Katie Hobbs: Ignorant Empty-Suit Liberal

Do you know Katie Hobbs, the Democrat nominee for governor in Arizona? Well you’re not missing much. In the common parlance of politics and business Ms. Hobbs would be best described as an “empty suit.” For those of you forced to endure a teachers union led education in the Portland Public Schools an empty suit is described by Collins Dictionary as: “a person in authority who lacks the necessary qualities to perform the role effectively.” (Here I have tried in vain to be cognizant of gender identity but I cannot find a feminine version of “empty suit” and since Collins uses the gender neutral “a person” and it also works for me.)

Ms. Hobbs has distinguished herself during the gubernatorial campaign for two major reasons: 1) her refusal to debate her Republican opponent and 2) her inability to describe how the Latino community in Arizona has impacted her life. The two are tightly connected even though Ms. Hobbs cannot see it.

Ever since the primaries were over in Arizona, the Republican nominee, Kari Lake, has been demanding that Ms. Hobbs debate her – debate her anywhere, any time and any subject. Ms. Hobbs has demurred. In most instances, Ms. Hobbs has acted as if it would be demeaning to her to have to debate Ms. Lake. Better yet, her spokesman Joe Wolf stated:

“We will not engage in a circus that insults and embarrasses Arizonans. “We do not need to look further than the last debate* Kari Lake participated in for such an example.”

How noble and how cowardly that is of Ms. Hobbs. Ms. Hobbs cannot hold her own with a friendly press who toss her softballs that she routinely misses. It’s not just that she is afraid of Ms. Lake, a former television anchor herself; it’s more that she and her handlers recognize that she lacks the intellectual capacity to respond rationally or with a grasp of the subject matter. In doing so she joins the ranks of other liberal/progressives starting with President Joe Biden, followed by Vice-President Kalamata Harris, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and running all the way down to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep Maxine Waters (D-CA). (I didn’t include Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D-PA) because his condition was triggered by a major stroke and thus his incapacity is due to medical reasons and not the product of being just plain stupid.)

One wonders why there is growing number of these people who make Forrest Gump look like Benjamin Disraeli when compared to their own intellectual shortcomings. It cannot be that the party elites aren’t aware of their limitations – actually their shallowness. A five minute conversation with any one of them would confirm your thirty second suspicions. Could it be that these elites recognize their candidate dullness AND the malleability? That they will do what they are told and when they are told? That they can read from script in a fashion such that they appear to be knowledgeable when in fact they are studiously ignorant? That they are so dumb that they will read anything on the teleprompter, including words that will lead to their demise like Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy? And while those suppositions in Democrat candidates are widely probable, the Republicans have not been without fault in their choices.

Which leads us to the second point – Ms. Hobbs’ inability to articulate how the Hispanic community has impacted her life. But let’s set the stage first. The Hispanic/Latino community in Arizona constitutes about one-third of Arizona’s population – many of whom are illegal immigrants who survive on the lower end of the economic scale. Ms. Hobbs has been a social worker all of her adult life. The very nature of her job coupled with size of the Hispanic community would suggest that she should have an intimate knowledge of the community – particularly with regard to their health, educational, religious and economic determinants. In addition to being a social worker Ms. Hobbs represented a district both as representative and a senator that was approximately one-third Hispanic.

In all of that time the only impact that the Hispanic community had on Ms. Hobbs was learning three words of Spanish (espanol, un piquito, and probably adios). Oh, and hanging out with her sister-in-law who is Hispanic. Look, I am white, male born and raised in Eastern Montana whose sole contact with the Hispanic community was when they showed up to pick sugar beets by hand for about two weeks each summer – in other words: negligible. And yet I can provide a better picture of the importance and impact of the Hispanic community than Ms. Hobbs.

Today, the Hispanic community represents the underpinnings of the American dream. Like the Irish, Italians, Polish, and Eastern Europeans who proceeded them, the Hispanic community has left all that was familiar in order to come to America for a better life. They are the keepers of America’s greatest promise – that if you work hard you can succeed. They take many of the worst jobs our society offers and work them two and three at a time in order to provide for their families and educate their children. And that next generation demonstrates that with a good education they can succeed in competition with all other ethnic backgrounds. They stand on the shoulders of other immigrants and provide the shoulders for the next. America is great because we have a rich history of ethnic groups working hard to succeed. The Hispanic community is just the latest and their focus on succeeding should be honored.

Ms. Hobbs in ability to articulate that impact, that contribution, or its importance puts her in the company of other empty-headed white-bread liberal/progressives who believe that minority communities are there for the handouts and not the hand ups. It makes them feel good to give your money to increase the welfare population with the idea they will be eternally grateful and politically loyal. They are wrong on both counts and maybe Ms. Hobbs will understand that when she is rejected on November 8.

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*That reference was to the last primary debate between Ms. Lake and her primary opponents when she took each of them apart piece by piece.