Feb 19, 2011

I'm always happy to get a note from Tim Phillips, whose function reminds me of the ball and claw on the leg of an old-fashioned piece of office furniture, something called the Kock Brothers Corner Chair, perhaps.

No, always a delight to hear from Tim, who's not only a great American but he's an American for prosperity. So many are not these days. Why you look around and you see how people hate prosperity and run away from it as though it were the devil.

Tim began his missive today on the horrible situation in Wisconsin:

As I looked out from the stage on the faces of thousands of folks at the "Stand With Walker" rally in Madison, Wisconsin today a young 7 or 8 year-old girl atop her dad's shoulders stood out. She was waving a "Fight Back Wisconsin" sign and cheering happily. Before the rally her dad had told me they gave up her basketball game today to come to the rally because "It's time to stand tall." Next to them in his hard hat was Mansfield, a tall, wiry gentleman who runs a small brick laying business near Madison. These two individuals symbolize what's at stake.

Such an accurate personification of the conservative view: an 8-year-old-girl atop her daddy, and Mansfield. And can you not hear the little girl saying, "Daddy dearest, I've been listening to Rush Limbaugh, what an old pussycat he is, and he said people who want to know something about government should listen to his show. So that's what I did. That's where I went on all these mornings when you thought I was watching Spongebob, Wizards of Waverly Place, That's so Raven, and Suite Life of Zach and Cody.... But I gave that up to watch the Rushbow ap on your I-phone. I luuuuuuuuuuuv it. But this morning he said there were bad teachers in Madison who just want to do bad things and they want us to pay for it. He asked me if I could believe it and I said no, 'Uncle Rush I can't.' So then he said I should make a sign up to express my feelings. So then it jsut came to me, "Fight Back Wisconsin". Yea, because we're fighters, aren't we Daddy? Aren't we?

"And then Daddy I wanted to ask if you could make it so I didnt have to go my basketball game tomorrow because it's like Uncle Rushbow said.. No, wait. Uncle Hannity said. He's the other fatty guy, right. Boy wait 'til Mrs. Obama gets on HIS case. Well he said we all have "to stand tall". And I want to stand tall, too. So can we go to Madison tomorrow, and I could sit on your shoulders and together we'll stand tall. Can we daddy? Can we?"

But then what about Mansfield, the tall, wiry gentleman with a hard hat and a brick-laying business symbolizing all those hard working tall, wiry gentlemen with hard hats and a brick-laying business.

If Wisconsin isn't really about the survival of the Democratic Party as Rachel Maddow believes and it isn't about the brass balls of the Tea Party movement as Tugboat Limbaugh believes, I'm glad Tim's got his finger on what's at stake: the obscure, off-key symbolism of an 8-year-old girl used by her father to make his political point and Mansfield, a tall, wiry man, a brick shithouse of a man, who never takes off his hard hat even when he's finished laying bricks.

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