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You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: The First Teahadist?

Open Thread: The First Teahadist?

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Nice catch by Corey (The Reactionary Mind) Robin:

Throughout his career, [Edmund] Burke’s financial state had been precarious. Much to his embarrassment, he was periodically forced to rely upon well timed gifts and loans from his wealthier friends and patrons…

Thanks to the interventions of his well connected friends, Burke secured from Pitt in August 1795 two annuities that would wipe out his debts and a pension that, along with an additional pension and the income from his estate, would enable him and his wife to live in comfort into their old age.

Three months later, when Burke took up his pen against a proposal for the government to subsidize the wages of farm laborers during bad harvest years (so that they could sustain themselves and their families), he wrote, “To provide for us in our necessities is not in the power of government.”

(Belated thanks to commentor Ranchandsyrup for the link.)

Reader Interactions

84Comments

  1. 1.

    humanoid.panda

    To be fair, whoring oneself out for pensions from the state was a pretty universal habit among 18th century writers. Still, this is so damn funny.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    To provide for us in our necessities is not in the power of government

    Factually incorrect. One can debate whether it’s good policy, but it’s clearly something government can do.

  6. 6.

    Kyle

    Serious question: What was the last program, action or initiative that the GOP/Right did or had that helped the country?

  7. 7.

    humanoid.panda

    @humanoid.panda: @Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, of course. On some level, for someone of Burke’s background to see farm laborers as beings of inferior order makes a certain sense. Until the 19th century, this was pretty much a universal truth that the “laboring classes” should shut up and die already, even people much more enlightened than Burke. The sad thing of course is that this idea is having a resurgence after it seemed we have finally made some progress as a species.

  11. 11.

    humanoid.panda

    @Kyle: George H.W Bush deciding not to overthrow Saddam and to raise taxes to cover up the Reagan deficits.

  12. 12.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Listening to Tweety talk about FDR appointing Wilkie as emissary to the UK after 1940 election, he mentions Truman appointing Hoover to head a commission. “Bipartisaship…. people don’t do that anymore”.

    Chuck Hagel, Bob Gates, John McHugh, Judd Gregg, John Huntsman… ETA: Ray Lahood

    Yeah, people don’t do that anymore.

  13. 13.

    humanoid.panda

    @Kyle: And you could argue that say what you say about how it was designed and how little it helped the real economy, TARP was pretty necessary to stop the financial system from going boom.

  15. 15.

    Kyle

    @Baud: Something analogous to Obamacare, social security, etc. An agenda that they would have pushed and passed and wound up making the country better.

  18. 18.

    different-church-lady

    Did Steve Balmer’s father James Taylor just forget which song he was supposed to sing for a moment there?

  19. 19.

    ? Martin

    @Kyle: Medicare D helped. It was pretty well botched in implementation, but it did help a lot of people once it got going, and didn’t cost nearly as much as many of its detractors predicted, though it is an important part of why Medicare costs have kept going up.

    ACA thankfully fixes many of the more egregious problems with it.

  20. 20.

    Kyle

    @Baud: That’s what I came up with, but of course it was an unpaid-for budget buster. It just seems the last 30 years have been nothing but GOP failure.

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I listened to Tweety a little bit on SiriusXM earlier this week, and you could just about hear the spittle flying as he went on about TipNRonnie and BothSides and BiFuckingPartisanship. For some reason, it’s actually worse with just audio than it is watching him on teevee.

  23. 23.

    C. Isaac

    @Kyle:

    I feel it’s always worth praising the few things they did right. It’s positive reinforcement. It also confuses Wingers when you’re not screaming EVERYTHING YOUR GUY DID WAS WRONG/EVIL! They seem to not understand that.

    Bush Sr. pushing Americans with Disabilities Act.
    Reagan signing START
    Nixon resigning
    Eisenhower signing the Interstate Highways bill.

  32. 32.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Well don’t forget, he was the one who said “The only thing necessary for triumph is for me to do nothing”.

    Also “Those who don’t know history can’t use their knowledge of it to grift”.

    I think those are right.

  37. 37.

    dr. luba

    So it’s a straight line from Burke to Ayn Rand to the Teahadis. Because Ayn signed up for both Medicare and Social Security; as a friend of hers explained, she NEEDED the medical care. Unlike all those moochers, I guess.

  42. 42.

    Chris

    @Kyle:

    Serious question: What was the last program, action or initiative that the GOP/Right did or had that helped the country?

    Gotta separate those two things.

    If you mean “Right,” then the answer is “never.” If you mean “GOP,” then the answer is probably somewhere along the lines of “last time the Right didn’t control them, or at least didn’t have a monopoly on these things.”

  48. 48.

    PsiFighter37

    Just found out a couple hours ago that my best friend from college got axed from his job yesterday. He’s plenty smart and talented, so I’m sure he’ll be fine…but he clearly wasn’t expecting it and was in a bit of shellshock when I visited him earlier.

  49. 49.

    NotMax

    @Kyle

    Serious question: What was the last program, action or initiative that the GOP/Right did or had that helped the country?

    The Do Not Call Registry.

    (An exception that proves the rule is apparently mandatory.)

  61. 61.

    different-church-lady

    Gotta say, the left-field scoreboard empty of out-of-town scores is always a beautiful sight.

  62. 62.

    john f

    @Kyle:OSHA, EPA, and the implementation of EITC during Nixon’s presidency. Reagan and W both expanded the EITC during their terms. Also too, cap and trade IIRC helped pull leaded gas off the market and reduce pollution that caused acid rain. Reagan’s campaigning also helped with getting some of the GOP for voting in the Assault Weapons legislation and the Brady Bill.

  70. 70.

    Drexciya

    I noticed that certain discussions continued elsewhere. I just saw them and briefly responded, if only to avoid the “omg you’re running ’cause we’re righter!” portrayal.

  72. 72.

    Ash Can

    @different-church-lady: The first post-season Cubs game I ever went to was in 1989 (I wasn’t able to get to any in ’84). Seeing bunting hanging in Wrigley Field in the fall was wild enough, but what really blew me away was the sight of the scoreboard. It was BLANK, except for the Cubs and Giants on the bottom left and whichever AL teams were playing that night, on the bottom right. I’ve been to a lot of games at Wrigley Field, but that was the first time I’d ever seen a blank scoreboard there, and it just turned me into a squealing teenager. It was the perfect illustration of what was happening — there were only a few teams still playing at that point in the season, and the Cubs, wonder of wonders, were one.

    (Re-jiggered for clarity)

  74. 74.

    different-church-lady

    @Ash Can:

    It was the perfect illustration of what was happening…

    Ex-actly!

    I’ve got a great photo of myself in front of the Fenway scoreboard with “P A U L – M C C A R T N E Y” in place of the line score. Got connections with the company that provides the ushers to the concerts.

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