Charles Sykes – A Nation of Moochers (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Charles, then Charlie, was the morning news guy on a rock station that hired me at the beginning of my career behind a microphone. While I was just getting started, he was moving toward the next phase of his career which would eventually find him becoming a conservative talk show host and author.

To say that Sykes is an opinionated, well researched and hard hitting is an understatement. As a recovering talk show host myself, it’s been my thought that if you want to gage just how effective a host is is in delivering his message, then measure him by his critics. Sykes foes spiral quickly down the familiar path of name calling, ad hominem personal attacks and those that claim he is a full throated liar, but can’t seem to manage to cite any examples.

Sykes latest literary effort, A Nation of Moochers, out now in paperback, details his case that the United States has gone through a shift in character and become, as the title suggests, a nation of moochers. While the left takes that as an attack on the 47 percent-ers, Sykes doesn’t spare many when he makes his case. He includes corporate/Wall Street bailouts, questionable tax exemptions, and other entitlement costs that cross all classes under the banner of MOOCHER. His “Moocher Checklist” is a wildly sweeping and detailed airing of moocher laundry.

Sykes laments the seeming passing of character traits like self-reliance and personal responsibility and the upshot of the scrambling for a handout mindset. It’s pretty easy to see his point when you consider that our parents and grandparents were embarrassed to be on the dole for even a short time while today we have folks decrying the lack of fairness that unemployment benefits run dry after a staggering 99 weeks! Amazingly much of the gnashing of teeth seems to be coming from our so-called “leaders” like Nancy Pelosi; who famously tried to sell us the bullshit that the fastest way to grow the economy was more public benefits!

I’d like to give Sykes credit for driving so many liberals to the brink of their sanity with his well-researched points, but for the very ludicrous nature of their stance had them on the edge from the start.