Your Poor Man quote of the day

[mmcirvin]

The Editors expand on the words of Teddy Roosevelt:

The deference owed the President is the deference owed to the lady behind the counter at the DMV; your duty to attenuate your criticism of a war or a visa policy favored by either of these officials equals your duty to stifle your disapproval of their favorite hat; and all of these terms added together - in a plane or on a train, with a baboon or on the Moon - equal zero.

Actually, I'd argue that you owe at least a tiny default bit of human-to-human deference to the lady at the DMV, at least while you're there. I mean, she's right there in front of you, and probably rarely gets any appreciation from anyone. The President can at least go to one of his caged rallies with ideologically vetted audiences when he needs some love.

Comments

[sunburn.livejournal.com]

And then there are people like Congressman, Senators, Judges and Justices, who really don't owe the president deference because they are in some respects his equal, or at least someone who should be immune to the president's command (though perhaps not his leadership). Of course, sometimes protocal calls for deference, and so does politeness, but those're mainly why you should defer to the DMV lady-- that and because she has something you need.