I Wish I Were a Rich Man

If I ever get on JEOPARDY, and trust me I keep trying, I hope that one of the categories is Broadway musicals.  I’m solid on musicals, and one of my favorites is Fiddler on the Roof.  So I frequently find myself mumbling the words to, “If I Where a Rich Man” at odd moments. I have the kind of voice that zips right past bad, solidly into offensive.  So if you ever hear me singing to myself, either keep walking or ask me to stop.  It won’t bother me. 

            What does bother me, are people who assume that if I am a Republican that I already am a rich man.  One of the favorite myths of the Democrats is that they are just a bunch of working stiffs and the Republicans are all bankers who look suspiciously like the logo on the monopoly game.  Though, if you are in the media, there is a subtle variation of this.  News men like to portray Democrats as intellectually superior and Republicans as simple minded country folk.  The fact that there are serious disconnects with these prevailing views is lost on them, but so are a lot of things.  To their credit, the Democrats think that if they don’t address these discrepancies that no one else will notice them either.  Strike one.

            It is very difficult for me to think of Republicans as the party of the rich when President Obama is in the midst of a fund raising tour with his hard core liberal supporters on the West coast.  His first stop was billed as an intimate brunch in Medina, Washington for 65 people paying $35,800/couple to hear Obama characterize Republicans as wanting to, “…fundamentally cripple America.”  Now, frankly, I don’t care how many rich people pay to see Obama in person.  But I do care that if and when the Republican nominee hosts a fundraiser, what the people pay will be a headline in the local paper.  The media loves to throw Republican fundraising in the face of the public, but Democrats are supposed to be simple folk throwing a fiver in the passed hat.  This isn’t what really happens, but they like to pretend it does.  Strike Two. 

            And then, of course, there is the rewriting of history.  At the same wealthy and well connected soirées where Obama has talked about what awful things Republicans were going to do to the country, he also talked about the, “pushback” he has been getting since taking office.  It is important to frame him as a martyr of the left.  This conveniently overlooks the fact that for two years he and his party were in charge of both houses of Congress and the White House.  What did they do?   Did they pass a budget?  No.  Did they pass anything other than a rework of our healthcare system?  No.  The rest of the time, their members worked hard to bob and weave their way around salient issues.  The problem with Obama’s Congress was that they were more interested in keeping their jobs than making his easier.  Strike Three.

            But the Democrats aren’t unhappy with their man anymore.  He is fighting back with fervent name calling.  He even had a nasty remark for Gov. Rick Perry, “…who’s state is on fire while he denies global warming.”  Of course, if a Republican made such an insensitive remark the press would be all over it.  Oh, and Perry doesn’t deny global warming, he denies the anthropogenic influence of global warming.  Strike Four. 

            Is that too many strikes to keep the faith? 

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