It's Good Weather to Step Down

  Geniuses only appear when the times require a genius. That era has passed. Genius politicians of the level of Kim Dae-jung (김대중) and Roh Moo-hyun (노무현) will not appear again. The era when individual talent mattered has passed. Now, you have to win as a team. Even though Lee Jae-myung (이재명) is said to have low political intelligence, he did his part as a member of the team. That’s why I voted for him. And yet, he doesn’t pass the ball to his Moonjo-tol-lae-you (문조털래유) teammates.

  That was how it was in the eras of Donggyo-dong (동교동) and Sangdo-dong (상도동). They could not rise above the level of retainer politics and factional politics. Nothing moved unless there was seolleongtang (ox bone soup). The “seolleongtang” remark of the post-Party Collaboration Association (후단협) had deep meaning. Politicians only move when there are secret, backroom meetings and deals. It’s not about craving seolleongtang, it means “let’s have a private meeting with the president and strike a deal,” but Roh Moo-hyun refused.

  After the impeachment turmoil, Roh Moo-hyun cleared out the political stage, and with activists forming the mainstream of the Democratic Party, an era with no retainers and no factions began. Or so it seemed, but Lee Jae-myung regressed politics back to retainer and factional politics. Apparently, you must be invited to a meal at Yongsan University (용산대) together to become friends. Politics started being done with friends in tow. 

  There is no ideology, no homogeneity, no common denominator; politics has simply regressed to an outdated system moving by personal connections. The reason Lee Jae-myung is disliked is exactly the same reason Lee Myung-bak (이명박) was disliked. The comment manipulation. Suddenly, a lot of unknown IDs appear, all writing identically. The IDs are different, so why are the sentences the same? Was it ordered to be written exactly like this? 

  There’s not even any sincerity. These days, trending posts on Facebook start with “I’ve respected Yoo Si-min (유시민) since long ago.” No one asked, so why confess your respect for Yoo Si-min? Saying you respect someone is not an expression we commonly use. If you respect just anyone, is that really respect? I’ve never said I respected Yoo Si-min. I always criticized him. 

  Anyone who goes back and forth between respecting and not respecting is someone you can’t trust. From the very first sentence, they introduce themselves as “I am not trustworthy.” Even in a long article, the content is the same. Did artificial intelligence write these posts? The reasons Lee Jae-myung is disliked are, first, because of public opinion manipulation, and second, because he got caught manipulating. Why did he engage in manipulative politics?

  All of his personnel are ex-prosecutors. He colluded with the prosecution in secret. Lee Jae-myung had a weakness held by the prosecution, and thus had to negotiate behind the scenes, and the stumbling block is Moonjo-tol-lae-you. As a preemptive move, he attacks Moonjo-tol-lae-you. But really, is this democracy? Why the backroom dealings? Even if you engage in manipulation, did you have to bring in those low-level, Ilbe, juvenile crime, mercenary, dung-troop squads? 

  Why is everything Kim Min-seok (김민석) does always so pathetic? He’s doing everything that someone with a weakness held would do. If you support Lee Jae-myung, you should advocate for him, but the dung-troops end things in one phrase: “There’s a sense of agency, right?” and just gossip about Moonjo-tol-lae-you. They only declare support, but never persuade. There’s no sincerity. Who would trust someone who badmouths everyone? 

  If you’re going to badmouth, pick one person to badmouth. Moonjo-tol-lae-you is the majority. Attacking the majority only ostracizes yourself as the minority. Are you dumb? The reason the public voted for Lee Jae-myung was because they believed they had something over him. It’s like an ox having a nose ring, a dog having a leash, and a horse having a bit. But in reality, the prosecution was behind his back, putting their own leash on him. 

  I am not against maintaining the supplementary investigation authority. The majority of the people support its maintenance. In a democracy, it’s right to follow the majority. If you’re going to give the supplementary investigation authority, you should, like Roh Moo-hyun, trust the people and go head-on, but he played tricks behind the scenes. He knew that if you fall behind once in politics, you’re finished, so he made a preemptive move to never fall behind even once.

  He’s fallen behind once. Anyway, once you fall behind, you fall all the way. Politics is a group play, so you can’t change the script in the middle. What does it matter if you make a decision on a good day to step down? The reason I supported Lee Jae-myung was that the era of individual talents was over and the era of team play had come. Although Lee Jae-myung is very lacking, if Moonjo-tol-lae-you backs him up, with the structural majority of 180 seats, he should be able to do his part. 

  But he betrayed the team and tried to show off petty individual talent. He directed a public opinion operation to deceive the people. I think he had his son carry out such manipulation. He waged a secret war against the people. We’ve seen all this during Lee Myung-bak’s time. Back then, too, public opinion on message boards was totally different from the sentiment I knew. I was confused. Turned out it was a National Intelligence Service operation. Will the people be fooled twice?

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  The reason they criticize their predecessor is because they have no vision of their own—the public knows this very well. The reason Lee Jae-myung sets his friends to attack Moon Jae-in (문재인) is by comparison. He’s not confident about rising above, so he cuts down the comparison. Petty guy.

  Lee Ki-taek (이기택), Jang Gi-pyo (장기표), etc... criticized Kim Dae-jung and perished

  Chung Dong-young (정동영)... criticized Roh Moo-hyun and perished 

  Lee Hoi-chang (이회창)... after Kim Young-sam (김영삼) burning in effigy, perished 

  Han Dong-hoon (한동훈)... criticized Yoon Suk-yeol (윤석열) and perished 

  Yoo Seung-min (유승민)... criticized Park Geun-hye (박근혜) and perished