The Nuts vs The Creeps
24th January 2010
Jerry Pournelle has an interesting rant.
The big problem is described by Peggy Noonan in today’s WSJ : people see the parties now as the Nuts — Democrats — vs. the Creeps — Republicans. Both parties have been captured, the Creeps by the Country Club crowd who think they have an hereditary right to rule and to the spoils of election, and the Nuts by a bunch of political theorists who dig Marx or his intellectual descendents allied with the union leaders who just want more and provide much of the ground game power.
Who can blame the union leaders? If the government is going to tax and spend, the logical position is “Don’t tax me, spend on me, and I’ll vote for you.” The problem is that what the nation needs is people who do NOT directly benefit from government, and don’t vote for a party for what they can get out of it, but for what it will do for the country. That’s a hard position to take if you’re unemployed and your health care runs out and you can’t afford COBRA and your kids are sick. Even if you know better, even if you know that in the long run we can’t exist by having government workers be the only people with secure employment and a real income, the temptation to take something from the government — hell I paid taxes for all those years — and vote to continue, or simply to get into the secure employment sector, is enormous.