Surprise! Elections have consequences!

The USAToday, of all places has an article today entitled “A revolution in the works?” that is basically about folks worried about the intrusive government we’ve created for ourselves;

And it’s not just Republicans unhappy with Obama, or gun owners afraid that the government will take their guns: 38% of Democrats, and 45% of non-gun owners, see the government as a threat.

Add this to another recent poll in which only 22% of likely voters feel America’s government has the “consent of the governed,” and you’ve got a pretty depressing picture — and a recipe for potential trouble. Governments operate, to a degree, by force, but ultimately they depend on legitimacy.

Yeah, well, we’ve done this to ourselves. The complacency about candidates, allowing the parties to choose the candidates, the conservative party doing their best to be the Easter Bunny as much as the liberals, handing out candy while trying to maintain security and do the constitutional mandates. Both parties buying constituency instead of governing the whole country.

Yes, trying to legislate morality is in there, too, as well as building a class of people who are dependent on the government for their basic survival needs. For example in the Washington Post there’s an article about the Montgomery County, Maryland superintendent of schools trying to live on what the county gives poor families for food – as if that’s in his lane;

Hunger receives scant mention in Montgomery, where the median household income is $92,000 and growth, transportation and education dominate the policy discussion. “What most people know about the county is how well it does,” said Council President Nancy Navarro (D-Mid-County).

But amid the wealth there are pockets of urgent need. Almost 27,000 low-
income Montgomery households received SNAP assistance last year, a 138 percent increase from 2007, according to county figures. A family of four earning less than $2,400 a month is eligible for help.

So, of course, since they figure that folks can’t live on the $5/day the county gives them for food, they have to give families more money – but where does that money come from in the current environment? And giving someone who makes almost $30,000/year assistance hardly seems like it makes sense. One of the reasons that $30k isn’t enough money for a family to live on in Montgomery County is because of the taxes, so they’re going to spend more money, raise taxes and perpetuate the vicious circle.

The more we take from government, the more of our own freedom to make choices we surrender, but folks don’t see it that way. The people who fought so hard for the Healthcare bill are now seeing their own healthcare premiums rise so that insurance companies can meet their own expenses and still give folks the level of care for which they paid.

Someone has to pay for all of this free shit people want – and the rich can’t afford us either.

Category: Politics