Wednesday, March 8, 2023

American Alienation: When Authority Dies

 Gail Collins cannot figure out Ron DeSantis.

The man is boring. Where is the appeal?

Obama could not figure out Trump.

The man is a clown. Who would ever vote for him?





Dealing as I do with "the public" every day, the folks who work for Raytheon, Dunkin Donuts, Walmart, Dollar Store,  I know the appeal.

Whoever sneers at authority, especially government authority gets attention. Resentment runs deep.



A sixty year old man and his wife, visited me. He lost his job driving a truck up to Wolfboro daily, where he loaded water bottles on board and drove them back to a Market Basket warehouse in Lawrence.  But then he had to start insulin therapy--you can't get a commercial driver's license if you take insulin. 

Then the owner of the house where they rented the first floor told them he was renovating the place and bringing it up to code (more government regulations) and once he did that he would double their rent, so after 25 years, they were faced with homelessness. They had planted flower beds around the place, scrubbed the windows and the siding, treated the house as if they owned it but now they were out.



They didn't become homeless: Somehow they were able to afford a "double wide" mobile home in a trailer park and with Social Security they could pay the mortgage, and with Medicare they could get medical care. And you can keep your government hands off my Social Security. 



They seethed about their neighbor who is on Mass Health and gets his insulin, and in fact all his drugs, for free when hard working people like them struggle to afford their medications. This neighbor gets a free ride, claiming to be disabled, when the erstwhile truck driver cannot keep his job because of his diabetes. The neighbor gets a free handout, a welfare queen, while the truck driver's taxes support that bum. 



That's the way government does: Takes from the hard working white guy and gives it to the undeserving Hispanic who just moved here for the welfare.

Public schools are nothing more than crowd control. Nobody in authority has anything to teach the down and out crowd.



This clip from "The Wire" says it all. The police major is trying to change the war on drugs, which affects all the school kids who work the corners as hoppers and scouts, but the moment he alludes to "teaching" he loses his audience. These inner city kids share the crucial characteristic with the white truck driver--alienation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSOCNez3LM0



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