Playing the Game of Patronage
Patronage. An old game, but the contestants and game space are constantly new. In the Connecticut 2022 edition the Democrats’ powerful game pieces are Ned Lamont, Dick Blumenthal, and Joe Courtney.
Game rules: 1. Do not reform, eliminate, or streamline massive federal bureaucracies. 2. Tell us about one person or group you helped as if you actually did something meaningful for the nation. 3. Reward your friends. Condition: Insist the citizens be happy about living in a patronage system like those of Ancient Rome, corrupt banana republics, the USSR - you get the point.
Ned likes to work with friends, and has a complex network of cronies flung across the board: 70 or so million dollars he gave to the media; his state windmill debacle; his onerous taxes; funny business in the banks; his links to Biden’s destructive policies; his party’s support of infanticide; his leader’s disastrous executive orders; his family investment in Covid testing AND collecting and storing DNA harvested from the tests . . . Tough offense needed, Republicans.
Bagman and creative writer Joe Courtney moves on the board by handing out candy and claiming credit for things he had nothing to do with, but his favorite ploy is the personal touch. Joe likes to tell us about helping someone with an IRS problem, securing funding for a small project, attending a Gold Star event for a family or two, and entering one veteran’s name into the official record. Classic patronage: you have no power and need Joe to negotiate with the cumbersome deaf government bureaucracies.
Dick Blumenthal likes a bigger play; the group tactic. As I mentioned, he went after treadmills for his constituents who could afford home gyms or gym memberships. Now he takes money from working people and those who paid their loans to pay school loans for degreed people. Wait staff, dish washers, pipe fitters, and plumbers need not apply, nor should anyone who paid off their school loans. One of Dick’s most recent plays is pure Patronage: ask the President of the USA to lean down from the throne and touch his scepter on a Blumenthal project. A worthy project, but we got rid of the monarchy centuries ago. Ned, Dick, and Joe, however, helped install a new one.
Well, if it’s an old game, why worry and fret? Because at some point, the whole game collapses. And even many of those who want a collapse and foolishly believe that they will survive the game will get crushed in the rubble. Read the history of Ancient Rome or the former USSR.
Interesting links:
Finding of Misconduct by an Assistant United States Attorney for Indecent Exposure, Sexual Assault, and Lack of Candor (justice.gov) But no prosecution
SCREW-UP-TICUT (Tony De Angelo) - YouTube
Lee Elci | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn
Stream leeelciradio music | Listen to songs, albums, playlists for free on SoundCloud
After-birth abortion: why should the baby live? | Journal of Medical Ethics (bmj.com) Still no Democrats condemning this article.