This is a post from my WordPress blog Stay A While, along with the comments. I decided to duplicate my WordPress blog posts (along with all comments) on Blogger for posterity. Also because I lost my WordPress password and haven't been able to recover my account. So I just copied everything over and changed the publish dates. Anyway, enjoy.
Subject: A post written back when identified as Liberal (before I went insane). I still say I'm Liberal, but that assertion is a lie.
We are an independent people, working hard to scratch out a living, hopefully a good living. That leads, by necessity, to be concerned for our own families well-being and future. We are also a compassionate people, willing to help our neighbors, near and far away.
In the days of the industrial revolution, life for many of our citizens was grim. It wasn't until after WWII that a solid middle class took hold, and a majority of our citizens were able to live a much better life. One of the reasons for the up lift in our society, were the federal safety net programs started in the 1930’s, and expanded in the 1960's.
Before then if a family needed help they went to religious, fraternal, or community based groups. Lack of food, shelter, and medical care was literally causing premature death among our people. It’s no mystery that as those basic needs became more abundant, our life expectancy increased. There was much suffering. People starving and dying in the streets. Deep poverty and early death among our senior citizens. Horrible working conditions and child (slave) labor.
During the great depression the problem got so bad that even the best intentions of the good-hearted help groups, were not enough to meet the needs of even a minority of the people in need. Those groups were overwhelmed by the number of people in distress, and their contributions were down because people had less money to give.
When FDR came along, the situation was serious, a national crisis. He had some ideas to stop the suffering and help the people. Those ideas involved national programs to help the whole nation, and they worked. The people had seen and lived through enough, they were willing to give more to help ease the suffering for all. Along with new laws to curb abuses, and yes, unions to negotiate for better working conditions, life improved greatly for millions of our citizens.
If conservatives want to reject that liberal political philosophy, or call it socialist, they should remember it is part of why we claim to be the best country in the world. Many problems are to big to be left to the charity of capitalists, or the philosophy of trickle down economics. The only way a job is the best self-help program, is if that job pays enough to live within the current economic situation.
I would think that companies would want to relieve themselves from paying for medical insurance for their employees. I believe that a consumption tax is more natural for a capitalistic system than an income tax. Most of all, I can’t believe we are going to watch all the hard work and suffering our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents put into making life so much better than anywhere else in the world, fade away because we are to selfish to care about our neighbors and the people of our whole country.
Basically I believe the government should stay out of my bedroom and out of my pockets, but it’s not a matter of one political philosophy. It's a matter of what’s best for the country.
We have to change our priorities. Is it more important to worry about whose married to who, or how we are going to meet our financial obligations? Is it more important to pander to our selfishness by saying "no new taxes", or invest in the future of our country and the well-being of our people? When does this generation (as every other generation has before us) make a real hard sacrifice to ensure the future health of this country? The sacrifice we need to make now, is a financial one, not a military one.
So what kind of society are you willing to pay for?
Libraries closed, schools closed, mental patients tossed out in the streets (where they cause crime), a 14 TRILLION dollar national debt, people dying in emergency waiting rooms, lack of proper military troop supplies, breaking our promise to our senior citizens for lack of funds (that the Congress spent on other things), a dangerous addiction to Arab oil because we won’t invest in our own fuel sources, and on, and on, and on.
Why are we no longer willing to pay to remain the best country in the world?
Why should we settle for future generations having less of a quality of life, than we have been given from our parents and grandparents?
5 Responses.
Sue: Tom, I'm sorry! I didn't know I had to update my bloglist because you switched to wordpress, I will get right on that! As always your commentary posts are well said, beautifully written, and, as always, I agree with every word.
The Republican party has gone so far right because of the tea party I’m afraid they are putting the last nails in the coffin. Their extremism is not what the country wants and I know our side will win out in the end. I've never been more confident.
TOM Wordpress: I hope you are right Sue, but the evidence has been there since before the last few elections. I'm worried.
I agree that Republicans are destroying what generations of Americans have built, and are surely wrecking the future. Obviously they just don't care.
I hope Keith O. will be on through the election. We need his voice.
Sue: I don't get Current with my cable package, unfortunately. I'll have to get show updates from facebook.
BTW, I love the new blog look. It's clean, sophisticated and serene looking with that beautiful picture!
Leslie Parsley: Beautifully expressed, Tom, and a good reminder of how things were. Regrettably, I share your concerns about the here and now – and the immediate future. It's as if Americans have lost their way, exchanging their humanity for hearts of hate.
05. June 25, 2011 at 11:21 am.
TOM Wordpress: Well said Leslie
We know it's a continuous fight. I need the fight Sue has , to help keep me going. As long as I keep writing, there is a little kick and care (maybe even hope) left in me
