Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Not so random thought of the day

Some reaction to the reactions to the Codevilla essay:

We've read where some people are perplexed that Codevilla did not come out and call the "country class" the "tea party". Before getting into what we think is the biggest reason Codevilla did not go there, let's first recognize had Codevilla labeled the country class as the tea party it would've been far too easy to write off his outstanding essay as a partisan political piece when it's no such thing but rather a cultural critique of current American society that is merely playing out through politics.

The biggest reason Codevilla did not do this is because the two simply do not equate to one another. If you consider yourself a tea partier then you most certainly are in the country class but the reverse will not necessarily hold true. We imagine there are some liberals out there that oppose conservative policies that are none the less appalled by the breadth and scope of Bailout Nation, that were horrified by the manner in which ObamaCare was shoved through sideways and are angered by the behavior of the Justice Department with respect to its handling of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case and its hypocritical open-season policy on the state of Arizona.

We say "imagine" because we hope there are some of those liberals out there as we just haven't heard from any of them yet.

Well-meaning liberals that are not politically-connected and thus not the recipients of the spoils system are in the same boat as the rest of us - living in an America where the government-union elites and the legislative upper class at the federal, state and local levels - the "ruling class" as it were, is increasingly unaccountable to the electorate.

As Codevilla pointed out, perhaps no one moment better captured this attitude of arrogance and contempt than when Speaker Pelosi was asked by what authority did the Constitution have to mandate health insurance coverage. "Are you serious? Are you serious?" Serious as a heart attack, Madam Speaker. That she marveled at the chutzpah of someone actually calling into question her authority and legal jurisdiction was palpable.

So, while there is certainly some overlap, Codevilla's cultural essay was both wise and factually correct to not do anything so narrow and tone deaf as to equate the country class with the tea party.

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