You will be equipped with beautiful clothes…There you will meet this man.
You will seduce him. In this matter you will have no silly compunctions.
Your body belongs to the state. Since your birth, the state has nourished
Now your body must work for the state.
From Russia, With Love
Ian Fleming, 1957
I try to believe people – including Republicans – act from an intellectual concept of the world and what is their particular role in it. As a Senator and ambassador, John Danforth displayed a disciplined dedication to service. I often disagreed with what he said and did but I never doubted that he acted within his ethical and intellectual realm.
There are exceptions, unfortunately. For example, Missouri’s current Attorney General, Republican Andrew Bailey, is a moron.
Oh, I do have a theory of those he unconsciously emulates – the Bolshevik Communists of the Soviet Union of the 1920’s.
Hear me out…Generations of Missouri Republicans embraced the notion that smaller government is always better, governance is best closer to the people and the laws enacted ought not to impede the individual. State government, to put is simply, lightly served the governed.
Comes now the current legal voice of our state government:
Concerning the abortion initiative petition, Bailey claims that allowing choice will cost Missouri billions in tax revenue.
In the MOHELA case at the Supreme Court, he argued that giving loan relief punished the state-affiliated loan servicer by reducing their fees.
In other words, in both instances the proper role of government is to insure that citizens pay the government as much as possible. It is not to enable people to live their best lives.
Now, socialism gets a bad rap. ‘From each according to his ability,’ followed by distribution based on need came from the Bible’s Acts of The Apostles long before Karl Marx created socialism. Thence the concept got bastardized again by the Bolsheviks who, deep down, never wanted to eliminate the comfortable elite as much as re-arrange the deck chairs. “Your body belongs o the state” says a lot, as would ‘you must have that baby so they can pay taxes.’
Still, back to Comrade Bailey. Without realizing what he’s doing, he is re-writing core Missouri Republican doctrine the same way Lenin edited Marx. The role of government per his actions becomes collecting as much revenue from the people as possible. Government does not serve the people, people are obligated to serve the government.
Of course, again, Andrew Bailey is not aware of what he’s doing, of the way he’s rigging the game by changing the rules.
For now, just remember that Missouri’s official lawyer is a moron. And we’re seeing the consequences.
That opening quote? It’s early in a James Bond novel where a Soviet spymaster orders a beautiful young woman to entrap the English spy…so he can be ingloriously killed. Doesn’t go as planned.
Glenn