Freeloaders

A little something for under Georgia Christmas trees, 1940—

Cartoon ... Columbus, Georgia newspaper ... December 15, 1940 indicating boomtown and prosperity because of defense construction around Fort Benning.
Photographer: Marion Post Wolcott
Library of Congress FSA/OWI Archive

In the decades since Democrats lost the South, the disproportionate amount of guvmint cash going that way hasn't changed.

And no matter the degree of guvmint hating that's stoked there, it doesn't prevent spectacles like this year's parade of Southern politicians condemning the federal stimulus ... then claiming credit for projects funded in their districts and states.

With the most anti-tax states being tops in federal largesse, a recent Sadly, No thread had Spengler Dampniche proposing a "'get out what you put in'" state-by-state movement"—

The baggers will get behind it because they all think they're giving the most; if a couple of Repukes pick it up, the thing will amplify and wash up to the steps of the capitol. Of course it would never pass... But it might make a lot of coastal folks realize they’re getting screwed by the so-called heartland.

I suggest we call this movement No Free Lunch. Are you with me? Hey, gang! New idear to make all those WELFARE QUEENS in teh blue state urban centars SUFFER FOR BEING LAZY!!!!! NO FREE LUNCH! Your state can't take out more than it puts in!!! I think Idaho would be first in line, or Texas.

After me: a conservative is someone who believes if anybody but himself can win the game, the game is rigged.

More here—

No Free Lunch. I'm telling you. They'll remember it: It started here at Sadly, No. Swept the nation. Alaska, most of the South, the core of the heartland, and some crackpot border states jumped hardest into the fray, demanding those freeloaders like California and New York get back only as much as they put in... only to discover the tit in their state was attached to the cow in another.

Brilliant idea; too bad about how far those ever get.

A very good thing this year: Catherine Russell's revival of a 1938 Andy Razaf/Paul Denniker song, "We the People."

Razaf's lyrics suggest a sensible nation, that's "Got to keep happy, Got to keep snappy... Got to have rhythm and song..."

And—

We don't give a rap about taxation,
Long as legislators give the nation,
Syncopation!

Those were the days...

But some things never change.

They may live in what are called "Red States" now, but they still are hopelessly challenged by spelling and grammar.

Some FSA examples, taken in Georgia, 1936-7.

Arnold Rothstein—

Dorothea Lange—