My Family is Sucking the Life Out of Decent, Hardworking Americans

Earlier today I got caught up in one of those follow-the-link adventures. You know, where somebody posts a link to a blog on Facebook, you click it and read, only to find yourself clicking on another link and reading somewhere else and so on and so forth. Sometimes I end up finding some really delightful new sites this way that are way off the original subject. But today it was all politics, which is depressing and frustrating but necessary, kind of like going to the dentist.

Anyway, I ended up reading this mammoth article from The American Spectator, written by some Boston University professor named Angelo M. Codevilla. One of Mr. Codevilla's main ideas is that our nation has become divided into two classes of people: the Ruling Class and the Country Class. In a nutshell, anyone belonging to the Ruling Class profits from the government and needs the government to continue to expand into an all-encompassing behemoth. Those in the Country Class are all the rest of the people. The Country Class includes people with very different backgrounds and goals, but basically they want to be free to live their own lives and make their own decisions.

It was a fascinating article-- though long and a trifle heavy on the "academic-ese" side. (Does that make sense? I guess I'm saying that he uses a lot of big words and fancy sounding phrases.) Anyway, what I found perplexing was where Terence and I would fit according to his definitions. In one sense, we are definitely Country Class because we are soooo tired of the government trying to run our lives. Both of us believe that a much more limited government would be better for the country overall, and for us in particular. But we are also aspiring to the Ruling Class because Terence is a state employee. Come November, we will probably vote for the Democrat running in our district because her Tea Party opponent apparently wishes to gut our salary even more, making it impossible to survive. Mr. Codevilla's essay suggests that in that sense Terence and I are parasites, sucking away all your hard earned tax dollars so we can live better and have better benefits than you.

Well.

I don't think we are parasites, but I can see how it would seem so unfair to a hard-working, self-employed family that we have such expensive health insurance paid for out of their taxes when they can't afford it for themselves. But on the other hand, his benefits are part of what makes his job worth it. Trust me, if they make us pay much more for them, or they cut our salary any more, Terence will have no choice but to start looking for another job. Either that or we will lose our house.

There it is, the mother of all Catch-22's. Terence and I fervently wish the government was smaller and less costly. Yet our survival depends on a generously funded government agency. Some of the more conservative Tea Party crowd in our state feel that the officers already make way too much money, that police officers are supposed to be blue collar (i.e. poor) so we need to quit complaining. Obviously I can't agree with that. But then, I do know (as anyone who has worked for a government agency and is honest about it also knows) that there is plenty of wasteful spending and inefficiency to go around.

Well, Mr. Codevilla only sees this conflict between the Ruling Class and the Country Class escalating, perhaps to the point where the Country Class opts for revolution (potentially making everything fifty million times worse). What a pleasant thought! Hey, Mr. Codevilla, cheer up! Maybe Iran will succeed in nuking Israel and make all of this a moot point.

Isn't it fun to be living in the last days?