# Politicians: driving a pickup truck does not mean you're better than anybody else **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 20, 2010, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700 "2010-01-20T15:18:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/41 "2010-01-20T19:11:44Z")
Which suggests that it is not a “utility-only” vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/42 "2010-01-20T19:23:41Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > I wouldn’t be surprised if Brown’s pickup truck is similar to mine in that regard. I make a good living and I own a nice car that is definitely more expensive than the average American’s vehicle, the pickup I own is a utility vehicle and not any attempt for me to put on some odd illusion that I’m someone I’m not. But isn’t that sort of the point of this thread. The OP wasn’t criticizing Brown simply for owning a pick-up. He was criticizing the fact that Brown did, indeed, use the truck to “put on some odd illusion that [he’s] someone [he’s] not.” He campaigned in the damn thing, and used it as evidence of his everyman credentials. And the media, of course, being dumb fucks happy to buy into this sort of bullshit, lapped it up. If Brown were indeed everyman, America would be in much better shape than it is, considering that he and his wife own, according to his Wiki entry, “a 3,000-square-foot primary home, a 2,000-square foot summer home in Rye, New Hampshire, three condos in Boston, and a timeshare on the Caribbean island of Aruba” ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/43 "2010-01-20T19:32:26Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Do people even read my posts anymore? I do 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/44 "2010-01-20T19:37:17Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > If Brown were indeed everyman, America would be in much better shape than it is, considering that he and his wife own, according to his Wiki entry, “a 3,000-square-foot primary home, a 2,000-square foot summer home in Rye, New Hampshire, three condos in Boston, and a timeshare on the Caribbean island of Aruba” Well, maybe they’re all really old and beat-up. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/45 "2010-01-20T19:48:27Z")
Huh, has anybody seen **Robot Arm**? He certainly doesn’t appear anywhere in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/46 "2010-01-20T19:53:32Z")
No such person. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/47 "2010-01-20T21:49:42Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Do people even read my posts anymore? “Anymore” ? ---
**Author:** ![i\_am\_a\_scientist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f07891/32.png) [@i\_am\_a\_scientist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/i_am_a_scientist)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/48 "2010-01-20T23:40:37Z")
aren’t horses a means of transportation? what kind of a father drives his lazy fucking horse and his hot, young, single, daughters around? ---
**Author:** ![ManiacMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@ManiacMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ManiacMan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/49 "2010-01-21T00:05:57Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Right – I hadn’t been following the Massachusetts campaign that closely. > > Back in 2007, I was at a public function where the [state governor](http://www.flickr.com/photos/75905404@N00/524146839/) and the [city mayor](http://www.flickr.com/photos/75905404@N00/524146849/) both took off their ties before addressing the crowd. Were they saying that wearing ties in morally inferior? Or were they just trying to say (like Senator-elect Brown) that they were men of the people? It’s a symbolic gesture – not worth pitting at all. Were their ties clip-ons? ---
**Author:** ![rolandgunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cdc98d/32.png) [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/50 "2010-01-21T00:12:34Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > What kind of rich, elitist cocksucker can buy his daughter a bunch of horses and drive them around to snooty-ass “equestrian” events? Doesn’t that completely undermine his “everyman” schtick? Owning a horse makes you an elitist cocksucker?:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/51 "2010-01-21T00:28:29Z")
Not necessarily, but it certainly makes it easier to suck horse cock. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/52 "2010-01-21T00:31:56Z")
> [@rolandgunslinger](#): > > Owning a horse makes you an elitist cocksucker?:dubious: Prancing around to “equestrian” events does. At least as much as owning a pickup truck and six homes makes you an"everyman." ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/53 "2010-01-21T01:17:18Z")
> [@ManiacMan](#): > > Were their ties clip-ons? No – just ordinary ties. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/54 "2010-01-21T02:05:25Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Prancing around to “equestrian” events does. At least as much as owning a pickup truck and six homes makes you an"everyman." Wrong. At least if you’re assuming that anyone who shows (or even owns) horses is automatically a rich-bitch elitist snob. The teenage girls at one barn where I boarded my horse did barn chores to earn lessons, scraped together pennies to amass enough to buy low-end or even second-hand show gear and pay entry fees for little local shows, trained and competed on less than magnificent schoolies, and often did as well as the kids who did have parents that could underwrite their hobby, because they were dedicated and worked their hearts out. Owning horses, when you do the work yourself, involves large measures of dirty, smelly, backbreaking work. (I should know; I feed and water and muck every damn day, and I’ve got to go now and do evening chores.) It’s quite possible that the Brown daughter keeps her horse(s) in a high-end barn where all the work is done for her and she merely shows up to ride. It’s equally possible, based on my experience in a well-to-do suburb north of Boston, that she gets her hands dirty as an equestrian, simply from the love of horses and the satisfaction inherent for us horse nuts in doing even the dirtiest chores to take care of them. I can’t stand Scott Brown, but don’t trash his daughter for being an equestrian when you know nothing about it. /rant ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/55 "2010-01-21T12:44:28Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Wrong. At least if you’re assuming that anyone who shows (or even owns) horses is automatically a rich-bitch elitist snob. The teenage girls at one barn where I boarded my horse did barn chores to earn lessons, scraped together pennies to amass enough to buy low-end or even second-hand show gear and pay entry fees for little local shows, trained and competed on less than magnificent schoolies, and often did as well as the kids who did have parents that could underwrite their hobby, because they were dedicated and worked their hearts out. Way to miss the point. Nowhere do you mention their cocksucking standards. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/56 "2010-01-21T13:47:27Z")
Some pickup-driving physicians also seem to be into the Everyman image. There’s a neurosurgeon in Illinois who drove a pickup truck bearing a placard that read “Dr. Lyle Wacaser - Neurosurgery and Light Hauling”. ---
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/57 "2010-01-21T16:44:02Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > This is correct. Not just for hauling hay and shavings; for pulling a horse trailer to shows or the vet and so forth. You need a pickup with plenty of power, too, not one of those weeny little play pickups. Gee, how did ANY work get done in the '50s when most pickups had six-cylinder engines that made around 100 net horsepower? ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/58 "2010-01-21T16:50:34Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > Dear Politicians (and their supporters): > > I know lots of wonderful people who drive pickup trucks: my dad, my father-in-law, a lot of my friends and family members. > > I also know a lot of assholes who drive pickup trucks. > > Please stop acting like owning a vehicle with the ability to haul larger items represents any sort of moral superiority. > > Thank you. I love my pickup truck. And it makes me feel morally superior to those Prius driving hippies? What the hell is wrong with that? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/59 "2010-01-21T16:53:39Z")
Nothing. Sometimes I like to tie a towel around my neck and pretend I’m Superman, too! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700/60 "2010-01-21T16:56:18Z")
> [@zenith](#): > > Gee, how did ANY work get done in the '50s when most pickups had six-cylinder engines that made around 100 net horsepower? Horses were hauled in two trips. Very messy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/politicians-driving-a-pickup-truck-does-not-mean-youre-better-than-anybody-else/525700.md?page=4)