Lileks on Clark:
Heard an interesting interview with Gen. Clark the other day. Actually, they’re all interesting. He has a tin ear for politics – no, metallurgists of the future will toil for years to discover exactly what unusual material his ears are made from. Whatever it is, it keeps him from hearing and understanding the things that he says. I mean, when he says that the Democratic party is the only party that holds true to the ideals of the Christian faith, he does not know why this goes beyond the usual partisan rhetoric. When he floats the old hoary Deserter theme he does not know why this is such an appallingly lazy thing to say. During the interview I heard Saturday he announced his support for progressive taxation, and I perked up: he’d previously noted that he thought “this country was founded on the principle of progressive taxation.” Well, he expanded that idea, and said that if you don’t believe in progressive taxation, you’re not patriotic. The host asked him to repeat himself, and said - not a direct quote, I was in the shower without a pen and paper - “so you’re saying that if someone doesn’t believe in progressive taxation, they’re not patriotic?” And Clark said yes.
I think I know what Clark means: if you love your country you want to help your country, and one way to do that is to pay a higher percentage of your income to the government instead of spending it on “luxuries.” (His word.) That’s a matter of opinion, of course. Those who favor a flat-rate tax or consumption taxes or other means of raising revenue also love their country; they just have alternate views on the best way to scare up the scratch. But to General Clark, they’re unpatriotic. PATRIOTS DON’T BELIEVE IN A FLAT RATE.
So we have a four-star General defining patriotism as your acquiescence to let government remove whatever portion of your salary it desires?
Save me from the militaristic patriotism-defining property confiscators!
A Democrat could have a good shot at Bush’s job if he concentrated on spending, not tax cuts. But they can’t. They won’t. And so they send the message that will never cut your taxes. Ever. Can’t be done. We need to raise taxes and we must never alienate France is not a winning strategy, I think. However they dress it up, that’s what it comes down to.
A recipe for victory? We’ll see. |
