"These," I remember thinking, "are of a different race."
They wore unisex uniforms: dark blue, white shirts and blouses,
highly polished shoes, even in bad weather, and they talked
together about $30,000. high school tuition, and getting into
an Ivy League school, and about the commute. They were
officially warm and gracious, and I wondered if they ever farted.
They were of a different race; denizens of The Beltway.
They made me feel seedy. A hick with a Ph.D. from the
University of Chicago, somewhere out west. I had an urge
to talk to Lyle Cary, in his machine shop in Decorah, Iowa.
I am not suggesting that people who work for the government
are awful human beings. To the contrary! Most of them,
most of all of us, are genuinely good people, and government
itself is both necessary and generally helpful.
But listen to Eric Cantor, or Mitch McConnell, or John Boehner,
and a lamentable number of other long-term career politicians!
They talk of health care as if it were generally available
to all of us. They speak of going to the emergency room with
the same ignorance as the first President Bush spoke of
supermarket checkout scanners: "Isn't that a dandy idea!".
Unemployment isn't people for them: it is a single-digit statistic.
Our educational system isn't public schools: it is a $30,000. academy.
Going to work isn't dirt and sweat: it is the commute.
The Second Amendment isn't gunfire in the street at night: it is a Right.
The housing problem isn't bank repossession: it is the neighbor's dog.
"Let's repeal health care!"
"Let us tell people to provide for their own Social Security!"
"If you want fire insurance, buy it from the County!"
"Pack your own gun, and take care of your yourself!"
The Chinese sent people out to the countryside to punish them.
Maybe we should send Senators, and Representatives, and their Aides
out into the countryside to educate them.
There is a different race of people out there in Iowa, and Montana
and Michigan. They speak the same language, but are trying
to say something different with it. They have an accent,
so you have to spend time listening.
They wore unisex uniforms: dark blue, white shirts and blouses,
highly polished shoes, even in bad weather, and they talked
together about $30,000. high school tuition, and getting into
an Ivy League school, and about the commute. They were
officially warm and gracious, and I wondered if they ever farted.
They were of a different race; denizens of The Beltway.
They made me feel seedy. A hick with a Ph.D. from the
University of Chicago, somewhere out west. I had an urge
to talk to Lyle Cary, in his machine shop in Decorah, Iowa.
I am not suggesting that people who work for the government
are awful human beings. To the contrary! Most of them,
most of all of us, are genuinely good people, and government
itself is both necessary and generally helpful.
But listen to Eric Cantor, or Mitch McConnell, or John Boehner,
and a lamentable number of other long-term career politicians!
They talk of health care as if it were generally available
to all of us. They speak of going to the emergency room with
the same ignorance as the first President Bush spoke of
supermarket checkout scanners: "Isn't that a dandy idea!".
Unemployment isn't people for them: it is a single-digit statistic.
Our educational system isn't public schools: it is a $30,000. academy.
Going to work isn't dirt and sweat: it is the commute.
The Second Amendment isn't gunfire in the street at night: it is a Right.
The housing problem isn't bank repossession: it is the neighbor's dog.
"Let's repeal health care!"
"Let us tell people to provide for their own Social Security!"
"If you want fire insurance, buy it from the County!"
"Pack your own gun, and take care of your yourself!"
The Chinese sent people out to the countryside to punish them.
Maybe we should send Senators, and Representatives, and their Aides
out into the countryside to educate them.
There is a different race of people out there in Iowa, and Montana
and Michigan. They speak the same language, but are trying
to say something different with it. They have an accent,
so you have to spend time listening.
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