RUSH: Salena Zito in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (she’s an editorial page columnist) wrote a piece yesterday entitled: “When Will America Burst DC’s Bubble?” Let me just give you a pull quote. It’s a great piece, and it is logically written to explain the real division in America. “The centralized power and wealth in our nation’s capital are becoming so disconnected from the rest of this country that it is palpable to everyone except those who live in Washington.
“In most people’s lives, the driving issue is economic security. Washington’s obsession is with social and cultural issues that drive bigger wedges between Us and Them. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of America’s complaints will burst Washington’s bubble. … Eighteen Starbucks shops can be found in the three-mile walk from DuPont Circle to the US Capitol. Not one of them had a line less than seven people deep on a recent Wednesday afternoon.
“Twenty-one construction sites filled with workers on girders and cranes towering over whole city blocks can be found on the same walk. Commerce bursts from every angle of [Washington]: small businesses packed with shoppers, hair salons charging more than the monthly mortgage payment on my first house for a cut-and-blow-dry, and main as well as side streets clogged with traffic. America’s capital seems bubble-wrapped in its own vibrant economic boom, while great chunks of the nation struggle with uncertainty about how to keep the engine going.
“In fact, six of the 10 wealthiest American counties are Washington suburbs. Washington once was the manifest of power. Now you can add ‘center of wealth’ to its portfolio, crystallizing the elite institutional disconnect between it and the rest of the country. … So, while Washington basks in its roaring economy, debating such issues as gay marriage, guns and how to provide a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal aliens, the rest of the country asks, ‘Hi, remember us? Where are the jobs? Can we focus on the jobs?'”
What about our wealth?
What about our opportunity?
What about our Main Street?
What about our housing industry?
What about our retail sector?
“‘Hi, remember us? Where are the jobs? Can we focus on the jobs?’ … The centralized power and wealth in our nation’s capital are becoming so disconnected from the rest of this country that it is palpable to everyone except those who live in Washington. In most people’s lives, the driving issue is economic security. Washington’s obsession is with social and cultural issues that drive bigger wedges between Us and Them.” She thinks, ” It’s only a matter of time before the rest of America’s complaints will burst Washington’s bubble.”
Look, I talked to a Republican recently, an elected Republican. He said, “Rush, we have to have alternatives to what the Democrats propose.”
“Why?”
“Well, we just do. They just can’t propose stuff and we have no alternative.”
“Why can’t we say ‘no’?”
“No, no, no. We gotta have alternatives!”
That’s the route. That’s how the Democrats set the agenda. Whatever they want out of clear blue — “We need to do this,” they say — we have to have an alternative. How about the alternative being, “No, we don’t have to do that! We’ve been doing enough of what you guys want, and look where it’s getting us”?
Gotta take a break, unfortunately. Back after this.
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RUSH: You know, Washington, DC, is a one-industry town. Collecting and spending our money, that’s what they do — and right now it’s being led by a bunch of incompetents, particularly in foreign policy.
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RUSH: Looks, folks, here’s a case in point. This is a great illustration of the thing I was just talking about, the Salena Zito piece in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about the great divide. I mean, all these things that a prosperous Washington has time to care about and is demanding that all of us care about, demanding that all of us get up to speed the same way they are. When they don’t have to worry about the economy, they don’t have to worry about their jobs, they don’t have to worry about their health care.
They don’t have to worry about any of it ’cause they’ve got the most prosperous area of the country in the world right now. But outside Washington, everybody’s scared to death of their future!