Scared Straight…By The Ruling Class!

By William L. Garvin

So let me get this straight…Congress has a miserable 11% approval rating but votes itself a pay raise. Social security recipients who worked and paid taxes all their lives don’t even get a cost of living increase this year or next year but their Medicare costs are going up!

So let me get this straight…Democrats have been in charge of Congress since January, 2007. Since then: the American public opposed the TARP Bailout but Congress enacted it anyway; the American public opposed the Stimulus Bill but Congress enacted it anyway; the American public opposed Obamacare but Congress enacted it anyway; the American public opposed the Financial Reform Bill but Congress enacted it anyway; the American public opposes the expiration of the Bush tax cuts but Congress….

Furthermore, the Department of Justice decides to sue the State of Arizona for enacting a statute supported by 70% of Arizonans that helps enforce federal immigration laws. The DOJ says it needs “consistency.” However, the DOJ ignores all the “sanctuary cities” throughout the country, with all their inconsistencies, that not only violate federal law but interfere with the enforcement of federal law.

In addition, Congress ignores Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which were the primary catalysts for the housing bubble and the housing bust which precipitated the need for TARP. In another of their two thousand plus page bills (which nobody has read), Congress somehow missed dealing with the cause of our country’s economic malaise and keeps taxpayers on the hook for their continuing bailout.

How did our government “of the people, by the people, for the people” become such a non-representative entity? How did they become so out of touch with our history and what has made “American exceptionalism” a magnet of hope and opportunity throughout the world? Why do they feel entitled to force feed us what we do not want? Who died and made them Omnipotent?

A clue is found in the brilliant piece America’s Ruling Class—And the Perils of Revolution written by Angelo M. Codevilla, Professor Emeritus at Boston University. He argues that the differences between the Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are a matter of degree not kind and they are all part of a “ruling class.” There is very little diversity in the “upper crust” that speaks the same “in” language, goes to the “right” schools, and has “the tastes, habits, and tools of bureaucrats.” They understand the mechanics of an expanding government and their careers and fortunes are dependent upon it.

The attitude of this bipartisan Ruling Class is that they are in essence, born to rule, because they are the best and brightest “while the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional unless properly constrained.” Hence, we have Franklin D. Roosevelt and his “brain trust” creating the New Deal “independent” agencies that have controlled more and more of America. Progressives morphed into powerful bureaucrats. They grasp the truths that common, inferior Americans, who cling bitterly to their guns and religions, cannot. Maybe that’s why Congress exempted themselves from the health care mandates they imposed upon everyone else.

Codevilla argues that while the Ruling Class agenda is stated in “intellectual-moral pretense”, the true goal is power and money for themselves. The bills are two and three thousand pages long so they can tilt the playing field towards those they favor and disadvantaging those they do not. Bear Stearns wins; Lehman Brothers loses. Alternative energy wins; fossils fuels lose. AMA wins; doctors lose. Unions win; small businesses lose. Government now picks the winners and losers in more and more sectors of our society. Ruling Class wins; Country Class loses.

There’s one huge problem for the Ruling Class: central planning has never worked! Despite numerous attempts throughout the world, social engineering, social justice or the redistribution of wealth, top down wealth creation doesn’t work. The Ruling Class thinks it’s only because the “wrong” people were doing the planning. They ignore the fact that America spread more wealth across greater strata of its citizenry than any economic system anywhere. Despite the fact that most of them have never even run a small business or had to make payroll, they still think they know better. Unfortunately, they will never learn that the practical, successful experience of countless millions in the Country Class will trump the untested, theoretical brilliance of the Ruling Class. It will be a difficult and revolutionary struggle to dismantle the oligarchy given the trend of the last one hundred years.