VDH and Lessons Learned

Victor Davis Hanson has a set of cautionary "lessons learned" from the election of 2012.   This one hits hardest:

10. There is a 47%

Last night I went late into the local drug store. The guy ahead of me carefully separated his groceries: in one small pile was baby formula and milk that he paid with a California food card; in the other pile was a huge heap of regular Mountain Dew, three snack packs of Snickers, expensive Beef Jerky packs, and jumbo bags of M&M’s. He held up the line for 10 minutes while he went through the two piles and checked out twice. But he did apologize for the delay. I offered to pay cash for his milk and formula to expedite his cash purchase of 20,000 calories. I don’t think he voted for Mitt Romney.

Nor did the other guy at the Selma Save Mart the day before who got into a new Honda Accord (6-cylinder, no less) after buying 2 cartloads of subsidized food. It may be callous and rude to say that lots more Americans look to government after 2008, but it happens to be true. What Romney said before and after the election may have seemed insensitive and in some details inexact, but his basic drift was correct.

Ouch.   How to talk about this without being labeled an evil rich guy?   That's the problem for the GOP, and for the nation as a whole.   What can't continue, won't continue.   We can't afford the path we're on.   But what civil unrest follows when the 47% begin being weaned from the government teat?   Ah, there's the rub.