POPULIST | 2005-07-18
I make a lousy elitist.
I have mentioned before that I am secretly offended when someone says to me, apologetically, "I don't agree with everything you say." It never occurred to me that anyone should agree with everything I say. What sort of egotistical idiot do they think I am?
Once when I was in Washington someone watched me whispering Words of Wisdom in a congressman's ear. The congressman had obviously waited for me to show up before he took action.
Also, he had secret messages for me which I hurried away with.
Obviously, this congressional leader needed my help. That impressed the hell out of the people watching.
Of course he needed me. That was why he paid me a salary.
So I was on the steps of the Longworth Building at eight o'clock at night. I had been working since a quarter till seven. A lobbyist or reporter who had watched the proceedings chased me down and asked, "Who exactly ARE you?"
I was tired, so I told him the truth, "On Capitol Hill, you are either a congressman or you are a flunky."
"I am an extremely well-paid flunky."
I never minded being a flunky to a good man who has presented his ideas to the people and has been elected to represent them. As a senior staffer, my job was to help him do it. The only power I had was in choosing the person I decided to work for.
To expand on this point, a VERY inexperience lobbyist once said to me the words you NEVER say to a senior staffer on Capitol Hill:
"You staffers are the ones who really make policy."
I replied with the truth, "The second I start believing that is the second I am out of here. There is only one person who has a right to be in this office, and that is the congressman. And even he only has the right to be here for two years at a time."
"The minute I start believing I am the boss is the moment I am out of here."
A professional staffer does not think he makes policy.
Another group tried to tell me how powerful I was. They were the people who said they thought I was a true intellectual and wanted to be part of my elite. They would indicate that "people like us" should be in control.
I confided to them that I really AM a populist. I really do believe in the fundamental wisdom of white Americans.
I really am disappointed when my people go nuts over some fashion given to them by professors and media elitists.
The average elitist thinks that a world of colored people would be great if those colored people would follow the dictates of elitists like him. I know it would be just like very other colored country on earth. Every one of them has an elite.
I believe in white people. I think I have a lot to say to them that they need to hear.
Not the least of what I have to tell them is to believe in themselves.
The bottom line is that it is up to them to rule the world, not me.