Victor Davis Hanson : Faux Populism

VDH ^ | July 14, 2004 | Victor Davis Hanson

[quidnunc]

It is going to be hard to convince the American people that two East Coast, liberal lawyers, one Senator married to a billionaire, the other worth $75 million, are men of the people. No wonder they and their supporters have introduced some very strange arguments.

The first is that John Edwards really has not embraced the privileged life of a multimillionaire who got rich suing obstetricians because he was born poor. But there are two problems with this. First, being the son of a postal employee and a mill worker doesn't necessarily make one impoverished in America. Some of my best friends are postal hourly-wage employees — including my wife and daughter.

Second, this is a strange argument for the Left, one that is the antithesis of its usual creed that we are more or less victims of a rigid, heartless system, and thus fixed at birth as rich or poor, oppressed or oppressor. With such newfound magnanimity, are we now to anticipate that Terry McAuliffe will concede that Dick Cheney really is not a corporate grandee because he was once for a time was a blue-collar worker without money in Wyoming, or that Arnold Schwarzenegger is not at heart a part of the Kennedesque rich and famous because he came to the United States as a penniless weight-lifter?

This admission of fluidity and mobility — that Americans can enter and leave the privileged sects based on circumstances both in and beyond their control — is an anathema to the Left that is determined to use the power of the state to redistribute capital to a monolithic and perennially impoverished underclass.

-snip-

[quidnunc]

FYI

[facedown]

bump

[Poincare]

Will a member of the estab media ever point out that Edward's bragging that his "poor" origins are a necessary requisite to understanding the average American argues against the Boston Brahmin Kerry's legitimacy

[lancer]

His wife and daughter BOTH work for the USPS??!!

Might he be interested in a tailor-made Kevlar vest?

(:-)

[goodnesswins]

THIS part is RICH....."But multimillionaires? A Kerry or Edwards has already beaten the game. Much of their income is from lower-taxed investments with loopholes and shelters aplenty, not salaried income with few deductions. And most Americans would not mind to pay an extra million in income taxes when you have twenty coming in anyway—just as they would resent losing say $20,000 when they are working with $150, 000 of net income. Let Mrs. Kerry tell the American people exactly what percentage of her income was paid in federal taxes before she harps about the Bush tax cuts.

Hillary Clinton recently made the same bogus argument and so did Bill—that in their generosity they were willing to pay more income taxes to share with the less fortunate. But their condescending liberality arises only after they reaped a combined $20 million in book advances and speaking fees. Had they really been interested in sacrificing for principle of the commonwealth, then they would have eschewed the dubious financing, freeloading, and other corporate largess lavished on their houses and assorted freebies garnered in the days before their sudden ascendancy to postpresidential millionaire status. These are humanists, after all, who once wrote off gifts of underwear to shave their taxes.

[goodnesswins]

I think it's Victor Davis Hansen's relatives who work for the USPS....

[lancer]

I think it's Victor Davis Hansen's relatives who work for the USPS....

Right, that's where I was going with that.

I KNOW quidnunc would NEVER have relatives working for USPS (right, quid?)

:-)

[Coroner]

"millworker" Edwards father was not a simple mill worker but the Supervisor of the entire mill!!!

[Last Dakotan]

I think it's Victor Davis Hansen's relatives who work for the USPS....

Hell hath no fury like a female Postal worker scorned...

[King Prout]

if you have a VDH pinglist, please add my userID to it - I am reading "Culture and Carnage" and am quite impressed with the author

[quidnunc]

King Prout wrote: if you have a VDH pinglist, please add my userID to it - I am reading "Culture and Carnage" and am quite impressed with the author

Tolik has the VDH ping list.

Address a reply to him and he'll add you to the list.

[King Prout]

quidnunc informs me that you are the keeper of the VDH pinglist.
I have recently started reading Hanson's works, and am quite impressed.
Please add me to your VDH pinglist.

[meenie]

A contrary opinion could be made that as a result of the largesse of Kerry-Edwards estates, they were making more sacrifice to lead the nation. Meanwhile Bush-Cheney could invoke their tattered finances as proof that they were more in line with the thinking of the struggling common man. Unfortunately, neither argument cuts much mustard with the majority of voters. This election is becoming a trial without too much evidence being presented. The jury is impatient to receive the closing arguments.

[Billthedrill]

These are humanists, after all, who once wrote off gifts of underwear to shave their taxes.

That's gonna leave a mark...

[freekitty]

The rich can go hide behind their millions. Where do the poor go? Under the nearest interstate overpass when they are taxed to death.

[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

[Tolik]

Added to the list.

VDH BUMP!

[King Prout]

thanks

[blanknoone]

And his supervisor father was apparently too poor to eat out in a restaurant in a mill town (obviously whose clientel was mostly workers), according to Edwards.

I don't know if Edwards father is still alive, but if he is he would have to be humiliated. After working hard and honorably to provide for his child, to have him turn out to be a scumbag plaintiff's attorney who dishonors his own father.

Does anyone know if his Dad is still with us? If so, has anyone in the media asked him about his alleged inability to provide for his family despite his obvious success?