A long-ago school classmate with whom I remain in touch is almost religiously sanctimonious about self reliance, individual responsibility, the virtues of capitalism, and the evils of big government, government spending and social programs.
This person personifies the current polarization in which I see tea partiers serving as rocket launchers that have just about blasted the Republican Party off the cliff to the right. And they epitomize hyprocisy. Here's why:
This man and his siblings were raised by a single mother who supported her family by working as a public school teacher, which, of course, means she was paid by the government.
After his graduation from high school, he received a taxpayer-funded U.S. military academy, then had 20-plus year military career, which included not only his tax-funded pay, but benefits, including healthcare that was essentially free to him.
After retiring from the military and receiving a military pension and, again, almost free to him, healthcare, he went to work for a major defense contractor which receives a vast amount of its revenue from government (tax-funded) contracts.
In other words, during the nearly 70 years of his life, he has benefitted almost entirely from government funding.
My eternal question about him and so many of his like-minded ideologues, is why government spending and enjoying a comfortable lifestyle, which this man does, is fine for them, but not for their fellow Americans?
Even Alan Simpson, a 22-year U.S. senator, thus recipient of a federal pension and healthcare benefits, and who recently served as co-chair President Obama's commission on reducing the federal deficits, is one the "310 million" Americans sucking on his "milk cow" analogy of Social Security. Only he's been suckling for a lifetime.
Being truly conservative, I say people like my childhood acquaintance and Mr. Simpson, who are so liberal with their rhetoric that government should cut spending, shred the social safety net and eliminate benefits for others, need to step--or be shoved--to the front of the line of those they say should not be on the government payroll or dole.
