Henry David Thoreau advised against participating in any enterprise requiring new clothes. According to a corollary, only people of dubious character devote a lot of care and attention to the question of what to wear. I'm sure there must be counterexamples, but the experience of watching this year's SOTU didn't persuade me I'm being unfair. Regarding wardrobe criticism, I can be bipartisan: Republican on the left, Democrat to the right, possibly the most absurd specimens of their respective parties, both striking a characteristic pose in the Capitol on Tuesday evening.
Back to the Republicans. I don't know why they get so upset when it's pointed out that they're enemies of Social Security. The government deducts money from every American paycheck, funnels it into a gigantic government trust fund, then redistributes the proceeds to people who, in the government's estimation, need the money more than the people who just earned it. I think there's a word for that, which may account in some measure for the term Social Security. It seems odd that Republicans should think they can wear out their vocal cords yammering about the horrors of socialism and then, without causing anyone to laugh, feign outrage over being depicted as enemies of a straightforwardly socialistic program.
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