For those of you who are monitoring the legislative sausage-making process in Congress this week, you will understand that we are not watching a Democrat vs Republican struggle but one between Utopians and Realists.  Democrats clearly have the bulk of Utopians but they also have Realists, aka “moderates,” like Sen. Joe Manchin (orig: Mancini) battling within the party.

The fight is over a $3.5 Trillion bill that would transform the United States into a couch-potato republic where citizens and illegal aliens will receive government checks as frequently as junk mail.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says it’s all about “the children.” Her new America would subsidize kids from cradle to college…and beyond.  The cost?  Zero, because the rich would pay for everything – I imagine just as Mexico paid for Trump’s border wall.  How can anyone question helping children?  Without going into the particulars of this mega bill, suffice it to say, that it also includes redistributing wealth, “curing” Climate Change, and spreading “equity” throughout the land.

The price tag for this extravaganza is a major sticking point for moderate Democrats and Republicans.  But, for realists like Sen. Manchin it’s also a moral boondoggle. “… I cannot accept our economy or basically our society moving toward an entitlement mentality, that you’re entitled. I’m more of rewarding because I can help those who really need help if those who can help themselves do so.” 

If Manchin’s social concerns ring true to you, thank your Italian and traditional European roots. We were brought up on the work ethic from childhood.  Remember Aesop’s Fables: “The Ant and the Grasshopper”or “The Tortoise and the Hare”? Those ancient Greek morality tales were drilled into us:  prepare for the future; slow and steady wins the race.  But don’t all global cultures have similar lessons?  Not exactly.

I found a West African tale that compares to the European version of “The Tortoise and the Hare”. The tortoise wins the race using his wits rather than sheer endurance and grit. The tortoise assembles a team of relatives and hides them along the route, popping out strategically right up to the finish line. (Bugs Bunny experienced this scam in a 1941 cartoon.)  The triumph of brains over hard work is a common thread that runs through the trickster tales from Africa, according to storytellers.

There’s also a perverse twist to the Ant and Grasshopper tale that our own pundits play with:  when the dreaded winter comes, the unprepared grasshopper demands food and shelter from the “miserly” ants; labels them anti-grasshopper and brings the media in to expose their ill-gotten wealth.  It doesn’t end well for the ants.

Pelosi is determined to get the utopian bill passed, and she is a wily adversary.  Manchin wants to pare the bill down to $1.5 Trillion to avoid “fiscal insanity.”  But, watch out Giuseppe!  Trickster Nancy can reduce the sticker price by making the giveaway for only one year, knowing that once the entitlement starts it will never be stopped.  The grasshoppers will not allow subsidies to expire – the very addiction that Manchin fears will erode the work ethic.

With a Democratic “compromise” and victory will surely come a reparations battle.  Black activists are sensing the same go-for-broke moment that Utopians have seized upon.  All the grasshoppers know that they only have one year left to game the system before their moderate anti-Trump allies realize they’ve been had.  Radical NYTimes grasshopper Charles Blow, whose recent op-eds are titled “Rage Is the Only Language I have Left,” “America is Still Racist,” and “The Mendacity of Joe Biden” (for not welcoming illegal Haitians at the border), wants White ants to pay bigtime. The Times gave grasshopper/economist William Darity Jr half a page to claim “Reparations Needed to Close the Racial Wealth Gap” – price tag: $11 Trillion!

Cugina Nancy is wholeheartedly collaborating with all Utopians.  It’s her last hurrah and she has 100 House grasshoppers on her tail, as well as “no malarkey” Joe Biden and socialist Bernie Sanders, who spent his honeymoon in Soviet Russia way back.  If Joe Manchin is a defiant Winston Churchill, Nancy Pelosi is Axis Sally. 

Manchin hit on the true menace of the bill.  It’s a danger to our moral fiber.  If we can’t even agree that the grasshopper screwed himself, how can we avoid a fiscal and moral disaster? -JLM