Democrats and non-Democrats
A letter to a newspaper columnist
You are right in seeing the basic difference between Democrats
and Republicans as centering on the issue of government, but then you seem to
miss the subtleties of the rest of the distinctions.
I should add too that the divide isn’t really so much about Democrats
and Republicans as it is about Democrats and non-Democrats. Our political system pretty much limits the
choices to two parties, so a lot of people are Republicans by default, like me. This is why in the Presidential Republican
primary last time there were Tea Partiers and Libertarians as well.
Democrats believe that government can and should solve every
problem of society. This can be done by
making laws and spending money. It doesn’t
matter how much it costs, how or if they will pay for it, or how it affects everything
or everybody else.
The stated goal is to help people; but when the doors are
closed, I am sure it is acknowledged that they are trying to buy the votes of a
particular demographic with government money, which is really taxpayer
money. But then they don’t actually have
to have the money. They can just borrow
it, and then when the debt becomes an issue, they say the answer to the problem
must be balanced. Cuts alone won’t solve
the problem. So raise taxes and they
will promise to cut spending, which, of course, they never do anyway. Because they can’t think of one thing to cut
or any way to reduce spending.
But they can promise to reduce the rate of spending
increases in the future, because they know they don‘t have to keep those
promises. By then, they can simply state
that their promise was unrealistic, things have changed, and the debt is so bad
that we need to have more revenuers. Cuts
alone will not solve our problems. And
the cycle is repeated.
The state of Illinois was $7.6 billion behind in paying its
bills at the end of last year, and what does Governor Quinn do? He proposes a new pre-kindergarten program
for every child and a state subsidized mortgage program for first time home buyers
with a $7500 forgivable loan. These
Democrats are so compassionate with other people’s money. I only spend what I can afford, but they are
not limited by my sense of responsibility.
They are only limited by their imagination and public gullibility, aided
by a supportive press.
But then there is another way they can achieve their
goals. They can make other people do
what they want, like employers and insurance companies. They frame the issue as a matter of rights,
or fairness, and so we as a society have to do this thing because it is the
only humane thing to do. Rights used to
be things that the government couldn’t stop you from doing or what they couldn’t
do to you. Now rights are things that a
person is entitled to, that we as a society have to provide for that person,
except when it comes to guns, of course.
Now Republicans have not always been immune from these
practices, but Democrats have found their stride in the last ten years or
so. The Tea Party and the Libertarian
Party are reactions to the Republican Party’s inability to respond to this mass
bribery of the public. Current election
rules discourage third party candidates, because a candidate doesn’t need to
have a majority vote to win an election.
If they did, the Republican Party would break apart very quickly.
