An American Lion

Larry the Cable Guy Represents the Spirit of America

Add poor Pat Buchanan to the list of failed populists. I know where he's coming from--sometimes I get nostalgic for German military hardware, myself. I've sailed for decades on the Admiral Hassenpfeffer, a monument to the ingenuity of the German Kriegsmarine, even though all they did was take a French or Italian corvette and add their own jury-rigged naval hardware to it.

Buchanan goes all in with this column*:

Unter Bezugnahme auf die weiße Wähler der Arbeiterklasse in den Industriestädten vom Verlust von Arbeitsplätzen dezimiert, sagte Obama: "Sie bekommen bitter, sie klammern sich an Waffen oder Religion oder Antipathie gegen Leute, die nicht gefallen oder Anti-Einwanderer-Sentiment-oder Anti-Handel sind Gefühl als eine Möglichkeit, ihren Frust zu erklären. "

Dennoch, wir hatten diese Leute schon gesehen. Sie waren Perotistas im Jahr 1992 gegenüber NAFTA im Jahr 1993 und blockierte die Bush-McCain-Kennedy Amnestie im Jahr 2007.

In ihrem Leben haben sie ihren christlichen Glauben aus den Schulen ihre Steuern bezahlt gesäubert wurden, gesehen und in Filmen verspottet und im Fernsehen. Sie haben ihre Fabriken gesehen Fensterläden in die Tausende und deren Arbeitsplätze in die Millionen gehen nach Mexiko und China ausgelagert. Sie haben Billionen Dollar Steuern gehen sehen für Great Society Programme, haben aber keinen Great Society gesehen, nur einer steigenden Kriminalität, Illegitimität, Drogenkonsum und Abbrecherquoten.

Sie sehen auf Kabel-TV als illegaler Einwanderer in ihr Land zu gehen, sind mit kostenlosem Ausbildungen und Gesundheitswesen und für eine Stelle bei niedrigeren Lohn für als amerikanische Familien leben können - dann tragen mexikanischen Flaggen in den amerikanischen Städten und Nachfrage US-Staatsbürgerschaft.

Sie sehen, Wall-Street-Banken gerettet, wie sie ihre nächsten Honorarzahlung Schweiß, dann lesen Sie die Bank Gewinne die Höhe schießen und die fette Boni für die Banker sind die glänzenden zurück. Weder sie noch ihre Kinder jemals von affirmative action profitiert, im Gegensatz zu Barack und Michelle Obama.

Sie sehen eine Regierung in Washington, die nicht ihre Bücher Gleichgewicht kann, gewinnen unsere Kriege oder zum Schutz unserer Grenzen. Die Regierung Schaufeln aus Billionen Fortune 500-Unternehmen und Banken, das Land zu retten aus einer Krise der Regierung und Fortune 500-Unternehmen und Banken geschaffen.

Amerika war einst ihr Land. Sie spüren, sie zu verlieren. Und sie haben Recht.

Ah, Amerika. Liebe es oder lass es.

Populism isn't the road to success in American politics, and Buchanan employs populism the same way that Senator John Edwards tried to employ it. Both men are failures for good reason. Their populism is ignorant and blind, but to opposite things. Buchanan thinks there is some white hierarchy that prefers a purely Caucasian country rooted in 1950s ideals. Edwards (now silent, for good reason) campaigned as if he and he alone knew what a coal miner thought about how things should be, and tried to say there was nothing the government couldn't do to make things more fair for all. Neither man gets it half-right.

Buchanan is wrong because there was no ideal America, not in the 1950s and not at any time in our history. There was no magical decade of pure white or pure American cultural values. That's the fallacy of reading too many pop historians and too many books reinforcing political bias. Edwards was wrong because no one believed his love of the common man was genuine enough to win the votes of people who have heard the class envy song and dance over and over again. Buchanan wants your class envy to be based on hatred of people who are different; Edwards wanted his class envy to be based on you resenting rich people. Uh, the person to loathe is yourself for not being happy with what you have, sir.

Loathe your own failings, correct them, cowboy up, and go get a better job. Get off your fat ass and change the way you look by eating less, and exercising more. Pills won't solve your problems. Starting a blog about how you're right and everyone's wrong and why don't they listen won't solve your problems--it'll just create new ones that you can't anticipate. If you're blocked by anyone, kick them in the nuts, run over their foot, find a way to make it work, and remember, you can always hire a bad lawyer to create enough grief for someone to get them to capitulate if you can just convince a judge that you're not as crazy as you look. Failing that, find a way to move up in what you do. Improve your lot in life by playing within the rules. Or, don't! The only reason why there even is a men's basketball program at the University of Kentucky is because they know how to cheat and get away with it! Isn't that hilarious! And everyone knows they cheat. No one does anything about it. Why? Because this is America, and all you need is cash.

For you whining little shits, I know, I know--the little brown people are in your way (Buchanan) and the government won't let you have a handout (Edwards).

Well, here's what you should do (Rogers): get mad, and get her done. (Git 'r done). Get it done. Get here done. I'm at a loss, I don't know the proper way to write it--but that Mater fellow is the real populist. Git'r done. Go do it. Just do it. Go get yourself some. Get down on it. Get going and get moving. Get the lead out. Go through it like shit through a goose. Get shorty. Get on the bus. Go. What are you waiting for? Go. Floor it. Run out the back door. Jump out the window. Tear ass through the parking lot. Don't give up, give it your all. And, if all that fails, get drunk, then sober up and try again tomorrow. Never, ever give up. Never, ever listen to those idiots--what do they know? Always, always, always do your best and never stop moving.

America is where you go when you want to do something. It's where you go when you want to Git 'r done. People have been coming here for hundreds of years to get away from the bullshit that prevented them from getting 'r done wherever they were and that's what this country is about. The brown people aren't the problem--the brown people are the new us, sir. Give them a hug, but don't feel bad about not helping them. You're not supposed to help the new people--you're supposed to worry about your own problems. They'll figure things out and make things work or they'll go home--that's how that works. There's no right color to be an American--green? I like green, though. You have to have green to make a living and buy things, so maybe the only right color for an American in green. Government, try to take less of my green, okay? I know you want to level the playing field, and I think that's fine. Keep it level. But don't tilt it so that one group of people gets all kinds of advantages--that's not the American way. My belief is that if you're going to come here, come here and git 'r done. Do things for yourself. Make it work for you. Anyone who cheats you is teaching you a lesson. Fall for the old Ponzi Scheme or the old I'll-fix-your-roof-but-first-I-need-$3,000-for-supplies ruse a few times and you'll learn to be as conservative as an old banker in about three days.

Get out of here with the populism. It doesn't work. Give me a call to action any day. Shut up and start doing. Quit with the complaining. Life's not supposed to be fair--it's supposed to be a screaming nightmare and then you die. If you toughen up, you can make it work for you. And it's up to you to figure that you. No one can do it for you. And, of course, no one knows why America works so well because of what I'm telling you. It's a mystery. It's just America. And America is the best idea there ever was.

*thanks to Google Translation, I'll give it to you in English:

Referring to the white working-class voters in the industrial towns decimated by job losses, Obama said: "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Yet, we had seen these folks before. They were Perotistas in 1992, opposed NAFTA in 1993 and blocked the Bush-Kennedy McCain amnesty in 2007.

In their lifetimes, they have seen their Christian faith purged from schools their taxes paid for, and mocked in movies and on TV. They have seen their factories shuttered in the thousands and their jobsoutsourced in the millions to Mexico and China. They have seen trillions of tax dollars go for Great Society programs, but have seen no Great Society, only rising crime, illegitimacy, drug use and dropout rates.

They watch on cable TV as illegal aliens walk into their country, are rewarded with free educations and health care and take jobs at lower pay than American families can live on – then carry Mexican flags in American cities and demand U.S. citizenship.

They see Wall Street banks bailed out as they sweat their next paycheck, then read that bank profits are soaring, and the big bonuses for the brilliant bankers are back. Neither they nor their kids ever benefited from affirmative action, unlike Barack and Michelle Obama.

They see a government in Washington that cannot balance its books, win our wars or protect our borders. The government shovels out trillions to Fortune 500 corporations and banks to rescue the country from a crisis created by the government and Fortune 500 corporations and banks.

America was once their country. They sense they are losing it. And they are right.