Washingtonian Magazine attempts a defense of criticisms of Washington DC made by “flyover state hayseeds ” (Yes, they use that phrasing). They end up validating every criticism… Washington DC really is a place where self-centered elitists really don’t give a damn about anything but their own power and egos and have a sneering contempt for the rest of the country.
“Yes, (our) stock-in-trade is abstractions: statistics, seminars, social science. But those abstractions—that out-of-touchness, if you will—are the very things that help our technocrats rise above parochialism. They don’t worry about the effects of policies on their neighbor or on the business around the corner. Sure, our wonks have a point of view, an ideology even. But they cast their arguments in terms of the national interest, and they mean it. If Washington were allowed to make policy—without the heartland and its parochialism getting in the way—we might actually fix this place.”
So, basically “Shut Up, You stupid hicks. We know what’s best for you and we don’t give a damn about you.”
Which is exactly why people hate Washington.
This arrogance is the number one thing I don’t miss now that I no longer live there.
Parochialism? Washington is even worse than I thought. I should re-read Thomas Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed.
The more they shout at us, the tighter they cinch the nooses around their necks…
The…utter….arrogance.
Carthago delenda est. Let it be razed, ploughed-underfoot and sown with salt.
@ Ted B.: At this point, I think the Founders might be okay with that course of action.
Wow, lot of hate in DC. But I’m not shocked. They’re all career politicians with their entire lineage in politics.
Guillotines, anyone?
@ Bastiat Fan: There’s something appealing about the old British practice of putting placards above hanged men listing their crimes. “Politicians, pundits, and ideologues. Ye be warned.”
And they wonder why Trump and Cruz are so popular with the GOP “unwashed masses.” SMH…
Regards,
Peter H.
Sean L: I like the way you think! Some serious humiliation is certainly warranted for these bastards.
What galls me is that they think we buy this “We’re working in the interests of the nation!” nonsense. Maybe I’m depressingly old-fashioned in my thinking, but to me, a nation is made up of a people. It can’t be anything else. If the nation is doing well, its people are doing well, and if the nation suffers, its people suffer.
So unless everybody in Washington is part of some cult that worships an anthropomorphic personification of Columbia or Lady Liberty (at this point, it wouldn’t shock me, and would explain why they all seem so batcrap crazy), they have to be working in somebody’s interest. Some concrete, knowable group of actual, living human beings. Which means they are either pulling a “Le etat c’est moi” shtick… Or they are answering to somebody. Probably multiple somebodies. With office spaces in Manhattan and Silicon Valley.
It’s not just the politicians, pundits, and ideologues; it’s their cadres of enablers, lobbyists and advisors, their staffs and sycophants, and the associated and allied “protected classes”. Start with the military-industrial and bureaucratic double- and triple-dippers and work down to the student-interns and the filing-clerks public and private.
The corruption has metastasized so far into the Counties that even the Beltway is no-longer suitable for a Cordon Sanitaire.
Ted B.: Dear me, that’s a lot of gallows. Or a very busy bunch of gallows. Take your pick.
As the Stalinists found. Bullets are cheaper than rope.
“Washington DC really is a place where self-centered elitists really don’t give a damn about anything but their own power and egos and have a sneering contempt for the rest of the country.”
I’d add a lot; not all, but a lot; of New Yorkers to that crowd as well – they sort of invented the term “flyover country.”
Also, just ask anyone with a Southern US accent how New Yorkers (and Yankees in general) treat them.
Do not miss the byline on this story: Franklin Foer — former Editor-in-Chief at The New Republic before the takeover.
Batmerdecrazy 2%ers, whether politically identifying as progressives or libertarians, hold the majority normal heterosexual population in contempt. Tell us something we do not know. That’s the difference between today’s 2%ers and genocide committed by those during the 20th century. We know their numbers.
@ Throbert McGee: Ah, The New Republic, that bastion of journalistic dishonesty. “We’re so eager to promote our agenda that we’ll publish anything that supports it with zero fact checking!”
Juan @14: Rope is RE-USABLE.
Or, just drop a VERY BIG rock… Less of that pesky ionizing-radiation, and the kinetic-transfer is near 100%. If necessary; rinse and repeat.
Carthago delenda est
I don’t think salting Carthage will have an effect on DC. Spiking cocaine in DC would have a much better effect.
Rope combined with existing lampposts would be greener. Then again I offered to Europe if they give moslems the death penalty I will carry it out for them if they have no real men left. For a reasonable price, I could do it on live TV garroting them with a rainbow feather boa with paracord strands treaded in, while wearing a luchador mask, & sprinkling bacon bits.