Perfectly content. We had a general election this month. Americans got a chance to vote for their next President. Results, by party:
|
Name of Party
|
Votes
Won
|
Percent
of
Total
|
|
Tax And Spend Party
|
68,440,793
|
52.8
|
|
Borrow And Spend Party
(Also known as “Tax your Kids and
Spend Party”)
|
59,390,576
|
45.8
|
|
Stop Reckless Spending Parties
|
723,293
|
0.6
|
|
Other parties
|
Can’t be bothered to
work out the numbers
|
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As you can see, the American people are perfectly content with big-spending government, even when it’s plain (isn’t it?) that the government is spending money that does not exist. We’re all living on credit now, and we expect our nation to do the same. The invaluable Oxford English Dictionary gives the etymology of the word “credit” as:
[a. F. crédit, 15th c. ad. It. credito belief, trust, reputation, ad L. creditus, -um, pa. pple. of credere to trust, believe . . . ]
You gotta believe! And it is plain from the election results that we do. Those of us who don’t, we who spoke up for the Stop Reckless Spending Party, are a mere rounding error. What a happy nation!
Since both big parties, the TASP and the BASP, also favor unlimited mass immigration from populations with very dismal histories of achievement, creativity, social stability, love of liberty, and respect for law, it is plain that the American people are insouciant about that too. We are also on board, practically all of us, with vast military expeditions to bring the light of civilization to benighted places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia, and Darfur.
Not only are voters exceedingly happy with their two big parties, they are also very happy with their representatives:
This year the retention rate was typical at 95.6 percent overall (and unlikely to change significantly when some unsettled races get resolved). Likewise, though most incumbent Republicans were reelected, out of just 20 incumbent seats lost, only one was for a Democrat. Need proof of just how little political competition there is? Consider uncontested House seats that incumbents did not even have to defend, including 32 Democrats and 12 Republicans that did not face a two-party challenger.
How fortunate we are to be living at a time of such universal political contentment!
Party poopers. Of course, there are always a few wet blankets. A friend of mine, writing a few days ago:
According to an estimate by Bloomberg News released this morning, the sum of the new commitments already made by the federal government in its financial bailout has already reached a total of 8.5 trillion dollars, including loans, investments, guarantees, and other liabilities. Frankly, this is quite a lot more than I’d realized, and I closely read several newspapers each day. . . . Another way of looking at it is that there are something like 100 million households in America, and now each one suddenly owes $85,000 more than they did a few months ago.
What should be done with gloomy-gus party poopers like that? Personally I think they should be horse-whipped on the steps of their clubs, but I am open to other suggestions.
