Friday, November 16, 2012

American Thinker: The Age of the Welfare State Smashup

Yesterday, I watched "The Five" at 2:00 p.m. on the Fox News Channel.  That is when I first heard about the controversy over Mitt Romney's statement at a private meeting with donors regarding one of the reasons why he lost the election. Romney to Donors: 'I'm Very Sorry That We Didn't Win'

Excerpt:

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is telling top donors that President Barack Obama won re-election because of the "gifts" he had already provided to blacks, Hispanics and young voters and because of the president's effort to paint Romney as anti-immigrant.

"The president's campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift," Romney said in a call to donors on Wednesday. "He made a big effort on small things."

Romney said his campaign, in contrast, had been about "big issues for the whole country." He said he faced problems as a candidate because he was "getting beat up" by the Obama campaign and that the debates allowed him to come back.

Dana Perino (one of the co-hosts on The Five) had an absolute blow-up hissy fit when she heard about it. She berated Romney's HONESTY and told him to "go on vacation" and to "shut up."

Nice...huh?

I guess some people are correct when they state that when a loss occurs, "Republicans eat their own."

Greg Gutfeld (also a co-host on The Five) didn't buy Perino's ugly outrage and flatly stated that Romney was correct. Sometimes, the truth does hurt. The four years under Obama has created an entitlement state of mind and the four groups mentioned - Hispanics, Blacks, women, and young voters - apparently liked the freebies (or, are really scared to lose them) and voted BHO back in for the reasons that are brilliantly stated in this American Thinker: The Age of the Welfare State Smashup article.

Excerpt:

Apart from the obvious reason why the American people were never going to give up their entitlements until the money ran out, there is another reason. Karl Marx taught us why in The German Ideology.

The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: i.e., the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force.
 
The ruling class can call for an end to racism and then flog its supporters with racist propaganda; it can call for an end to sexism and then make blatant appeals to a single sex. In can deplore private remarks about the 47 percent and then make naked appeals to self-interest. It gets to do this until the day comes when the ruling class loses its right to rule, and that day is not yet.


With the re-election of Barack Obama and the confirmation of the mother of all entitlements, ObamaCare, the ruling class has welded into place the fourth wall of the administrative state, and we all now live in its iron cage. We are now fully confined and controlled by the four-trillion-dollar iron fences of government pensions, government health care, government education, and government welfare, just as liberals want us to be.

 
For people in an iron cage, the path of gradual change is closed. It will remain closed until the ruling class runs out of other peoples' money.


Like all ruling classes, liberals have maintained power by offering loot to their supporters. Like most previous ruling classes, they have begun to run out of loot and plunder to distribute among their supporters. Thus Glenn Reynolds:

Sooner or later, you run out of other people's money. Something that can't go on forever, won't. Debt that can't be repaid, won't be. Promises that can't be kept, won't be.
 
That is the foundation of our hope. When the ruling class runs out of money, it will also run out of the ability to buy the support of the voters and also to set the rules of the debate. But there is another ground for hope.


Read it all:  American Thinker: The Age of the Welfare State Smashup.


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In a comment that I made recently on another post, I stated:

"Spreading the wealth around" is a term that can mean various things.  To the leftists, they want to take from the rich (via taxes) and give to the poor.  However,  most people, who believe in the Constitutional Republic created by our Founders,  think  that such "spreading" should be done by employment (based on skill, knowledge, creativity, and education of the employee), making and selling goods, creating a business and employing more people, and doing what they can in order to create more jobs for more people.  They also believe in voluntary charitable giving.

The socialist idea of "spreading the wealth around" via government always leads to trouble - for the recipient and the nation. Just look at past history and you will know this. "What the government gives...the government can take away" isn't just a quote...it is reality. Here at home, the people in Ohio are finding this out.  Just days after the election, food stamp distribution is being cut. 

Just look at the riots going on over in Europe due to the governments there (e.g. Spain, Greece, Italy) needing to impose austerity measures in order to keep the government from collapsing under the huge amount of debt incurred. America is now headed in the same terrible direction and it won't end well.

There used to be a time in this nation when people would need a hand up - but not necessarily depend on a hand out for their entire lives. But now, with the terrible harm that BHO has done to destroy jobs here in America, more people are on food stamps than ever before in the history of this nation! This is good???

When people become beholden to government for their needs, they actually lose their freedoms as a result. Many people who voted in BHO for a second term were afraid to lose their benefits. However, many more ran out of unemployment benefits and then had to go on food stamps. That's not freedom...it's dependency to the government dole and such fears, sadly, end up enslaving people. When a government leader is evil and arrogant - as BHO and his ilk are - it is by design that this is happening.

The author at American Thinker goes on to write:


So really, it doesn't matter how well President Obama anathematizes his opponents or how he rearranges the deck chairs of spending and taxes on the beach under the fiscal cliff. If the "bigs" of the old industrial economy -- corporate factories, educational factories, and media factories -- are being transformed before our very eyes, then it won't be long before the same thing happens to the biggest big of them all: the big government social program factory.

It's not just that the money will run out and the promises won't be kept. The economy is changing, and so will our national politics.


That is why we are looking at the age of the welfare state smashup.

There is a downside, and it is a big one. It might take a while to recover from the smashup...like it did after the Roman Empire ran out of money.


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P.S.  Donations are desperately needed (and generosity is up - last I heard)  at the San Diego Food Bank simply because food stamps do not cover the cost of groceries these days.   So you see, the generosity of those who give to such causes are, in effect, doing the most good.

During a phone call with my cousin who lives on the East Coast in the hurricane Sandy ravaged area, I learned that it was not the government (e.g. FEMA) that was doing the most good to help those in need.  People who went through hurricane Katrina brought a convoy of trucks filled with essentials to help the victims of the storm.    Another story was that a town of parents decided to hold a Halloween event in a vacant lot for the kids who missed out on October 31st.  The adults brought costumes for the kids to wear, candy to give out and arranged their cars, trucks, and SUV's in a circle so the kids could go vehicle to vehicle and "Trick or Treat." 

My cousin discussed with me why an electrical company from another state was turned down when they volunteered to help repair and restore power.  The reason?  They weren't in a labor union!  What's wrong with THAT picture???

During a broadcast of the Glenn Beck radio program, a story was shared about how one of the Mercury One organization's trucks was filled with water, food, blankets, etc. and taken to an area that was still in the dark and where NO ONE had ventured to help rescue the people suffering there.  The people cried when such help arrived.

There are probably thousands of stories similar to these few mentioned here.  The concept of neighbor helping neighbor is not lost on the American people!  Personally, I think that we are the best at doing such things!

Unfortunately, we have a current government that would rather divide us by race, ethnicity, color, sex, rich or poor and hammer such division into the brains of the American people to make us angry at each other.  Again...this is all being purposely done - by design!  It helped the liberal elitists achieve their goal of re-election; but at what cost?  We shall see (and, unfortunately, experience) the high cost of such propaganda and media manipulation over the next four years.  God help us.

~ Christine

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Hat tips:

American Thinker
All other links.

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