Around the County

When does the snake bite its tail?

By Pat Stuart
Posted 1/26/23

So, when does the snake bite its tail, metaphorically? Answer: in the cyclic universe. For my purposes, though, it’s when ideas are taken to extremes in either direction and end up …

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Around the County

When does the snake bite its tail?

Posted

So, when does the snake bite its tail, metaphorically? Answer: in the cyclic universe. For my purposes, though, it’s when ideas are taken to extremes in either direction and end up overlapping.

That happens. It did recently. Right here in Park County.

The extreme right of the political spectrum on at least one subject — food insecurity — seems to have come full circle to line up with the views of the extreme left.  

We all know that liberals support many types of programs addressing the food insecurity of those in need, whatever the cause of the need. Thus, we have food stamps and school lunches and local pantries and meals on wheels, etc. One town in California has taken this to the extreme of including everyone, experimenting by handing out a monthly stipend (enough to feed a family) to its citizens for one year.

Real conservatives aren’t insensitive to the truly needy, so there is some alignment between right and left. But that said, agreement ends when it skips past those who can’t feed themselves and runs into the gray area of people who might be malingering and the black zone holding those who eat on the government dime when they could be out there earning.   

Traditionally, the difference between these views has practically defined the two parties. Here’s where the snake gets so twisted around that it begins to chew on its own tail. Because some Republicans are saying that every citizen of the county should get food from the county in an emergency. Everyone. They did, however, specify a time limit of three months. Even so, we were probably all surprised to hear two of our right-wing conservative stalwarts suggest such a thing.  

You now see where I’m going with this. The comparison between the California town and our local Republicans is not exact, but the overlap of ideas is striking and surprising. Like visualizing a snake snacking on its own tail, the mind somewhat boggles.

Taxing hard-working people for handouts to everyone?  

Doesn’t it sound like something Karl Marx might have dreamed up? “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need,” he said. Or, specifically: “Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen.”  

Or, practically, in this proposed Park County Marxist paradise, Joe Smith, who’s never done a day’s work in his life, will get the same amount of food as John Doe, whose taxes paid for the food. Down the street, Sally Jones and her four children, who’ve been living on welfare, will continue to do so plus get a month’s free food while her sister in Big Horn County (where there is no emergency food program) and who also has four children will be struggling along on just her welfare payments.

This brings to mind what would certainly happen beginning a week or two into an emergency if Park County stockpiled but the counties around didn’t. At that point, we’d better be ready to man the borders.

Which is for not-so-theoretical openers. Good thing we’re all armed and dangerous. Except, come the emergency, how much food would we actually have? Buying and stockpiling enough to feed 30,108 people for 90 days along with the tax money to continuously replenish perishables and to maintain and manage the cache would have attracted and fattened “rats” of both the two-legged and four-legged varieties. Perhaps, I should extend the animal imagery here and talk about all the “pigs” who will be wanting to eat at this public trough. Or, should I be talking about the number of new “rice bowls” that will be created for the county? Taking my tongue out of my cheek, let me add that, whether such proposals come from the right or the left, they are ideas we should be discussing. Kudos to those who are seriously thinking about food insecurity and stimulating public discourse on the topic.  

The hard fact is: Food insecurity can happen. We need to take that probability seriously and store our own emergency supplies for at least one month. The next blizzard here on the scale of the one we had in 1949, as an example, make such precautions nothing less than common sense.

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