The Hill Street Blahg

Any clear thinking American who doesn’t find this self-important asshat’s arrogance outrageous deserves the government they get. Ms. Boxer may have worked hard to obtain her title, but she’s got a long way to go to earn the respect of the office. She’s a disgrace as is the entire elitist group of congresscrooks she’s a part of.

This from The Real Revo:

The thing is that it isn’t about her. The United States Senate does not exist for her self-actualization. One could argue that titles of respect for members of the Senate make sense in that the institution is the maker of laws. Those titles of respect, however, have nothing to do with the aggrandizement of the members or how hard they did or didn’t work to attain the title.

Frankly, a hypothetical Senator who did no work but was spontaneously elected by the people of her state would be far more deserving of our respect and admiration than is someone who worked for and craves the title “Senator.”

Babs let the mask slip here. She might have said, “General, please address me as ‘senator.’ As representatives of the people in the upper house of the legislative branch, the members of this body are deserving of deference.” It still would have sounded arrogant but one would have been able defend it.

What she said, however, was that she deserved respect because she earned it. The title of senator is hers, she tells the good general, because she worked hard. She believes that respect for the role she has been given by voters stems, not from the trust endowed in her and the other 99 members of senate as lawmakers, but as a personal reward for her hard work. She, not the people, owns her seat in the United States Senate and she believes that she, not the position, is deserving of respect. She believes that she personally is deserving of greater respect than is displayed when a general in the United States Army calls you “ma’am.”

This is the core of the problem with the government today. The representatives of the people are clearly and obviously representing themselves first and believe that the Legislature of the United States is primarily the source of personal rewards. The opposite is true. They have been sent to Washington to perform a duty and they should show respect for the people who sent them there. Boxer may deserve to be addressed as “senator,” but it doesn’t have anything to do with how hard she worked or what she has accomplished.

The final irony is that that hard work actually does justify admiration and respect. In our culture we often show it by addressing the beneficiary of the admiration and respect as “ma’am.”