Here's David Brooks' column on what he calls the Democrats' idealism. He's not wrong when he worries about the cost of health care reform and other government programs. But he is misleading. He calls what the Dems have created "welfare" and "entitlements", words which convey the connotation of getting something for nothing. What the Dems have done is to create "safety nets" designed to save people from bankruptcy when fate over takes them, though they have done all they could to take care of themselves.
The opposite of safety nets is the mentality espoused by the most cynical of GOPhers that people should rely on themselves, and if they fail, that's just the way it is.
Ironically the far right fringe of these same hard hearted folks, fundamentalist Christianists, eschew evolution in which survival of the fittest is nature's way, and then turn around and tell those who are losing the battle to survive, that that's just the way it is.
To understand that irony requires thinking which the GOPhers hope people won't do. Consequently, and tragically, their base has come to be comprised mostly of folks who don't or can't think; for example the idiocy of the tea party people.
Leanderthal
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I also find the "regular" Americans following the current Republican ideas rather hard to comprehend. Why would someone follow a political program that is clearly not in their best interest?
Everyday this conundrum presents itself. One of John McCain's latest outbursts was, "We are not going to go along with any of the Democrats bills for the rest of the year. They have poisoned the well." (that is the gist of it.)
Imagine that you were sitting in Arizona hoping that your government would do something positive to help your family and this is what you heard. And this is the the man that wanted to be President. Not shocked anymore, but really do not like the way things are drifting.
Today's violence against government offices is too brown shirt for me. Do as I say, or else? This is not the path to peace and freedom. Wake up Americans.
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