Dictionary.com defines "Patronage" thusly, "the control of or power to make appointments to government jobs or the power to grant other political favors; offices, jobs, or other favors so controlled; the distribution of jobs and favors on a political basis, as to those who have supported one's party or political campaign."
"The distribution of jobs and favors" is the crucial element here and it’s where conservatives must start paying attention.
The left’s initiatives are all focused on getting jobs for the left’s voters: government employees, left-wing contractors, left think tanks and relatives of left-adherents in office.
All of these categories serve the left in different ways.
The employees vote left and provide the base of the Democratic Party.
The contractors and think tanks are money laundries.
They take tax dollars and then return part of those funds in the form of campaign contributions to the politicians who voted for the bills that produced the money.
And the relatives?
That speaks for itself.
In the last two weeks we’ve had two perfect examples of patronage from the left.
The first we wrote about last Saturday here.
It concerns an addition to Hawaii’s new tourist tax that brings the daily total on hotel rooms, short term rentals and cruise ships (!) to 11% per day.
The ostensible reason for the added tax is "placing an additional tax on tourists to fund climate change resiliency projects and environmental stewardship within the islands."
That’s a nebulous cloud of global warming buzzwords that will make the effectiveness of the $100 million raised by the tax impossible to track.
And that’s the point.
Conservatives get bogged down in looking at cause and effect, but we aren’t operating from the same ideological orientation.
We think if you say you’re fighting global warming there ought to be cold front somewhere in the future.
Left-wing people don’t think that way.
Global warming in this instance is just the latest pretext for sending more money — patronage — to their voters and donors.
Viewed from that perspective, the $100 million will be someone else’s money well spent.
Here’s our latest example and it, too involves $100 million dollars. (Evidently, a memo went out.) What’s more, this leftist patronage effort isn’t in a notorious blue state like California or Hawaii.
It’s in Oklahoma!
Tulsa is a left-wing beachhead in this red state and liberals are interested in expanding their foothold.
Fox News explains, "Tulsa's first Black mayor proposed creating a $100 million private trust as part of a reparations plan for the impact of the Tulsa Race Massacre which took place more than 100 years ago.
"Mayor Monroe Nichols IV, elected mayor in November, says the trust would be used to provide scholarships and housing to the descendants of those impacted by the massacre.
"He clarified that the trust would not involve direct cash payments, however."
There are only two living survivors of the Tulsa riot and both are women aged 110. Although we are certain they will be able to continue to collect Social Security well into their 140s, the opportunities for appearances at news conferences and grievance events will be limited.
That’s where the "descendants" come into the picture.
The trust will have to hire left-wingers to:
- Evaluate the applications.
- Coordinate with universities.
- Sponsor or mentor the approved applications.
The city will hire liberals to work with the trust and then there are the applicants who will soon become left adherents also.
Money will be granted to left tanks to follow the applicants and do glowing research on the success of the program.
We also wouldn’t be surprised to find a left-NGO popping up to vacuum up some grant money to find "descendants" in and outside of Tulsa.
One positive: This is probably the only government program in the state that won’t be flooded with illegal immigrants, which is something of a plus.
Then we have the housing component.
"The plan calls for the bulk of the funding, $60 million, to go toward improving buildings and revitalizing the city's north side."
This is money for donors who own construction companies and contributed to the politicians approving the trust.
Money for left-tinged environmental impact studies.
Money to hire trust liberals to work with the builders and left architects.
Money for left law firms to handle the legal work.
And money for public relations flacks to tell Tulsa residents what a great program this is.
Even better, for liberals running the program, it will be difficult to criticize the trust for only working with Black residents, as Tulsa Massacre victims were Black.
This will be a patronage bonanza and we’ll be surprised if the total amount of money is limited to $100 million.
Conservatives need to wake up and smell the ink on the money printing press.
Since no one appears to care about deficits and spending anymore, our side needs to generate conservative patronage programs.
After all, conservatives need jobs, too.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Ronald Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Mr. Reagan is an in-demand speaker with Premiere Speaker's Bureau. Read Michael Reagan's Reports — More Here.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian's Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now With Added Humor!)" Read Michael Shannon's Reports — More Here.