National Republicans are nearly weeping with excitement at the flubbed response of Maryland’s Democrat Governor Martin O’Malley to the question Sunday on Face the Nation: “Are people better off than they were four years ago?” It has become the new mantra of Mitt Romney’s campaign; a question uttered by Ronald Reagan more than three decades ago, and it has forced Democrats to go on the defensive. It could very well be a question that remains constant for the remainder of the election, as most Americans likely don’t feel better off than when Barack Obama was elected four years ago. I’ve seen it asked by many conservative Facebook friends recently, and it is certainly a fair question to ask.
It’s just that it’s the wrong question to ask.
Primarily, the implication is that if you’re not better off, well it’s the government’s fault (see President Obama) and by default, if you want to be better off, it’s the government’s job to make sure you are. And, if you aren’t better off four years from now? Well, whose fault is it then?
Except conservative principles that Republicans theoretically believe and want to apply don’t guarantee anyone that they’ll be better off in the future. Not by a long shot. Conservative principles guarantee only that we’ll have more freedom to pursue life, liberty and happiness, but along the way, you might just lose a few times, and that’s okay.
For example, let’s say that a new President and a new Congress are elected, government regulations are repealed to get out of the way and you decide to act on that amazing business idea that you’ve come up with. Once free of government bureaucracy, you leave your safe and secure current job and venture into the world of small business self-employment.
And you flop.
The possibility exists that you will not be better off than you are now, in a purely material and fiscal sense. Will that be the President’s fault? Government’s? An unfair marketplace? Amazon.com’s?
Or, perhaps, your idea is just a bad one. It’s called risk, and the free market (the real free market) and conservative principles allow you to take that risk, and fail. Miserably.
Better off? Nope.
More free? Absolutely!
And that, my friends, is what this election should be about. It’s the question all of us should be asking.
Even Democrat Governor Martin O’Malley admits we are not better off than we were fours years ago. We’re not as free, either.
YES, my family is better off.
The Medicare Hospice benefit is helping to save the life and preserve the dignity of our family member – 95 – who served in the Navy in WW2, one of the few surviving female WAVES in rural Virginia.
We have been able to work hard and save sacrificially for retirement.
We have been able to dedicate hundreds of hours to volunteer services and programs for youth, the elderly, and persons with disabilities, and their families.
Yes, we are better off.
& we gave rationally assessed that we would very much NOT be better off with Mr Romney or Mr Ryan.
Mr Romney hides untold wealth in SECRET FOREIGN ALLEGIANCES, in FOREIGN BANKS, in FOREIGN CORPORATIONS, UNDER FOREIGN LAW, SUBJECT TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS.
No one who wants to be Commander in Chief should have SECRET FOREIGN ALLEGIANCES. But, Mr Romney does, and arrogantly demands to keep them SECRET.
Further, Mr Romney ACTIVELY AVOIDED military service. He got deferment after deferment after deferment, including a deferment to go be a Mormon in FRANCE. When Mennonites get religious deferment they go and serve the needs in countries with great need. Mr Romney got a religious deferment to have a fine old time in FRANCE.
Letting other people’s children serve in war, and at risk to be killed, and maimed, and harmed for life, while he entertained himself in FRANCE. Coming home to make hundreds of millions, that he now HIDES in SECRET FOREIGN ACCOUNTS, SUBJECT TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS.
Mr Romney has apparently taught his sons to be bums: he has FIVE STRONG SMART SONS, all of whom have actively avoided military service, or national guard service.
AVOIDING military service is not a qualification to be Commander in Chief. In fact, that would seem to be a DIS-qualification. Teaching your children to avoid military service – while others serve – is not a qualification to be Commander in Chief. In fact, that would seem to be a DIS-qualification.
If they have Mormon beliefs AGAINST the military, they should speak up! WHY keep that belief a secret? There are so many secrets that they won’t talk about. Including their SECRET FOREIGN ALLEGIANCES. HONESTY IS a qualification to be Commander in Chief. Mr Romney appear slippery and dishonest with his diversions, distractions, and secrets.
Mr Romney is demonstrably UN-fit to be Commander in Chief.
Honorable Mr Ryan, a nominal Roman Catholic, has exuded worshipful praise for Ayn Rand – a prominent radical ANTI-CHRISTIAN. He even was invited and spoke at a tribute to her. She has been called a ‘goddess’ to Republican (and other) economic conservatives. Mr Ryan was invited, and accepted the invitation, to speak in honor of an explicitly ANTI-CHRISTIAN thinker. Think a bit about that…
Ayn Rand’s philosophy is not benign. In fact, there is a lot of violence in it, if also some few insights about human nature and society. Rand said that if you put care for others ahead of your own absolutely selfish purposes you are a ‘parasite’; in other words, you should be absolutely – 100%, 24/7 selfish- or you are a parasite. Self-reliance is one of the earliest and greatest American values. But, caring for family, concern for community, and tending the whole of society are equally ancient and profound American values.
One of this goddess’s prominent and primary dicta is ‘The Weak Should Not Be Loved’. The goddess also wrote scenes in books that were intended to describe her philodophy that include rape, in ways that suggest that these rapes were strengthening and affirming influences in characters’ lives. NO CARE for the victim, NO REMORSE in the rapist, and WITHOUT JUSTICE opposing violence. The goddess also wrote – with almost adulation about a murderer (William Edward Hickman) who dismembered and disemboweled the child’s limbs and made the parents believe that the child was still alive by sewing the corpses’ eyes open.
‘The Weak Should Not Be Loved’! But, the Strong and Selfish – even the violently selfish – are Admired. What has become of the Republican Party that once liberated the oppressed, but now oppress? Their policies, and their rhetoric – such as Honorable Mr Akin talking about justified rape – ‘legitimate rape. The Republicans are also widely known to ‘believe’ in faith rather than science in matters of public policy – such as the ‘belief’ that women cannot become pregnant from rape, that the earth is only a few thousand years old, and that human beings are supposed to ‘dominate’ the earth and not have a care for pollution, etc. And, we wonder what the Virginia Family Foundation has to say about Mr Ryan’s fascination and adulation – and delivering a tribute – with the ANTI-CHRIST Ayn Rand? Does Virginia Family Foundation support that ‘The Weak Should Not Be Loved’? that women are responsible for rape?
Certainly, there is no greater ANTI-CHRISTIAN/ANTI-CHRIST teaching than the dicta: ‘The Weak Should Not Be Loved’. Why do so many so-called Christian believers support the policies, and candidates, of the Republican Party that feeds from the filth of an ANTI-CHRISTIAN/ANTI-CHRIST goddess? Why would Mr Ryan accept an invitation to research, write, and deliver a TRIBUTE to a prominent ANTI-CHRISTIAN/ANTI-CHRIST? who expressed adulation for a child murderer?
‘The Weak Should Not Be Loved’. Nothing is more ANTI-CHRISTIAN/ANTI-CHRIST than that. Nothing is more ANTI-AMERICAN than that.
We would NOT be better off with two leaders CLEARLY UN-FIT to be President or Commander in Chief, and perhaps not for dog catcher. I would not vote for anyone – for dog-catcher – who gives praise to an aggressive ANTi-CHRIST who also praised a sexually sadistic child rapist and murderer. I would not vote for anyone – for dog-catcher – who hides SECRET FOREIGN ALLEGIANCES.
[...] Are You Better Off? [...]