Politics & Power Quote by Paul Weyrich

Weyrich’s line is built to sting: it packages foreign policy into the intimate humiliation of getting “kicked in the teeth” and then watching your wallet get lifted anyway. The teenage metaphor does heavy lifting. “Rebellious teenagers” aren’t evil; they’re insolent, boundary-testing, and dependent. That framing lets Weyrich paint other nations as simultaneously immature and opportunistic, while positioning the United States as the exasperated parent who keeps paying the allowance. It’s not just anger at allies or aid recipients; it’s an accusation of American enabling.

The specific intent is domestic. This is less a description of the world than a way to discipline an audience: stop funding governments that don’t show gratitude, stop tolerating diplomatic slights, stop confusing generosity with strategy. The subtext assumes a moral economy where financial support should purchase deference, or at minimum respect. “Still taking our money” implies consent is being exploited, that Washington is too proud or too sentimental to enforce consequences.

Context matters: Weyrich, a key figure in modern American conservatism, came up in a Cold War and post-Vietnam landscape where “why are we paying for this?” became a reliable political accelerant. The quote taps a long-running critique of foreign aid, multilateralism, and security commitments: the U.S. as the world’s ATM and security guard, resented by the very clients it underwrites.

It also reveals its own vulnerability. Parent-teen dynamics are about control and resentment on both sides. If you’re getting kicked, the metaphor quietly asks: why are you in that position, and what does your “money” actually buy?