Balls: That's What I'm Talking About

(Double click on cartoon)

A previous post suggested the only Democrat, beyond Elizabeth Warren, who seems to have any real balls is Jackie Cilley.

Mad Dog realizes he offends the delicate sensibilities of the New Hampshire electorate by referring to the a part of the anatomy intimately connected with the male reproductive organs, but the Republicants have been saying for years the basic failing in every Democrat is the absence of same.

Democrats, of course, have done nothing to disabuse the public of this perception--witness their chose leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, who is a cartoon character of wimpiness--whispery voice, narrow shouldered, an apology personified.

President Obama, for all his virtues, is not much better. He refers to his frothing, vituperative adversaries, people like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner and Rush Limbaugh, people who wish to castrate him and to throw him off a cliff, as "Folks."

Not an accurate or useful image. When Martin Luther King referred to the governor of Alabama, George Wallace, he said the governor had hate dripping from his lips--a more accurate and useful image.

Now, Jackie Cilley has had the temerity to suggest it's not brave or smart or good policy or good for the state of New Hampshire to "take the pledge" to never ask for a state income tax. The granite headed part of the electorate takes this as, "Oh, then she's for an income tax." Which is to say, if she doesn't promise not to ask for an income tax, well then she intends to ask for one. Or, another way of viewing this, "If she's not against it then she might allow it and I don't want anyone who might even consider it."

The third rail of New Hampshire politics, if New Hampshire had public rail transport, which of course, for an agrarian state, is another thing we would never even want to think about.

One of the hallmarks of a parochial, closed mind is the unwillingness to even think about things which might be frightening or distasteful.

Oh, the earth might be round, don't want to think about what that might mean.

So, we have candidates asked to shout, "Zeig, Heil," whenever the question no income tax arises.

Fact is, if the people of New Hampshire don't want one, fine.

But refusing to even consider that as one of a hundred approaches is diagnostic of paralyzing fear. If you are really afraid of something, the best thing is to examine it, dissect it, look at it under the microscope, understand its machinery, its power, its infectious potential and then you can be really protected against it.

But no, not here in the granite state. Here, like so many medieval wretches, we refuse to even look at something we fear and loathe.

What Democrats with real courage and leadership will say is: I'm not afraid to talk about any form of "revenue enhancement," if only to understand why we don't want something. We'll be safer against an income tax, ultimately, if we look at it, and look at all the preferable alternatives and examine why each one is dangerous and each one might be useful.

We sometimes find good uses for snake venom. We sometimes learn how to inoculate ourselves against a dangerous organism by examining it.