# To the liberals who utterly dominate the season-ticket holding ranks for the Wash Nat Opera **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 30, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667 "2013-10-30T18:27:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/101 "2013-10-31T01:11:15Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Even though it’s not my bag, I subscribe to the two loaves philosophy: “If you have but two loaves,” goes the proverb, “Sell one and buy hyacinths, for the hyacinths will feed the soul.” But as any good conservative would tell you, “teach a man to _pinch_ loaves, and you feed him for a lifetime.” ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/102 "2013-10-31T01:14:39Z")
How perfect is the image of Little Bricker pulling out the Monopoly box lid to argue against the liberal use of Free Parking! “But it’s a violation of the regulations!” ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/103 "2013-10-31T01:21:56Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Assuming your real point is that government _should_ not spend money on fine arts After getting up to get some water and sitting back down with this post on the screen, I briefly saw these words as “government should not spend money on fire ants.” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/104 "2013-10-31T01:56:30Z")
In my younger years, I would strenuously insist that the rules demanded that mortgages paid must also include the vig of 10%. Last time I played, it was more like “Wow, Park Place, with a hotel, you gotta eat another brownie…”. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/105 "2013-10-31T02:01:27Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Is Orson Scott Card EVER invited to a SF event? I just Googled “Orson Scott Card Guest of Honor” and found several. So…yep: rather often! I suppose there are probably no few who boycott his appearances. I hope he isn’t heckled, but I would also hope that there are protest t-shirts prominently displayed. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/106 "2013-10-31T02:11:09Z")
Just to rehash the offense, is it that people were talking politics in an inappropriate place; or just that your opinion was in the minority? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/107 "2013-10-31T02:17:33Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Just to rehash the offense, is it that people were talking politics in an inappropriate place; or just that your opinion was in the minority? Someone at the opera was WRONG! ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/108 "2013-10-31T02:44:25Z")
What are you doing at the Opera? Don’t you know there is a baseball game going on? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/VAL-_fjrT3I/hqdefault.jpg "Take me out to the ball game") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAL-_fjrT3I) (The Marx’s Brothers, A Night at the Opera, -the baseball scene) Right now: Boston Red Socks up 6-1 Top of the 7th ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/109 "2013-10-31T02:45:31Z")
To translate the OP: I ventured out of my conservative bubble where I met people who didn’t agree with me. I lost an argument with these people, so I scurried back across the Potomac to my conservative enclave and thought I’d troll some liberals on the Dope to make myself feel better. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/110 "2013-10-31T03:19:08Z")
Bricker is 100% animbiguously right, and anyone who disagrees with him is wrong. Monopoly is WAY better without money on Free Parking. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/111 "2013-10-31T03:35:50Z")
I think Bricker’s missing the idea that a government shouldn’t just spend on necessities. It also should spend to enrich the lives of the citizenry. Not profligately, to be sure. But things like an opera make society a better place to be. Even Bricker agrees, but he’s such an ideologue that he’ll mouth on about how it’s wasteful while being oblivious to how much it enriches his life. It’s easy to bitch about how spending is wasteful, but it’s hard to live in the sterile wasteland without PBS, NPR, and art programs. It’s like when the GOP shut down the government and then threw a tantrum about the monuments closing. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/112 "2013-10-31T03:44:08Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > During intermission, there was a line at the bar, and several of the folks in line were talking about some apparent cuts looming in the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs budget that would affect the Washington National Opera. And there was widespread bleating and nodding that this was a terrible thing because, after all, the government is obligated to support the fine arts. > > I stayed quiet while it was a conversation (however loud) between two people. But the speaker exhorted everyone in line to speak to their Congressman and urge them to fund the arts. > > At that point, I spoke up and said that I would do no such thing, because the government, in my view, had no responsibility to fund the opera. The original speaker then pointed out that I was there enjoying the fruits of that government funding. You know what? I like Bricker better than the other guy in this scenario. The pontificating advocate of arts funding was preaching to the choir. Nothing he said would make the slightest difference in how much money was allocated to his beloved opera company. He was just scoring a few points with his own crowd. No risk, no impact, nothing. He was just scoring style points. Bricker, at least, knew he’d face some opposition when he spoke up. And I don’t think it’s hypocritical to attend a performance at a subsidize venue while at the same time opposing such subsidies. As Bricker said, he’d be happy to pay a higher ticket price if the opera house gave up the government funding. He’s under no obligation to boycott the opera until it does refuse government funding. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/113 "2013-10-31T03:45:32Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You know, I’d kind of assume that most opera fans are conservative. > > Of course, I also assume that they dress like the guy from Monopoly, even when at home, so what do I know? I’ll be honest I like to think of myself as firmly in the conservative camp, not only in my politics, but in my personal behavior, the things I do in my life for entertainment etc. I can honestly say I had no perception of what opera would be like other than I assumed everyone there was so rich that I would be unable to talk to them since they would be busy keeping their monocles firmly in their eye socket and they’d only be interested in discussing how hard it is to find good help these days in between telling me about their new dressage horse. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/114 "2013-10-31T03:54:16Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > You know what? I like Bricker better than the other guy in this scenario. > > The pontificating advocate of arts funding was preaching to the choir. Nothing he said would make the slightest difference in how much money was allocated to his beloved opera company. He was just scoring a few points with his own crowd. No risk, no impact, nothing. He was just scoring style points. Huh? Style points? That’s just dumb. He was exhorting people to be active in supporting and encouragjng the maintnenace of the opera. The best place to find people most likely to be motivated to action in that regard is among those who enjoy the opera. > [@](#): > > Bricker, at least, knew he’d face some opposition when he spoke up. So the very act of being opposed validates one’s actions? That sounds a lot more like “style points” than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/115 "2013-10-31T03:57:09Z")
In operatic terms, **Bricker,** please STFU forever and a day, you worthless subhuman animal piece of shit. [sung in counter-tenor voice] ---
**Author:** ![deltasigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@deltasigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deltasigma)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/116 "2013-10-31T04:31:21Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > You know what? I like Bricker better than the other guy in this scenario. I just happened to stumble by. I imagined the other guy continuing on to advocate direct audience subsidies to help people buy tickets. That way it might not seem so heavy-handed and central committee directed. They could be called ‘Opera Stamps’ and the program would be SOAP - Supplemental Opera Assistance Program. 🙂 edit: that’s not meant to be a dig btw. I have no position on the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/117 "2013-10-31T05:23:20Z")
BRICKERGENO The word-catcher am I – and always merry, tra la la! As the word-catcher I am known by old and young throughout the land. I know how to set decoys and cavil just like my prey! So merry and carefree can I be, knowing all the words belong to me. The word-catcher am I – and always merry, tra la la! As the word-catcher I am known by old and young throughout the land. I wish I had a trap for liberals – I’d catch them by the dozen then. I’d keep them in a cage at home, and all the liberals would be mine alone. If all the liberals were mine alone, some I’d trade for a high-end dictionary, then to the one I liked the best I’d give all the pedantry she wanted. And if she then debated me tenderly, she’d be my client and I her advocate. She would speak beside me and I would contradict her like a child. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/118 "2013-10-31T06:19:02Z")
As enjoyable as that was, I think I would have preferred it in the original Italian (with supertitles, of course). Wait, that’s The Magic Flute, isn’t it? Make that “original German.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/119 "2013-10-31T06:36:08Z")
\*Cry baby cry Make your mother sigh She’s old enough to know better So cry baby cry At twelve o’clock a meeting round the table For a seance in the dark With voices out of nowhere Put on specially by the children for a lark The Beatles, Cry Baby Cry, by Lennon and McCartney\* I thought this was the sort of thing you lived for, an opportunity to get out in the public square and exchange ideas with the hoi polloi? N’cest pas? This was a public event where people were voicing their thoughts on public policy in a public place and encouraging people to contact their representatives. What could be a grander platform for a conservative Don Quixote? Or a liberal one that agrees with you? In this case I agree with you. The Opera is of the rich people, by the rich people and for the rich people that understand the foreign language it is bellowed in. I can understand European countries that provide health care and food for the starving spending something on rich old farts’ arts, but here in the US we don’t have enough money for the government to deal with the sick, dying and hungry, and it is a horrible sin to still waste money on fuckin’ Opera while shutting down food stamps. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2013, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667/120 "2013-10-31T07:53:18Z")
I’m sure that in this democratic era, we are all expected to be more accepting of tradesmen and that sort at the opera, one must keep up appearances, after all. But at a polo match? I mean, seriously, you look out and see that the horses have more breeding than the riders! Oh, I say, that’s rather good! Thompkins, write that down for me, there’s a good fellow… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-liberals-who-utterly-dominate-the-season-ticket-holding-ranks-for-the-wash-nat-opera/672667.md?page=7)