We were brought up in the middle class

drinking beer, not wine!

The head groundskeeper stuck his snoot into several bottles of wine earlier this month while visiting relatives in another state, with the difference being not the volume vanquished but corks instead of screw tops. Swear this interloper from the sticks used proper technique but the cork crumbled into the bottle despite his best efforts. To clear the little bits of cork, some of the wine needed to be poured into the sink. Honest!

While consuming the dark red liquid, the faded label caught our eye. It read: “Chateau Haut Brion 1985.” As Otis Day and the Knights sang, “WAI-AI-AIT a minute!” That’s one of Bordeaux’s five “first growth” Premier Cru Classé wines, if we are not mistaken.

And we were not. A frenzied consult with Mr. Google advised that the 39-year-old vintage disappearing down our gullets fetched $2,559 per bottle. This caused the rate of consumption to slow from slurp to sip to savor. Swirling of glassware occurred; smacking of lips could be heard. It was, indeed, vin trés bien! Yet, our high school economics invoked the law of diminishing returns — probably kicking in sometime around the first hundred dollars. Augmented by a little middle class prudery. It can’t be THAT good!

 Kamala class!

Which may be why one of the presidential candidates answers every question by claiming to be a daughter of the middle class. (Which refutes the notion that the ABC debate moderators fed her the questions. If they did, she forgot the answers.) It’s become a meme to every question. “I grew up in the middle class.”

But like everything out of the woman’s mouth, it is a lie, right? Our social media feed helpfully explains that her father was a professor at Stanford University and her mother a biomedical scientist at UC Berkeley. 

“She never worried about where her next meal was coming from, or if she was going to have a working car or place to live,” argues Facebook friend Dianne Buss-Jubeck. “She has no concept of what many Americans go through.”

Help us out here. Kamala Harris can’t relate to our economic situation but Donald Trump can?

 Make wealth, not war?

By most reckonings, Trump has been our wealthiest President, supplanting our first President, George Washington. This list puts JFK second. TitleMax puts JFK way down the list at Number 23, probably because the man never took possession of his wealth; it was held in trust. Nixon made more money, albeit after leaving office. Thomas Jefferson ranks in the top five in every list we’ve seen. In 1787, Jefferson took home from his visit to Bordeaux six cases of Chateau Haut Brion. The man had taste — expensive tastes.

Harry Truman is the poor man on the presidential totem pole, which seems about right, inasmuch as he once went bankrupt as a Kansas City haberdasher. His wife owned their home in Independence MO. Abe Lincoln was the eighth least wealthy President. We don’t say poor, because the man made a good living as a corporate railroad attorney. None of these guys worried about the next meal. Most of them grew their food!

We get it: professors at prestige universities like Kamala’s parents make good money; although her father fled the coop early on. But not Chateau Haut Brion 1985 wealthy.

Blaska’s Bottom Line: We cannot correlate successful presidencies with personal wealth. Progressives go scrounging under freeway overpasses to find planning committee members. We Republicans tend to put our faith in people who have succeeded somewhere outside of politics — whether in business, war, or sports. Eric Hovde should be celebrated for his success, not disparaged. Maybe, even, elected! (We’re waiting for The Capital Times to call Tammy Baldwin a career politician.) Failure, and damaged corks, we can do for ourselves.

Is wealth an attribute or a demerit?