Fool and his money: Good riddance, Tom Steyer
Well, it's over.
A couple of years and $250 million later, Tom Steyer's presidential run has left him exactly where he started in the presidential race, at zero.
The poor wretched monomaniac of greenie virtue now goes the way of Jay Inslee, the qualified, but leftist, governor of Washington state who, like Steyer, was also global warming bore and washed out because of it. You'd think maybe Steyer would have noticed how unimportant this 'sky is falling' greenie cause was with voters by that point, but nope, Steyer continued to sell that snake oil to voters, thinking a barrage of television ads would make them catch on. He never had a clue.
Now he has his clue, $250 million dollars later, no delegates, a pathetic third place finish in South Carolina, prompting him to finally cut his losses, and exit the race.
Actually, he probably had some clues, given that he changed his tune to South Carolina's voters from global warming to 'racial justice,' something he claimed "not enough people" cared about but, trust him, he did, in what was an obvious pander for the black vote in South Carolina. Turns out another old white guy, Joe Biden, got there first, succeeding in that machine pol way of his, through endorsements from old-line black politicians such as Rep. James Clyburn -- gaffes, exaggerations, and all.
What Steyer's exit shows is global warming remains the issue of rich white elites, the kind of people who want a hectoring Episcopalian minister like Steyer telling them to get woke and "make a difference," accepting as much government intrusion as possible, the richest of them, of course, feeling no consequences. Only the poor, after all, see their quality of life fall when they are told to pay for their own plastic bags, or foot exorbitant electricity bills, see their long commutes get costlier with gas hikes, and lose their straws, all so that guys like Steyer and his set can feel virtuous.
It's not the first losing cause Steyer has advocated for, either. He also spent $70 million of his own money on ad after television ad calling for impeaching President Trump, back before Rep. Adam Schiff started sneaking around with Eric Ciaramella and trying to figure out a way to really do it. It was immensely unpopular in an age when most people were goggling about the first good economy with real jobs they'd seen in decades, the real work of President Trump. Saturation ads have diminishing returns.
Where'd he get the idea that the public was so stupid and suggestible that all he needed were ads to win the biggest office of the land? This guy had no political history, all he had was money, and money made in exactly the way lefties don't like, in finance. He marketed himself as this wonderful guy who played hometown banker, when in reality, he made a killing in credit unions, and not just credit unions but the even more controversial hedge funds, not a really lovely history. Lefty hedge fund managers in fact seem to be common things, marrying the leftist love of money with oppressing people through virtue signaling, and all you have to do is ask George Soros. But they aren't popular with anyone on the ground. The big cash still doesn't translate to political power, money or not.
Steyer might have misread billionaire President Trump's rise as something he could easily duplicate, but what he missed was that President Trump took risks, starting with the risky things he said, the risky things he did in business, and his willingness to fight, qualities that impressed voters. Steyer took no such risks, his views were completely in line with establishment organs such as the Ford Foundation and in place of risks, he banked on ads enticing suggestible people into voting for him instead. Gack.
He was in for a surprise.
So now he's got three losing causes to his name - impeachment, global warming, and him as president, splashing out more than $300 million of his fortune to find that out, and actually, he probably hasn't learned, so next up will be some other losing cause popular with hectoring Episcopalian ministers. This former hedge fund manager sure is a guy who can pick 'em. All he's got left now of himself is his textbook case example of a fool and his money.
Image credit: ABC News/ YouTube screen shot