1. Good on Robert Kraft for doing this.
2. Take a sec to imagine the Fox News coverage if it was Beyonce who had done this, and the President was Obama. "Obama gets Beyonce to compensate for and distract from his failure as a leader."
2. Take a sec to imagine the Fox News coverage if it was Beyonce who had done this, and the President was Obama. "Obama gets Beyonce to compensate for and distract from his failure as a leader."
This is the way right wing billionaires run cover and do PR for each other. Kraft's buddy, the President, fails at his job to prepare the country for a pandemic. Kraft steps in with his great wealth to bail him (and the country) out. Country responds with gratitude to both.
The most salient point is that Beyonce would likely never have had to do this to help an Obama Administration out, because that administration would have been competent and thus been able to manage the logistics of the pandemic effectively w/o an assist from some rich person.
Anyone who is even gently critical of Kraft's actions today will be pilloried as "ungrateful." Which sounds a bit like Trump saying he just wants governors to be "appreciative" of everything he's done for them. AFAIK, noblesse oblige is not usually considered a democratic value.
Noblesse oblige, BTW, was a useful cultural dynamic for aristocrats because it made their unearned power and privilege look like a benefit to the entire society.
Here's a nicely succinct critique of the ideal of noblesse oblige. amyjuliabecker.com/the-problem-wi…
