[summer]

I'm sorry, but it did and still does strike me as extremely funny that any poster here would identify with Arnold's Hollywood mega-wages. Or maybe I'm the only one not making $30 million a year.

[JakeWyld]

Yup, you're the only one. Its time to catch up Summer. :)

Just kidding...hope all is well.

[strela]

I'm sorry, but it did and still does strike me as extremely funny that any poster here would identify with Arnold's Hollywood mega-wages.

Doesn't it strike you as even more humorous that some here would deify a career politician (McClintock) who has reportedly never held a job in the private sector?

Or maybe I'm the only one not making $30 million a year.

Well, I could make it on 30 mil per annum I guess; I'd have to make some economies and go to store-brand mac and cheese in the pantry, but I'd survive ;)

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Ah, yes--I remember when you first came on board, and I thought you were a troll . . .

IMHO we have a problem, and that problem is the identity of "we the people."

The liberal knows "the people"--a.k.a. "the masses"--as an inferior lot to be patronized and exploited. A liberal--e.g., Al Gore--can speak of "the forgotten middle class."

But the conservative identifies with the people in their potential, not in their weakness. A conservative thinks of society as consisting of islands of expertise--in large matters and small--distributed widely and worthy of cultivation. A conservative couldn't possibly forget the middle class, because a conservative thinks of "we the people" as having intelligence as well as intrinsic worth. A wealthy conservative does not patronize those with less wealth/income, and is on that account reluctant to characterize anyone as "poor." And if the conservative is loathe to even characterize anyone as less than middle class, and also unwilling to kowtow to those with more money than themselves by calling them rich, the conservative could not possibly "forget the middle class."

Ronald Reagan was a VIP all his adult life; certainly from the time he started getting fan mail when he broke into the movies (if not, indeed, when he was a famous radio sportscaster soon after he graduated from college). He made enough money fast enough to be personally exercised over the unfairness of income taxation in the 90% bracket, which made it not worthwhile to work as much as he would have been able/inclined to do. Yet he identified sincerely with the middle class, with we-the-people without class distinction. He had to, because he respected his parents--and they were by today's standards certifiably "poor."

[lewislynn]

Or maybe I'm the only one not making $30 million a year.

-----

I'm a teacher, and I can you: I'm not.[sic]

No, you're one working only 9 months who makes a years wages at the taxpayers expense... and sadly, these days, not much to show for it...