Milton Perrin /

I’ll Have It My Way

The lowly hamburger is the root of our national polarization. When I was a kid Lyndon Johnson was president and McDonald’s was small and still had the big golden arches spanning the building. You ordered the skinny burgers and fries and a milkshake and that was that. I don’t recall any customization, even when the Big Mac came along – it was just a Big Mac. LBJ would go in the back room and do whatever he did to get things done. Over time the marketers discovered the “Have It Your Way” approach. Yeah, that’s it, I don’t want no pickles, or I want extra onion, or no lettuce. And Congress followed suit. I want government my way, just like like my Whopper. Why compromise? If government is the restaurant and the diners are the people, if everyone gets exactly what they want, it makes the restaurant less efficient, more prone to error and ssssllllooowww. I get what I ordered eventually but at a high price and sooner or later the restaurant goes bust.

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