The view from behind the tinted windows.
Listen To You Tell Me Texas Friday 9/4/15
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This story features Hillary Clinton but it’s not strictly about her. Her appearance is incidental to the larger point and it’s only because she happened to be Secretary of State when I saw what I’m about to tell you.
When my wife, daughter and I visited Washington, D.C. a few years back, we stayed in a hotel a few blocks from the State Department. Walking back to our hotel in the evening we passed the State Department just as its underground garage disgorged a motorcade.
With sirens screaming, out poured a phalanx of motorcycles, two or three of the requisite black Suburban SUVs and a cop car or two, all followed by an EMS ambulance. (No kidding. An ambulance.)
It was clear that Mrs. Clinton was on the move – in all likelihood finished at work for the evening and on the way home.
So life goes for you in the 21st century if you’re a member of the ruling class in Washington, D.C. A small army attends your every move and your relative importance is judged by the size of that small army.
The ambulance really got to me. Certainly, if Mrs. Clinton were to be taken ill, or be involved in an accident or be the target of some violence while en route to her destination, she would want medical attention readily at hand. But so would you and so would I and neither of us is trailed about in our every move by an ambulance.
‘Yeah, but none of us is Secretary of State,’ you say. So what? I cannot imagine what harm would come to the United States if the Secretary of State had to wait – like all the rest of us – for an ambulance to arrive. The fact that Mrs. Clinton assigned one to herself – or being maximally charitable, allowed one to be assigned – tells you everything about her perception of herself.
Watching all of this, I said to my wife, ‘I wonder how many people it took in 1939 to get Cordell Hull home from the office.’ The answer that comes to mind is that he very well might have driven himself.
The arrogance attendant to summoning a cavalcade of vehicles and police, interrupting traffic and making as much noise as a Shriner’s parade is worthy of some beribboned dictator from some banana republic somewhere. It is unbecoming in all but very specific cases involving officials of government anywhere in the United States.
If you want to know why Donald Trump is currently defying all received political wisdom, look no further than this story about Hillary.
Sure, I doubt that Donald Trump drives himself around. But, unlike Hillary Clinton, he somehow manages to not come off like a potentate. Trump is getting traction in large measure because he is sticking his thumb in the collective eye of the Ivy Leaguers and the power elites that look down upon us from the darkly tinted windows of their armored SUVs.
We the unwashed are saying, ‘It’s about time.’
As one of the “unwashed” the Washington types look down on, I’m in tune with what you’ve said. For decades–and I mean decades–we’ve had “leaders” promising everything under the sun while they grew fat on our disappointment and pain. I don’t know if Trump is the answer, but at least there’s a chance with him, maybe a good one. But with Clinton or Bush or any of the Washington insiders, all we can expect is more of their self-serving sameness that is killing our country. Thanks for another fine column!
Is she so unsure of herself that she must draw attention to herself in this manner? It looks like to me the less attention you draw upon yourself, the better off and safer you are. How much of taxpayer money is she wasting? Does she care? I think we all know the answer to that!
Well Mr. Gleiser, you once again let your ‘anti anything Obama’ bias show. You made an assumption that Hillary Clinton was the only person who worked at the State Department. How Untrue! Not only do many hard working Americans work there but it is also where many high ranking foreign dignitaries, including Head of State and Ambassadors of any of the 200 or so countries of the world. There are quite a few of these High Ranking Officials that have physical handicaps that might require emergency assistance. These important people also deserve the honor and safety provided by police, sedans and yet, even an ambulance if needed. Non the less, you decided that sight unseen, it was Hillary. I certainly hope you are satisfied now that you have smeared the name of a former Secretary of State just to show you are a true blooded conservative and dislike anything and anybody that does not agree with you. I also hope you are not in the habit of making assumptions out of nothing, if so, you may just be wrong quite often.
I do not belive any of those in government should have the tax payer funded motorcades or heavily protected travel that they have. They should be required for their own security & travel just like we as citizens. (to Pay should have been inserted) If I want to take a trip via plane or car I have to pay for those services & so should they. Unfortunately those in Washington have grown rich & elite in their minds off the back of those who voted them in no matter what the party affilliation. If I am anything it is as a independant as I think 98% of congress & the so called supreme court are crooks & could care less about the American people.