McIlheran, Dreher, and Sykes--Not the Usual Commonality

McIlheran, Dreher, and Sykes usually adopt similar stances on issues; however, it's unusual to find them on the same track on same-day posts, using a "voice" which is not theirs--which (in fact) is populist.

On the continuing increases in Cost-of-Everything:

Here's P-Mac, referring to the State tax proposals:

As one emailer puts it to me, "How do you cope with trying to pay bills and find out you don't have enough money? I have cut back on driving a lot, food, heat, no long distance on phone, no cell phone, etc. I don't have any where else to cut."

Sykes took a slightly different angle, referring to national-level politicians:

In case you haven’t noticed, American politics is increasingly a rich man (and woman’s) game. But “rich” doesn’t really quite capture it.

...it’s hard to describe people with the net worth of [any basket of--ed.] Third World countries as really “representative” of the people they serve. At a certain point, money insulates and distorts.

Dreher addresses the Immigration issue:

I don't use the public hospital in Dallas for my family's medical care -- the same public hospital that's overrun by illegal immigrants. I don't have my kids in the public schools in my city, many of which are overwhelmed by children who don't speak English. My livelihood is not affected by mass immigration, because unlike working-class Americans, my vocation is in a line of work that illegal workers can't do. For now, my neighborhood is not becoming home to houses full of migrant males who may or may not be legal, but who are breaking codes that the city will not or cannot enforce. And I haven't yet had a car crash with an illegal alien who doesn't have insurance. Point is, it's easy for people like me to wonder why others are so bent out of shape by the illegal immigration problem, because we just don't see it. Moreover, because people like me are pretty well educated, well traveled, and relatively sophisticated, we tend to look with disdain upon people like us who happen to strongly prefer their own particular culture.

Certainly the case. Not all pols are "out of touch," and not all citizens have had to "cut to the bone", nor suffer economic or neighborhood deterioration. But it's interesting that those who propose the largest increases in tax-revenues, or dis-assembly of the concepts of "borders and nations" are quite insulated.

Who pays for the gas in the Governor's State car?

Will McCain's neighborhood suddenly have 15-to-a-room housing? Or Herb Kohl's?