Clancy’s Defense of the Rich

Clancy writes entertaining military fiction for a man who never served in the armed forces. But his nonfiction is trash. After droning on about his humble background, his dad the mailman, and his “everyman� values, he makes it clear that becoming rich has made him an oligarch. His pious description of how building his expensive house paid for the skills of workers and the support of their families echoes the Czarist Russian landlords who applauded themselves for keeping their serfs alive.

But the strangest twist comes when he suggests that we clean up the nasty, liberal Congress by making Congress people serve without pay. Who does he think we’ll get for lawmakers? Mailmen like his dad?

JOHN KING

Irvine