This isn't the first country where poor people could get rich. In ancient Rome, freedmen (former slaves) were known to become wealthy, even become slave dealers themselves. There were also patricians who fell into poverty. There was real economic mobility, which made for some social mobility, too. We're nowhere near as new or special as our hype would like to pretend. We're more of a re-run than we ever acknowledge. We have such a short history of our own, as a nation, that we kind of assume that real history only started 200+ years ago. Just like every group of first graders who believe they're the first ones on earth.

This administration is worse than any other. Ike looks like a downright communist compared to these yahoos. These people are radicals, and they're looters. As Al Gore said in a recent speech, their basic premise is that all government is bad and should be done away with, except for the parts that gives big financial breaks and contracts and other benefits to their own in-crowd of wealthy cronies and contributors.