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Many people have urged those of us in the chattering classes to ignore Howard Schultz. But they're wrong, for two seemingly opposed reasons: there are both sinister and comic aspects to his candidacy, and the latter can be used against the former 1/
The sinister side: in part, Schultz and other potential billionaire independents are trying to blackmail Democrats into avoiding a progressive economic agenda, even though such an agenda is popular. Brian Beutler made this point the other day 2/ crooked.com/articles/howar…
And Ed Luce said much the same thing yesterday 3/ ft.com/content/9e9f00…
The comic side: Schultz was reportedly shocked by the backlash to his announcement. He evidently suffered from rich man's disease: being surrounded by people who tell him what he wants to hear, with no idea how the other 99.9% thinks 4/ newsmax.com/newsfront/schu…
What this suggests is that subjecting Schultz to all the ridicule he deserves, making him as sorry as possible for acting on his billionaire sense of entitlement, serves a social purpose: it's a deterrent to other plutocrat spoilers 5/
I'm sure somebody out there will say that I'm being abusive, Stalinist, something. But nobody is suggesting that Schultz be hurt physically (though not buying Starbucks is a defensible act). All I'm suggesting is that he face the full measure of the embarrassment he's earned 6/
If he's typical, he'll absolutely hate that -- the billionaire bubble is supposed to protect you from feeling small and silly. But that's why it's a good idea 7/
