Not Your Father’s Labor Day

Today is Labor Day in the United States, and the "official" end of summer. Everyone heads for one last dip in the pool, or returns from one last weekend at the beach. The seersucker suits go back into the deep end of the closet, suitably equipped with mothballs, and the trademark Black Hat that adorns the head of yours truly can now be worn on a regular basis once again.

This day is also witness to a spontaneous movement on front porches and front lawns across America: the Day of the Empty Chair.

For all the fuss made over Clint Eastwood's appearance at the Republican National Convention last week, in which members of the press interrupted their very coverage of the event to castigate the organizers, for the audacity to act beyond their anointed expectations, it has become a symbol of discontent, for those who have an easier time than did David Axelrod, in answering the question that contributed to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980: “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

Naturally, a selective use of the facts, which only serve to mislead, is small comfort to the unemployed.

(H/T to Sister Toldjah.)