The story behind a shutdown joke
“A fool and his money are soon elected.”
In the 37th day of the government shutdown, I was going to post a joke on Facebook, to the effect that for 37 days no one has passed a bill to increase my taxes or decrease my freedom.
The joke was crafted to be even-handed between Left and Right, but as I read it, it seems to lean right. What do you think?
I thought I might find something better from the works of a hero of mine, Will Rogers. He started as a cowboy, became an entertainer and humorist, then became a hugely successful radio broadcaster and the most widely-read newspaper columnist in the world.
He famously said he doesn’t belong to an organized political party, he’s a Democrat. He was a Democrat, an FDR Democrat, but he wasn’t shy about poking fun at them, as well as the Republicans. Here are some examples.
“A fool and his money are soon elected.”
This one supports my joke: “Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, they don’t hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.”
In the current situation, each side blames the other for the shutdown. That recalls another Will Rogers quote: “If you ever injected truth into politics you have no politics.”
