Zooming for meeting choices, people hate it. Many people, even the Extroverts, hate Zoom.

And, I say that, even though I belong to a radio group that has had to learn to meet that way, since last year (we skew hard into the demographic that is most affected by this illness). We've adapted. Some will not soon return to in-person meetings - and, the club can, and will, adapt to that. But, many are eager to benefit from the intrapersonal, direct communication that can only be experienced IRL.

We had Easter at my church - St. Anne Catholic in Rock Hill, SC - and, for the first time since re-opening for live services in the late spring last year, took down the rope barriers that reduced the number of pews by 1/2.

We still distanced ourselves from non-related people - 3 feet, rather than the 6-foot distances of the past year - but the church (almost) began to seem like the Mass was normal again.

Not like previous Easters. We usually pack parishioners in tightly, with standing room only in the back. We've lost some members over the last year - more than we could afford to lose. Some stopped coming to services - of those, some never got into the online option. Others just found another church home, or stopped coming to church altogether.

We will be in re-building mode for some time to come. I think of it as Our New Evangelization.

Locally, some of the schools have been in session - though with reduced in-person hours. A few systems are fully back to normal - both public and private. All have the option for virtual learning for vulnerable student populations. Some have made accommodations for teachers falling into the medically fragile (cancer patients, or otherwise highly at risk of complications).

But, most teachers have both been given the opportunity to be immunized, and also told "show up", whether or not they take that opportunity.

Here's a transcript of James Carville being interviewed by Bill Kristol (yeah, yeah, I know). Kristol is an accurate reflection of what the Old GOP - the compromisers, the gentry, the Elite Rich of the Party think and believe. So, we need to make ourselves aware of their messaging, and how it will likely play out in the next few elections (before they give up in disgust, and finally reveal themselves as Dems).

What Carville says about the 2024 election is telling. He, and probably a substantial portion of the Dem Left, are lulling themselves into complacency with their predictions about Nikki Haley (Piss Be Upon Her!), and her likely success in gaining the nomination.

KRISTOL: Yeah. That’s interesting. I mean that, and look, I mean you’ve always been good at this having been in real politics, it’s the change that matters as much as the static photo of the numbers, so to speak. Right? And if it’s going from, as you say, 89 to 57, it can go to 47 or 37. And we’re a long, long way away from 2022, let alone 2024. So maybe the Republican party has more dynamism in it or is less stuck where it is than people think.

CARVILLE: I don’t know. But I do know, let’s just say when late 2023, and they come out with a poll and Nikki Haley against Biden is down one, and Trump against Biden is down 11. That’s going to make an impact. It sure made an impact in the Democrats in 2020. And I never believed, “That’s insider baseball, people don’t care about polls, talk about the five years education, environment, and ethics or whatever, and that shit. Okay?” They do pay attention to polls now. I mean, they really do. And they like you better than him, but if they think him can beat them, they’re going to vote for him in large numbers. And this is a real change in American politics, real change.

 So, that negates Carville's reputation as a Democratic strategist. If he thinks Haley can actually survive the primary process to stand on the stage at the convention as the Winnah! - well, let's just say Carville should start buying stock in those companies that manufacture those senility drugs. He's gonna need a truckload.

But, Carville still has sufficient brain cells rattling around to understand the current situation in the Dem party.

Now, nowadays the quote “progressives,” I don’t know what nomenclature to use anymore, but the leftists — a term I like better, I think it’s more accurate — they’re starting to primary these people. And by the way, we’ve got a no-vote margin in the Senate when you’ve got to have the vice-president vote; we’re down to four votes in the House. It’s not like we have this giant juggernaut that’s just rolling through the political landscape of America. We’re in very fragile condition.

And we have a very fragile coalition. And within the coalition, the probably two biggest contributors to that coalition, are obviously African Americans and educated, white women, probably the two biggest blocks that we have in the party. And their interest has converged in certain places, probably diverged and other places, but of course, but everything else becomes necessary because you’re getting a small but necessary part of say, the white working class vote, the kind of pro-union vote. And you’ve got, Hispanics are definitely not monolithic, and you’re starting to do not very well there. So you got a lot to do.

 The "Dem mix" is, indeed very fragile. Every move that Biden's administration makes is an opportunity for the Non-Left to pick up some seats. Just keep track of the votes on the Leftist agenda, and fire it right back at them in the mid-term elections.

You know what happened in 2020, this analysis by this guy, David Shaw, some kind of God damn genius. And it pointed out that educational differences got even more profound, with the more college-educated whites being Democrat, and less being Republican. But non-white got a little more Republican. And they tend to have a more, pro-police, anti-identity politics, for lack of a better word. So we got to keep struggling here. And we got to keep struggling to keep what share we got left of these rural, working-class whites because they’re so strategically located, you just can’t win without a certain percentage of them.

The Left has a shakier grasp on the coalition of The Dem Party than they think they have. Their eagerness to impose their agenda - even by non-Constitutional Means - is not gonna play well in the Heartland.

And, Carville knows it - he is a Good Ol' Boy from Lousiana.

I don’t know of anybody, and I talked to, I live in New Orleans, okay? It’s no secret. I don’t know of a single person that thinks of themselves as a “person of color.” I really don’t. I had Ruben Gallego, who’s a Democratic congressman from Arizona, and we did much better in Arizona than we did in Texas or Florida, and he said, “I’ve never heard anybody use the word LatinX.” And that’s just not the way people talk. It’s not what they — It’s just not the way. When people hear that — And it’s a little different because when you’re in the middle of it, you hear it so much it doesn’t stand out. When you’re out in the rest of the country — It was like the janitor at Smith College. That story. I give Tom the credit for running the story, but there is a feeling — And I got to tell you, I’m a supportive, ardent Democrat, passion and everything, but the English faculty at Amherst has too much power in this party. They really do. And they come up with all of these different things and when people see that, they don’t like it because it’s not what their life is.

All Bold-Faced parts are selected by me for emphasis.

Mind you, Carville is - somewhat - reality-based. He GETS it that the Left Believers are cray-cray.

once you get drawn into it, they’re like, they never stop. Never stop. They never stop. They’re always trying to get somebody fired. They’re outraged at somebody all the time. And it just wears people down. It’s not worth fooling with them. They’re nuts.

Carville is biased, of course. After all, he thinks Liz Cheney - the same Liz Cheney who is Dead to a helluva lot of Republicans - is The Future of the GOP.

They take the most confident person they got and exorcize her out the party.

Uh, no. Just - no. Liz is her father - duplicitous, shady dealing, and out for herself, not the party - without the brains. Or the toughness.

One of Carville's weakest arguments is his reliance on polling. Look, I know that polls can be tremendously helpful. WHEN you get GOOD information.

But, polls taken - and used - for the purposes of 'spreading a message' are useless. They lead to situation like 2016 AND 2020 (let me be straightforward - Biden LOST the election, even with massive mail-in balloting, until they used last-minute and heavy-handed vote manipulation to make it LOOK semi-legitimate).