Economical Politics

I remember, when I was a newspaper reporter back in the late 1970s, one certain politico -- I'll call her B.G., because those are her initials -- talk about people -- and potential voters -- as "the taxpayers."

As far as I know, she never called them constituents or, more importantly, citizens.

When you call folks taxpayers, it's equating them with customers or consumers, and you put a dollar sign -- or many of them -- on public life.

You can be bought. You probably will be bought. And you probably have been bought.