A Guy in New York » Blog Archive » “Better Than Plowing” by James Buchanan (part 2)

“Better Than Plowing” by James Buchanan (part 2)

And the tinsel prance and prattle of those who came along and called themselves the brightest and best obscured the raw injustice of a purchased presidencey [JFK, 1960].

(page 175-176)

Came the 1980s, and Reagan’s shining city on a hill, so real to their fathers and mothers, seemed fitting only for an ancient actor turned president.

(page 176)

We [US service members during WWII] learned that even the unwashed rednecks of Appalachia could stand to measure with the scions of Newport. We became national in a newfound sense, and we returned to stand together in pride of accomplishment to be appreciated by those whom we loved and respected. And precisely because we had some confidence in comparison with our inclusive set of peers, we worked hard to do what we knew we could, whether it was further schooling through the GI Bill of Rights, the launching of new ventures, or the simple dedication to the jobs we seized.

(page 177)

The Cold War’s reality and rhetoric spawned ideological dispute, especially as those who had earlier seen the truth in socialism began to glimpse the collapse of the romance. The envy-engendered hatred for those whose romance with the state had never blossomed spilled over into the academies, and some of us would suffer from the crude attempts at thought control; yes, even in America. And the near-thing electoral emplacement of a nonideological rich boy [JFK in 1960] became the opening that the putative establishment intellectuals sought and imagined they had found.

(page 177)