I Don't Want to Support the Poor!

The other day, a Liberal I know said, "Conservatives don't like being taxed to support the poor." And I realized he was exactly and precisely right.

Language is such a funny thing.

What he MEANT to say was, "Conservatives don't like parting with their money to help those in need." But what he SAID was, "Conservatives don't like supporting poverty."

Like I said, he was exactly right.

Conservatives would rather their tax money be used to give the poor the tools they need to get out of poverty, rather than continuing to support generations IN poverty. This is not only a rhetorical, but a fundamental, real-world, difference. Conservatives believe in the old saw; they want to teach people to fish, rather that give them a fish.

Conservatives care about the poor. They just don't agree with Liberals on how best to deal with the problem. They don't believe that giving people welfare checks, while never helping them out of dependency is the answer to the problem. Dependent, husbandless welfare mothers with six children are not getting out of poverty any time soon. Nor are any of their children...because they are caught in the trap of low expectations, and a failing culture of dependency. They are effectively kept "on the plantation".

The fact that Conservatives repeatedly point out the catastrophic failure of Liberal programs to "Help the Poor"...makes us pretty unpopular with all the out-of-touch, ivory-tower, elitist Liberal Poo-Bahs. They can't argue the facts on the ground...the failure of their programs is unquestionable...so they resort to calling us names: racist, heartless, greedy. It's a pretty tired litany at this point. Smart people stopped listening a long time ago.

Conservatives understand that to allow that culture of dependency, non-ambition, low expectations, and personal irresponsibility to continue is to doom all participants to permanent second-class status. Giving people a monthly stipend, "supporting" the poor the way we do it now, is keeping them in poverty rather than raising them out of it. Anyone who argues is merely closing their eyes to a situation they do not wish to acknowlege, or is ignorant of the history of the great Liberal "War On Povery" that began in the 1960's. Since its inception, fewer people in the lowest socio-economic class have escaped it. Increasing numbers of babies are born out of wedlock...and are raised by single welfare mothers than ever before (both white and black). After 40 years of Liberal anti-poverty programs, the gap between the poor the rest of America is wider...and more difficult to cross.

Is there anyone who missed what we saw in New Orleans last week? Thousands of mothers and children without husbands and fathers to help them. 75% of black children in America are born to unwed mothers today. That is a staggering number. And like it or not, this reality is responsible for a host of the horrors we witnessed.

We saw mostly women and children caught, helpless, unable to fend for themselves, without men to help them. Not because the men abandoned them...but because grown men were simply not there.

It is clear that 40 years of Liberalism (and misplaced Liberal Guilt) have not helped the poor in this country. More of the same: bigger programs and more money will not solve, but only exacerbate this already desperate situation.

It is irresponsible hogwash to blame President Bush or the Conservatives for the abject poverty or for the multi-generational, broken culture of the poor in New Orleans or elsewhere in the country when it is the perfectly logical result of 40 years of Liberal programs.

To say that Conservatives are to blame...when they have NEVER had the opportunity to try their programs in the face of the Liberal, white-guilt-driven, propagandized, steam-roller welfare state, is a lie of Hitlerean proportions. Indeed, it's time for a new approach. Liberal programs have been in effect for 40 years...we see the result. Conservatives cannot do worse. My opinion is that they would do a great deal better.

The notion that Conservatives don't care about the poor is an Urban Legend. It is a convenient self-delusion that repels challenges to the Liberal world-view...and the discomfort they cause. Their blindness is both self-induced and selfish. They talk about the poor, but continue to insist on programs that have demonstrably failed the poor...for 40 years...in order to cling to their inflated, hallucinatory, and self-congratulatory self-image as "caring and compassionate".

Their power, priorities and programs are designed and supported to make themselves feel good, but don't reduce poverty or create hope. If helping the poor was actually the point, they would have come to the blindingly obvious conclusion decades ago that the programs they support are stupendous failures.

So Mr. Liberal was right, this Conservative doesn't want to support poverty.

(Unfortunately, you can't just shoot any of the bastards.)

The Gunslinger