R.I.P. P.J. O’Rourke, who died yesterday at 74. He was a clever and entertaining writer who started out as the typical 60’s hippie into drugs, sex and rock and roll. But like many of us he got hijacked by taxes when he started making decent money as a Gonzo journalist for National Lampoon. He became Rolling Stone’s token conservative voice and was considered “conservative” for much of his career but later in life he converted to libertarianism. He had strong opinions, but his deeply held beliefs continued to evolve.
I’m still a bit irked with him for not supporting Trump – not because he had an ideological objection to his platform but because of his opinion of him as a person. I confess, I once thought like P.J.: if a person didn’t measure up to my moral standards and value system I vowed not to vote for them regardless of their promises. But that was before it became apparent that America, and the world, stood at a tipping point. At that point a flawed candidate headed down the correct path was far superior to another liberal/progressive dragging us towards serfdom.
But that doesn’t lessen in any way the sheer genius of O’Rourke’s contribution to political commentary. His iconic work, released in 1991 still contains tidbits of political insight for the ages, including this oft quoted gem:
“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”
In fact, Parliament of Whores contains many observations still applicable today:
“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.”
“As soon as children discover that the world isn’t nice, they want to make it nicer. And wouldn’t a world where everybody shares everything be nice? But kids are broke — so they want to make the world nicer with your money.”
“Many reporters, when they go to work in the nation’s capital, begin thinking of themselves as participants in the political process instead of glorified stenographers.”
And this insightful gem:
“The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.”
Based on that last observation alone I would have thought that O’Rourke would have supported Trump, the outsider who came to drain the swamp. But since he considered Trump to be a narcissistic “sociopath” he voted for Hillary instead.
In 1998’s Eat The Rich O’Rourke still had many pithy observations to file :
“If we want the whole world to be rich, we need to start loving wealth. In the difference between poverty and plenty, the problem is the poverty, not the difference. Wealth is good.”
“Government does not cause affluence. Citizens of totalitarian countries have plenty of government and nothing of anything else.”
“Your money does not cause my poverty. Refusal to believe this is at the bottom of most bad economic thinking.”
The latter is the basis for Democrats’ belief that the pie is only so big so the only thing we can do is slice it up and pass it out differently. So when someone comes along and says hey, we can make the pie bigger! Hell, we can even create more pies!! (e.g. Trump) Democrats recoil in horror. True conservatives cheer them on: apparently born-again Libertarians do not.
Pi: it’s infinite
And finally we have from 1994’s All The Trouble In The World my personal favorite quote from all P.J’s prolific works:
"Everybody wants to save the world but nobody wants to help mom with the dishes."
So while Putin plays cat and mouse with President Potato Head and Hillary pretends she knows nothing about wiping computers with a cloth (or something) and even less about cyber-spying let us pause and mark the passing of a true American. Whether you agreed with him or not he was always entertaining. The country could use a lot more of that.
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