Interesting examples in the news this week of two very different yet similar instances of how not to behave in the public sector.
First, Santa Ono tried to not just straddle two opposing philosophical views, instead claiming to have morphed from one to another, calling it evolving over time (time being really only a couple of years). Then, Elon has a very public spat with the White House that seems to be irreconcilable. Words hurled can never be retracted, especially those which are incredibly inflammatory.
So, how are these similar? Each of them has now managed to offend both major sides. Ono rejected his liberal friends in seeking to ingratiate himself to the right; which summarily rejected him. Musk had already lost support from his liberal cheerleaders and embraced MAGA, which he has now carpet bombed on the way out.
Hale wrote a book in 1863 called The Man Without a Country. In 2005, Vonnegut wrote A Man Without a Country. Maybe Ono and Musk will collaborate on Two Men Without a Philosophical Home.
Each day becomes a case study for teaching politics or public administration. Maybe I need to go back into the classroom. So many lectures write themselves.
