A Quote From H. L. Mencken

“By he mid 1930’s, thanks to the New Deal, all that self-reliance had changed prompting Mencken to declare: ‘There is no genuine justice in any scheme of feeding and coddling the loafer whose only ponderable energies are devoted wholly to reproduction. Nine-tenths of the rights he bellows for are really privileges and he does nothing to deserve them.’ Despite the billions spent on an individual, ‘he can be lifted transiently but always slips back again.’ Thus the New Deal had been ‘the most stupendous digenetic* enterprise ever undertaken by man …. We not only acquired a vast population of morons, we have inculcated all morons, young or old, with the doctrine that the decent and industrious people of the country are bound to support them for all time. The effects of that doctrine are bound to be disastrous soon or late.”

From Mencken the American Iconoclast by Marion Elizabeth Rodgers

*digenesis di·gen·e·sis (dī-jěn'ĭ-sĭs)
n.
Reproduction in distinctive patterns in alternate generations, typically involving alternating sexual and asexual cycles in succeeding host organisms, as seen in malarial parasites and certain trematode flatworms.

I don't like comparing my fellow human beings (politicians being the exception) to parasites. It is dehumanizing and in some cases uncalled for, but in some ways it is an apt comparison. Let's face it, we have a large, and ever-growing number of citizens who are living off the efforts of their neighbors. Life is often harsh and and obviously there are many who simply can't support themselves, and we must as a society do what we can to take care of those who can't take care of themselves. However, we've gone way beyond the point of caring for the helpless.

I'd Rather Have Fleas

One of the first things I learned in parisitology (the study of parasites) in veterinary school is that some parasites are more efficient than others. An efficient parasite is one that leaves it's host alive so that it is able to continue to provide nourishment for itself and its offspring for many generations. Inefficient parasites are so voracious and greedy that they often kill their hosts outright or leave them so weakened that they can't survive the next stressful situation that invariably arises. A good example of an efficient parasite is the flea. Fleas are very common in my practice. They bite, suck out a little blood, and then move on. They spend most of their time running around on the dog mating and such. Ticks, however, are relatively inefficient parasites. They latch on and suck blood until they become so heavy their mouthparts are literally ripped out their host by gravity. Because of this, and their ability to proliferate quckly, ticks will often kill their hosts, something fleas very rarely do.

I can't tell you how many dogs I've seen over the years die from a tick infestation. If a dog is left in a back yard and the owner doesn't intervene, ticks will quickly multiply and overwhelm the poor animal and bleed it to death. It happens every spring. Fleas are a different story all together. They are extremely annoying, often causing intense allergic reactions and driving dogs (and people) crazy. Once they are in your yard they are very hard to get rid of. Yet, any vet will tell you that it is a rare thing for a dog to die from fleas. Suffer yes, die no.

I say all this because it occurs to me that politicians are very much like parasites. They don't produce much of anything, and they live off the lifeblood of their hosts (the taxpayers). I don't care much for politicians. Like parasites they appear to be a necessary evil. Yet there is a difference. It seems to me that Republicans tend to be more like fleas. They are often annoying and can cause a lot of misery, but I don't think they are going to bleed us to death. Democrats, on the other hand, are more like ticks. They are voracious. Their only concern seems to be how much money they can suck out of the productive people in order to give it to the more numerous non-producers in order to remain in office and gain more power. Just like our little friend Rhipicephalus sanguineus they latch on and never let go. The health of the host doesn't much matter to them. No jobs? "Give us more money." Rising inflation? "Give us more money." Stifling overregulation? "Give us more money. And give us even more say in your lives." Unless we do something soon they are going to bleed us dry, or leave us in such a weakened state that we won't survive the next stressful event.

Ticks don't seem to have even the most basic understanding of economics, and neither do Democrats. They don't seem to know that the dog only has a certain amount of blood. He can make more if he has the chance, but if they suck too much too quickly he will die. If their host dies, there won't be anything else for them to feed on, and while they might live on for a while, their offspring will starve.