Why can't the poors understand that numbers go up, what's their problem
A guide to U.S. politics and the economy — from the mainstream to the wonkish.
Replace wonk with wank
Is there a more cringe word than wonk?
Policy isn’t something to be wonked. We aren’t wonking our way out of class warfare.
It’s a heavily misused term, as it’s supposed to refer to the types in DC that specialize in the legalese and knowing all the procedural and bureaucratic minutiae. Like CPA’s for law. When it entered the mainstream, people like Krugman started using it to signify that they’re the
in the room.I remember Paul Ryan proudly calling himself a policy wonk. Like it was his thing, that he knew how to navigate the bureaucracy to be effective.
I just despise the implication that all we need are wonks, that the problems with the US are due to misadministration, and that all that sets us apart from the American Dream are a few tweaks or loophole closures. It is deeply misguided but most liberals think this way. It tacitly denies structural problems.
