Angelo M. Codevilla

The Ruling Class

Utah (a conservative state) spends only $5257 per pupil and produce America's highest SAT scores, while the states that spend the most produce the lowest ... the District of Columbia spends three times as much (per pupil) as Utah and gets .07 SAT point per dollar. Utah gets 2.1 SAT points.

I read Codevilla's re-edition last year of his wonderful already classic "The character of nations", and I had to follow up with him. Simply stated: He is the wisest man in America, and the second best writer only after Thomas Sowell.

This is a small essay that describes how America has come to be so different from what the Founding Fathers meant it to be. A self-governed people, not another aristocracy. It describes the crony bureaucracy that works for both sides of the system: a parasitic population that feeds on this Leviathan government. Reading the book and seeing the picture clearly is all one thing. There's hope, though. If not in America, where else. Oh, watch out for phony conservatives who claim to be with the people but thrive as part of the Leviathan. And stay close to the civic society, our modern-day David against Goliath. God save America!