Photo Credit: Elizabeth Lies
It was a long commute home today. I think that most people are all out of
vacation days, and perhaps saving up what they have for the Easter
holidays. Almost everyone went to work,
and a lot of them chose to go home at the same time and on the same roads as
I. In the slow motion on the expressway
there was ample time to think and muse.
Among my musings, and considering the ongoing presidential
campaign, I imagined a conversation with one of the leading Democrat
candidates. I will refer to the
candidate as Burning Cynders, to preserve anonymity. I will leave it to you to imagine whether
this reminds you of anyone.
WAA: I understand that you want to buy votes with
my money.
Cynders: I don’t buy votes. That’s what my opponents do.
WAA: You just promise them free stuff, like free
college tuition and free healthcare, to be paid for out of my pocket.
Cynders: Everyone has a right to an education.
WAA: And apparently you claim the right to pick my
pocket to pay for it. Sounds like you
have learned how to buy votes with other people’s money.
Cynders: It’s called leadership. Someone has to stand up for people who are
not as fortunate as you are.
WAA: You don’t make me feel fortunate at all.
Cynders: You are fortunate to be able to help your
fellow man.
WAA: You mean, I am fortunate to have you help
yourself to what I have earned so that you can give it to your cronies.
Cynders: Giving to cronies is what my opponents
do. I want to give the money to young
people so that they can get an education.
WAA: You, personally, are going to give the money
to each of the wannabe students? You
will be very busy. It’s a big
country. You may find a lot of hands
stretched out.
Cynders: I certainly hope so. And I will have plenty of people who will
help me, who will administer the programs, people who believe in what I am
trying to do.
WAA: That’s wonderful. So you will give the money to them, and they
will make sure that some of it gets to the students to pay for their free
education. Sounds like the happy
marriage of cronyism and vote buying.
Cynders: No, these are real patriots, people who
really understand what America is all about.
WAA: America
Cynders: Of course not. We need the best to teach our children. They deserve the best, and we need to invest
in the best.
WAA: But I thought that you said that education is
a right. How can these professors make
merchandise of the students and their rights by insisting on being paid to
honor those rights?
Cynders: The professors have a right to be paid, and
paid commensurate with their ability and skill and knowledge.
WAA: And commensurate with their connection to you
and your plan. I apparently have no
right, except to let you pick my pocket to pay them so generously. Sounds like more of your cronies. I could never vote for you on such a plan.
Cynders: You don’t have to vote for me. You just need to work and make a lot of money
so that I can use it to . . .
WAA: To buy the votes of the people to whom you
want to give all the free stuff.
Some may think that this conversation is a caricature, but
it is hard to make a caricature of someone who is himself a caricature. This is closer to reality than what emanates
from such presidential candidates (there is a parallel candidate caricature for
president among the Republicans).
As I said, this conversation formed in my head as I was in
traffic on my way home, home from Washington, D.C. All around me were BMWs, Mercedes, Infinitis,
Lexus, Acuras, and more than the occasional Jaguar and Porsche. These are the people, living in what have recently
become some of the wealthiest counties in America. These are the people who would be paid by
Burning Cynders to administer his free programs.
