I watched part of "The Week" on ABC-tv yesterday, mainly because Paul Ryan was on. Interesting show. Host Christiane Amanpour had Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and columnist Geoge Will on one side, and Barney Fudd (D-Mass.) and Robert (Third)Reich, an economist who had been in the Clinton cabinest, on the other. They were discussing their very different views on economics. Kinda like watching Milton Friedman and Karl Marx go at it.
Anyway, anyone who pays attention at all is already familiar with the arguments. It was the guests' summary comments at the end that were very enlightening.
OK, George Will, speaking on behalf of political freedom and private property rights, noted that these are two things upon which the USA was founded, and because of which it has thrived.
Then Robert (Third)Reich offered his concluding statement, which I found very interesting, if not downright terrifying. He said something like we shouldn't be arguing anymore over what kind of government we have. He said the more appropriate question is: "Who should government be for?"
Well, there's your class warfare. If, according to (Third)Reich's view, government should be an active advocate for... someone... then, naturally, you're going to have all kinds of groups vying for government's attention and investment. Sort of like baby birds in the nest, mouths open, waiting for the pre-digested worms. But these are baby birds, not human adults capable of fending for themselves.
And, since government doesn't really produce anything, it has to tax someone, seize the fruits of someone's labor, in order to have anything to give to anyone else. So, it's the old Robin Hood thing, "Give from the [fill in the name of any victim], to give to the [fill in the name of the most effective whiner, or campaign donor, as it turns out}."
The thing is, class warfare still doesn't work in the USA. Sure, people will grudgingly agree with "Tax the rich." Sure, steal my neighbor's hog, not mine. But apparently no one but the OWies are actively out there hating the rich. Rather, after a month or two of the OWies' clueless complaints, their redistribution of filth and criminal activity, the public got very, very tired of them. The rich are a whole lot more appealing on a personal level.
I mean, who would you rather be? Some brainless idiot, stripping down on a Manhattan street corner to attract attention to yourself and begging for a hand-out, or one of the Wall Street "Fat Cats," or actually "worker bees," trying to pick their way through the stench and filth on the streets to get to their offices? Rather dramatic contrast in your choices there.
And, good grief, Barney Fudd is not only stupid, but extremely vocal and rude about it. Hard to get a word in edgewise over his aggressaive, non-stop drivel. Apparently he subscribes to the theory that if you can shout down your detractors, you win. What an idiot. It's like when he was 12 or 13 years old, someone called him a prodigy and he decided then to rest on his laurels. He's never learned another thing -- not even after seeing how ruinous are the policies he enacted and continues to defend in the face of their absolutely disastrous results. He continues to blame the banks for making stupid mortgage investments, when it was Fudd that forced them to it. He's retiring after this term. So we do have something to be thankful for. Now hopefully others can get on with the business of cleaning up the wreckage he leaves behind.
Anyway, enough of this for now.
Save the Republic.
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