Ayn Rand Worshippers Should Face Facts: Blue States Are the Providers, Red State Are the Parasites
Progressives believe in the redistribution of wealth, so we’re not usually too upset by this state of affairs. That’s what it means to be one country. E pluribus unum, and all that. We’re happy to help, because we think we’ve got a stake in making sure kids in rural Alabama get educations and seniors in Arizona get healthcare. What’s good for them is good for all of us. We also like to think they’d help us out if our positions were reversed. It’s an investment in making America stronger, and we feel fine about that.
But maybe it’s time to admit that we’re being played for chumps, and that there are people in the rest of the country who are taking way too much advantage of our good nature. After all: it’s now a stone fact that the blue states and cities are the country’s real wealth creators. That’s why we pay more taxes, and are able to send that money to the red states in the first place. We’re working our butts off, being economically productive, going to college, raising good kids, supporting reality-based schools, keeping our marriages together, tending to our busy and diverse cities, and generally Playing By The Rules. And the fates have smiled on us in rough proportion to the degree that we’ve invested in our own common good.
Awkward..
I don’t like to categorize myself as “Democrat” or “Republican” as such finite labels can get in the way of issues that might blur across the lines… but I tend to think of myself as a moderately liberal person. I read Atlas Shrugged a few years back, around the last few years of Dubya’s last term. I immediately thought how uncanny it was that this was happening again, it was hard not draw parallels to when the Obama/McCain election was going on and all of the crazy was being let out. I thus find it terrifying that Conservatives can read this same work, yet see themselves as the heroes. How can they not see that they are the parasites? It is a testament to their inability to assess reality and come to logical conclusions. Scary.
(via crownless)
