Steak
[Caution: mixed meat metaphors ahead!]

The main theme this week on brand-R talk shows is "makers vs takers". Same old tiresome shit about socialist redistributionist collectivist plastic banana rock-n-roller, etc. Half the people pay no taxes and they are the only voters, etc. Largesse from the public treasury, etc. Atlas Shrugged, etc. Losers losers losers nyah nyah nyah, etc.

Doyle asked the question in a somewhat fresh way: "When the other side is offering something for nothing, how do you beat them?"

Last night an old trucker calling into Lars Larson show said: "I always vote Democrat because I figure they're going to give me a little slice of the pie. Republicans want to keep it all for themselves."

Well, there's your answer if you want to hear it.

First, Doyle's "something for nothing" is a dishonest appraisal. Most of the "takers" have paid a lot of taxes in the past. Now the Satanic system has moved their jobs to China or obsoletized their hard-won skills. They have no real choice, and frankly they ARE entitled to get something back from a Satanic system that forces its own citizens into poverty, transfers all work to Chinese slaves and transfers all money to Jew billionaires.

Second, the trucker is right about perception if not reality. Both parties have been baking the Satan pie, but Dems historically gave the working man a slightly better chance to eat a micro-sliver of the pie. (Not much difference recently, though.)

As Polistra has been saying forever, you can't ignore the value of bringing home the pork. If you try to clean up all those earmarks, you're simply removing the one way an individual politician can return value to his voters. Without this real return, politicians are forced to sell only slogans and ideology.

Supposedly you have to sell the sizzle before you sell the steak, but brand-R politicians have completely removed the steak. You're left with nothing but the abstract ideological sizzle of Exceptionalism and Permanent Wars. Exceptionalism does absolutely no good for any actual American; trying to be Nurse Ratched for the world just makes us spend billions on foreign aid and other shit that enriches foreign potentates. Permanent war causes nothing but harm to real Americans. They pay more taxes and lose their sons, and get only tyranny (Homeland Security, TSA) in return.

If you wanted to offer an Amarillo-size steak without creating more welfare entitlements, here are some things you could do: (1) Eliminate EPA, ESA, TSA, DHS. (2) Jail the speculators. (3) Slap a 100% tariff on China. Blockade if necessary. (4) Eliminate the Federal Reserve's control of interest rates and require bankers to pay interest on savings.

Impose all of these with massive force. Instantly shoot any bureaucrat or banker or CEO who appears to hesitate for a millisecond. Head on a pike pour encourager les autres.

Some of the R candidates are talking about (1), but they won't do it. Nobody is talking about the other steps at all. Each of them would bring a quick increase in real return to the people, with no increase in tax or spending.
  ¶ 8:05 PM