I’m out of town for a few days, taking the family to the San Diego

area, enjoying Sea World, and Legoland, which I think is a theme park

dedicated to the Orlando Bloom character from Lord of the Rings. So,

expect to see less of me for a bit.

After a long, traffic-riddled drive and a nice nap, I got online and

found the following e-mail from Eduard. I get e-mails like this one

from time to time, and for whatever reason, I thought I would respond.

HIM: “I’m not saying there is anything wrong with spending more on a

car than some people spend on a house, it is your right to do what you

want with your money. But at least have the decency to admit to what

you truly are and not have this pretence that being a Republican is

anything more than a desire for tax breaks for people like you so you

can afford another $100K car next year for the missus.

“Why can’t guys like you just come out and say, I am rich, I want to

be even richer and the GOP will help me do that and quite honestly I

don’t give a rat’s a– about anyone else as long as I am taken care

of.

Howard Dean is in serious need of medication, but he does have a point.”

ME: Eduard is right about three things. I am rich, I want to be

richer, and Howard Dean is in serious need of medication. The rest of

this nonsense is, of course, the world’s commonest fallacy about

Republicans, the party of the rich white boys who give each other tax

breaks and invade Iraq to help out their father’s pals in the oil

business.

Eduard and his ilk have a serious lack of understanding when it comes

to rich people. Honestly, tax cuts are not that big of a deal. We

prefer them, of course, to the alternative, but the Bush tax cut was

peanuts to me. I don’t really even know how much it was. I’m sure it

mattered more — a lot more — to that middle class family scraping

together money for their kids’ school. To me, it’s a blip on my

balance sheet.

I always shake my head when I read about George Bush or Dick Cheney

doing things to line their wallets, or to help out their rich pals. I

know this sounds counterintuitive, but most rich people aren’t really

motivated by money. They already have it, see? You think Dick Cheney

left the private sector to get back into politics so he could make money?

I can make one very big generalization about the rich people I know –

they all worked their a**es off. (I have never met Paris Hilton.)

And so if I want to get richer, I work more. I don’t look for tax

breaks. Also, the difference between merely rich and very rich is

hard to find, actually, beyond what you leave to your heirs. The

super-rich are another thing — if you want a private plane or to buy

corporations, you have to get to a whole different level. But those

of us with a really nice home, a great car or two, private schools,

charitable causes — well, we’re voting Republican for other reasons,

things like values, philosophy, a commitment to fighting for freedom.

Anyway, back to my kids. Room service chicken fingers await.