The American Peasant

Years ago, during the Cold War, a Soviet spokesman was quoted as saying, “Why does the American Peasant put up with all the wasteful military spending?”
I was both astonished and offended by the statement, not the wasteful spending part but the term American Peasant. Does a peasant drive a Buick or live in an air-conditioned split level ranch house? How dare these Tartar savages insult us?
Of course wasteful military spending continued unabated to this day despite the warning President Eisenhower gave us about the military-industrial complex. War is Peace is one of the pillars of Big Brother. During the Reagan years we boasted of bankrupting the Soviets. Well, you can now include us in the Chapter 11 filing.
Dosvidanya suburbia, McMansions, and second homes. Au revoir fancy restaurants, expensive wine and lavish tips. Goodbye gas guzzlers, and those fat 401K s (the K stands for Kaput). We’re all working class now.
But what about those plump pensions for State workers? We can’t afford them anymore. “Any government that robs Peter to pay Paul will get the full support of Paul”, said George Bernard Shaw, no Fox News apparatchik, but a genuine Fabian Socialist.
The pension liability facing the States is now over $3 trillion. So the protestors crowd the State house in Wisconsin. I think that if you’re going to storm the Winter Palace you’ll need more than placards to change the system. The Ur union organizer Samuel Gompers was asked long ago what he wanted and his one word answer was “more”. I’m afraid the word today is “less”.
Don’t look at me tovarich. I’m a Don but not a Cossack. I agree with you. We’ll just have to see how the Nouveau Peasentry deals with the new reality. To quote the Unitarian Minister Bob Marshall, “If you want to be free brother, pay cash”.
Nevertheless, it’s nice to see the dictators falling in the Middle East. I saw my favorite war movie this week, “Sahara” circa 1943. The whole conflict is there in the desert. The pathetic Italian prisoner denounces Mussolini to his Nazi fellow prisoner who kills him. Meanwhile Tank Commander Humphrey Bogart gives the most inspirational speech in the film. He convinces his band of Allies to hold the line in a 100 to 1 shot. They prevail with bravery and losses. Tobruk is retaken and the Germans are stopped at El Alemein. Bottom line, to win you have to sacrifice and endure, die if you must if Rommel breaks out even if his name is Glenn Beck or John Boenher.