Always have been, always will be
Ever wonder why liberals are such reliably perennial losers? George Will knows:
Liberals think their campaign against Wal-Mart is a way of introducing the subject of class into America’s political argument, and they are more correct than they understand. Their campaign is liberalism as condescension. It is a philosophic repugnance toward markets because consumer sovereignty results in the masses making messes. Liberals, aghast, see the choices Americans make with their dollars and their ballots, and announce — yes, announce — that Americans are sorely in need of more supervision by…liberals.
Before they went on their bender of indignation about Wal-Mart (customers per week: 127 million), liberals had drummed McDonald’s (customers per week: 175 million) out of civilized society because it is making us fat, or something. So, what next? Which preferences of ordinary Americans will liberals, in their role as national scolds, next disapprove? Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet?
No. The current issue of The American Prospect, an impeccably progressive magazine, carries a full-page advertisement denouncing something responsible for “lies, deception, immorality, corruption, and widespread labor, human rights and environmental abuses” and of having brought “great hardship and despair to people and communities throughout the world.”
What is this focus of evil in the modern world? North Korea? The Bush administration? Fox News Channel? No, it is Coca-Cola (number of servings to Americans of the company’s products each week: 2.5 billion).
When liberals’ presidential nominees consistently fail to carry Kansas, liberals do not rush to read a book titled “What’s the Matter With Liberals’ Nominees?” No, the book they turned into a best-seller is titled “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” Notice a pattern here?
I really don’t know why so many of us despise them; they’re only trying to force us to do what they believe is right for us. It’s for our own good, you know. And after all, they are so much more intelligent, sophisticated, and morally upright than the rest of us. Why, if you don’t believe it, just ask them.
In fact, they’re so much smarter and golly-gee better than the rest of us that just about the only way they can implement their world-saving agenda these days is through outright theft and bribery.
Update! Thomas Sowell holds his nose and comes to close quarters with the smarm, dishonesty, and hypocrisy of the liberals’ MSM helpmates here.
- Entries
What they nearly always fail to mention about wal mart (and the other big box stores) is that they have allowed working people to attain a level of material wealth that is nearly unprecedented worldwide. In fact, even while wages remain relatively static, the fact that many items are now available at discount prices has effectively given everybody in the country a raise.
I know that good liberals (and even many conservatives) turn up their noses at the giant wal mart superstores and their apparently unenlightened and/or plebian customers, and wax poetic about the little family stores, boutiques and other "shoppes" at their revitalized downtowns, but I've always liked the big stores. I like the great cross-sections of the population you see there, I like the fact that they are open all hours of the night, I like the fact that I can wander around and comparison shop at will without being bothered by some obsequeious clerk asking "may I help you?" every 5 minutes.
I also like the fact that most walmarts tailor their products to the local market. When I lived in Laramie, Wyoming, which is huge hunting and outdoors country (duh!) they actually stocked a pretty good supply of reloading equipment. I remember going there one evening, and in one shopping trip, on one check, I bought:
- A pound of sliced turkey
- A pound of yogurt
and
- A pound of gunpowder and some primers.
I'd also point out that prior to Walmart stocking reloading stuff, the only way to get any decent assortment of reloading equipment was to drive to Cheyenne, 45 miles away.
And having lived in Germany, where (at that time anyway) the law favored the small, family owned business over large supermarkets, I didn't miss the small stores a bit. I didn't miss poor selection, the astronomical prices, and the businesses that closed promptly at 6pm every day except Saturday when they closed at 1pm (do you even need to ask about Sunday?)