Our good friend John Andrews is in the humbug spirit this Christmas so he provides his version of Dickens’ Christmas Carol. John is the founder and first president of the Independence Institute in Colorado; he served as the president of the Colorado Senate and is currently a Claremont Institute fellow and host of Backbone radio. Here is a teaser. The entire article is available here and it is well worth reading.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL: COLORADO 2007
By John Andrews
Senator John was a political man, a driven man, some would say a hard man. At dusk on Christmas eve, he squinted from his office window through falling snow toward the Capitol, and grumbled to his assistant about the latest Bill Ritter gimmick: low-energy holiday lights.
His clock struck five. ?I suppose you?ll want all day tomorrow,? the aging conservative barked. ?If you please, sir,? Kathleen whimpered. ?It?s only one day a year.? Back came the senatorial snort: ?One day less for this office to defend faith, family, and the flag, while you fritter at home with your relatives and pastor. All right, but you?ll owe me an extra Reagan catechism on Wednesday.?
Hurrying past a shopping-cart woman on the corner, Andrews got in his gas-guzzler to head home. Driving south, his thoughts turned northward, not to Santa?s workshop but to the ANWR oil reserve. He ejected his wife?s ?Messiah? CD, popped in the latest Cato Institute lecture, and speed-dialed Douglas Bruce.
Then it happened. Distracted by a Hillary bumper sticker, the grouchy Republican braked too late for a red light and skidded into a fire hydrant, triggering both a geyser and his airbag. That was the last thing John remembered; everything went black.
