I read the National Review Online to learn what the "intellectual conservatives" are "thinking." Today there is a column by Victor David Hansen, a putative expert on ancient Greece, titled America's Coastal Royalty. He talks about how the two coasts determine how those of us in flyover country (I grew up in Peoria and now live 60 east of Kansas City) live. Hansen writes:
. . . those living in our elite corridors have no idea about how life is lived just a short distance away in the interior — much less about the sometimes tragic consequences of their own therapeutic ideology on the distant, less influential majority.
In a fantasy world, I would move Washington, D.C., to Kansas City, Mo. That transfer would not only make the capital more accessible to the American people and equalize travel requirements for our legislators, but also expose an out-of-touch government to a reality outside its Beltway.
Our good "conservative intellectual's" world is already a fantasy and shows how someone, affiliated with the Hoover Institute in California, is out-of-touch with certain realities in flyover country.
First, the largest employer in Kansas City is....... THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. If Hansen's thesis is right then there are a lot of people in KC doing jobs that are out-of-touch with what needs to happen. I wonder who he would fire in KC.
Second, Kansas City is solidly Democratic. Emmanuel Cleaver, head of the Black Political Caucus, represents a district that is over 50% white. Does Hansen really believe there are no Democrats in fly-over country? Of course, we could note that Harry Truman, who proposed national health care, is from Kansas City, retired there and was invited to the signing of Medicare.
Third, many of Hansen's conservative colleagues cheered the shut down. Here is a KC Star article about the effects of the shutdown in the KC area. A representative paragraph (remember that the largest employer in KC is the federal government):
Beyond the misery of thousands of idled local federal workers, it is now starting to force other government workers off their jobs. The Kansas Department of Labor furloughed 66 employees Friday because of the federal shutdown.
. . .
Most local institutions and businesses relying on the federal government for funding or work say they can last a while, but should the standoff continue past October, there are no guarantees.
Even those in flyover country realize that government is important.
Fourth, and what really prompted me to write this diary is this column that originally appeared in the KC Star: Sumner County, like most places, sees plenty of federal tax dollars.
Here is some of the facts about Sumner County:
Some 24,000 people, give or take, live in Sumner County, a farming county south of Wichita on the Oklahoma border....
The locals are deeply conservative.
. . .
Last November, 68 percent of Sumner County voted for Mitt Romney.
According to Hansen, these the salt of the earth people that the government, supported by the coastal elites, is out-of-touch with. Except the article continues with some realities:.
In fiscal year 2010, . . . the U.S. government spent roughly $189 million in Sumner County, almost $7,900 for every man, woman, and child who lives here. That’s an estimated 40 percent more, on average, than each county resident paid in federal taxes.
Much of that spending went for Social Security and Medicare. Almost 16 percent of Sumner County’s residents are older than 65.
But the federal government provides food stamps for more than 2,400 people in the county, on average, every month — costing taxpayers $3.5 million a year. It spent $15.7 million in 2010 to provide Medicaid health care coverage for 3,700 of the county’s poor. It spent $69,284 that year for aviation improvements.
Washington sends subsidies to eight county school districts, for teachers — and for lunch. It spent more than $7 million from the 2009 stimulus bill for the county’s schools. It provides housing assistance for those in poverty.
The federal government sends checks big and small. It helps pay for wastewater disposal and economic development in Sumner County. It insures home mortgages. It spent $13,500 in 2010 for small business loans. . . . And it sends millions of dollars to Sumner County’s farmers.
Scott Van Allen has farmed 2,300 acres for more than three decades, mostly wheat. He’s a conservative, worried Washington is going broke.
.
. . .
From 2007 to 2011, according to a database compiled by the Environmental Working Group, Van Allen has taken more than $200,000 in subsidies from a Washington he doesn’t fully trust.
“It is hypocrisy,” he admits, with a rueful smile.
I return to what Hansen wrote:
. . . those living in our elite corridors have no idea about how life is lived just a short distance away in the interior — much less about the sometimes tragic consequences of their own therapeutic ideology on the distant, less influential majority.
No, Mr. Hansen, those living in our conservative enclaves have no idea how important government is in the lives of people outside those enclaves. They really believe the silent majority shares their disdain for government. The truth is Hansen and his ilk already live in a fantasyland that has no relation to those who live in a fact-based world, even those of us in fly-over country.