The Media have taken to describing Illinois as a "Banana Republic"? So today's question is:
How is Illinois not a Banana Republic? I await your answers.
My first answer is:
Because Banana Republics have beaches and warm winters...
And, Banana Republics have distinctive cuisines and excellent coffee not sold by greedy Communists who think the sky is falling...
Thomas Fleming
Thomas Fleming is president of the Fleming Foundation. He is the author of six books, including The Morality of Everyday Life and The Politics of Human Nature, as well as many articles and columns for newspapers, magazines,and learned journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a B.A. in Greek from the College of Charleston. He served as editor of Chronicles: a Magazine of American Culture from 1984 to 2015 and president of The Rockford Institute from 1997-2014. In a previous life he taught classics at several colleges and served as a school headmaster in South Carolina
Bruce Rauner is too boring and milquetoast to be the head of a banana republic. He needs an ill-fitting military uniform with a bunch of fake medals for battles that never happened, or at the very least, a wide sash with elaborate piping…
He needs more than a uniform: He needs a man’s body and courage.
I added to the original post this answer:
And, Banana Republics have distinctive cuisines and excellent coffee not sold by greedy Communists who think the sky is falling…
I take it you’re not a fan of Starbucks Dr. Fleming?
I don’t generally drink flavored coffee drinks and spend time with people who do. The coffee itself is not bad but nothing special≥
Because real Banana Republics still have the backwards and grossly absurd notion that men are men and women are women regardless of their delusional fantasies? (c.f. Illinois House Bill HB1785 in the 100th regular session)
Banana republics do not go bankrupt; they invite big business in to exploit the people and natural resources and then nationalize them later on.
Banana republics can control their own currency and, like the USA–but unlike Greece and Illinois–they can temporarily inflate their way out of a crisis.
Banana republics will not try to pass a law classifying the term “Banana Republic” as Hate Speech.
Best of all!
Banana republics had the good sense to let the federations they once formed with other banana republics to fall apart.
Banana republics don’t run lotteries that lose money. How can a lottery lose money?
In contradiction to all laws of probability, some years ago New York City’s Off Track Betting operation managed to declare bankruptcy!
Bravo, Dan. We shall all miss seeing you in July.