By Ulysses S. Arn -
The people who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and reelected him three weeks ago are very different from me. The same is true of members of Occupy, union leadership and their sheepish followers, and everyone else who makes up the hyphenated American coalition of the Democrat Party. They act, and think, and vote in ways that I just don't understand sometimes(I do understand them to a large degree because they are Utopian Statist). I have made these point in one form or another here on this blog and in my books, The Arena of Ideas and We Can Do Better(both on sale now at Amazon.com for the kindle Ebook reader, or for Iphone and Ipads using the kindle app), and I feel like making them again to illustrate just how different I am from the people who I believe are destroying this great nation from within.
The first thing that sets me apart from the cabal of leftist, especially those of my generation(I don't turn 30 until next week), is that I have chosen to abstain from having sex until I am married. I could have been just like many of my fellow classmates and had sex as a teenager but I opted to follow my conscience not my loins. In doing so I denied myself instant gratification in lieu of being able to tell my future wife that our first time will be my first time. And because I made that choice all those years ago I now expect she who I will spend the rest of my life with to have the same convictions and principles. I am waiting for her and she(should be) waiting for me.
Another thing that sets me apart from the people of my generation has to do with a word I just used in the above paragraph, marriage. I hate to break it to people but two guys being together in a relationship is not a marriage, neither is two girls, or one guy and five women, or one woman and 5 guys. Western culture and more specifically American culture has defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, period end of sentence. I have no problem with people being in a same sex relationship, however I do have a problem with people trying to change the meaning of a word, to change an institution, in order to destigmatize their abnormal behavior. All the people pushing this whole gay marriage issue onto the populous need to stop and consider another legal term in order to codify same sex relationships, a term whose usage doesn't diminish or tarnish traditional marriage, it is called domestic partnerships. That is a much better fit for same sex couples, accomplishes much of what they claim to want and doesn't in any way harm marriage.
There is another so called social issue which sets me apart from those who vote for Democrats and that is the issue of abortion. Having read the Constitution of the United States and its amendments I for the life of me cannot fathom how people can so be so locked into supporting the intentional destruction of innocent human life. The cruel and unusual punishment clause of the 8th amendment should be the end of the discussion of this topic and yet since 1973 over 50 million innocent babies have been snuffed out of existence due to abortion. If the 8th amendment isn't enough to make abortion unimaginable in this nation then the 5th and 14th amendments should be the final nails in the coffin of this barbaric practice. And yet the die-hard defenders of abortion would be totally dumbfounded by such constitutional arguments against their sacrosanct idol, abortion on demand.
It is because of my reverence for the Constitution, not to mention the words of Thomas Paine in Common Sense, "In America the LAW is KING", that I totally reject a key plank of liberalism, and the default position of RINO's, amnesty for illegal immigrants. Many, if not most, of those who have entered this nation illegally did so by choice. Those who were brought here by their parents as children have chosen to continue to remain here as adults. Our nations laws are clear you have to have permission as a foreign national to enter and stay in this country. To give illegal immigrants amnesty, or a pathway to citizenship, or any other kind of special treatment is to spit in the face of all those who have followed our laws. Just because an estimated 11-20 million illegal aliens are present in this country is no reason to turn a blind eye to the rule of law. No one thinks about given everyone convicted of murder amnesty because they might have been abused as children, or molested by some pervert, or otherwise had a rotten life, and they are right to reject such a notion. So to should it be with illegal immigration. Illegal immigrants broke our laws and as such the only thing they have coming to them is the enforcement of our laws. Either the illegal immigrants in this country leave just as they came, voluntarily, or they can be deported, there is no middle ground here. The Law is the Law and our laws don't need changing they need enforcing.
Just like the laws pertaining to illegal immigration don't need changing neither(in large measure) do our nations drug laws. Unlike some people, particularly Libertarians and College students, I don't favor legalizing pot, or heroin, or meth, or cocaine in any of its forms. Can we adjust our nations laws to treat all illicit drugs the same, yes. Can we more clearly make a legal distinction between drug use and drug dealing, sure. Should users be punished first and foremost by treatment, that would be a good thing, but should dealers get a slap on the wrist, absolutely not.
Two years ago now I shared with readers of this blog the tale of "Roger". "Roger" and I were both working at the same place and we had a little talk in which he told me that he had every intention of staying at this job only long enough so that he could go back on unemployment. Needless to say before that work week was over he had managed to get himself fired and for a time complained because he couldn't get on unemployment due to that firing. ("Roger" has since gotten himself gainfully employed, his use of unemployment in between is unknown to me). This kind of thinking is totally baffling to me. Whenever I have been unemployed my first thought hasn't been to seek out the unemployment office it has been to go looking for another job. As I have never been on unemployment the thought has never occurred to me to find a job just so I could stay there long enough to go back onto the unemployment rolls. It has been my goal in life to stay at a job as long as I can, and when I find myself at an employer that I can't stand(and there have been a couple of them) I make an effort to find a better job, sometimes that better job didn't come about until after I had to leave those not so great employers. Nonetheless, I've tried to keep myself employed and off of the public dole.
Which brings me to another thing that separates me from a large swath of the public, I've never been on any kind of public assistance. I didn't seek the governments help to purchase my home. I don't seek the governments aid to heat or cool this house of mine. When I have found myself out of work and with very little to no money to my name I have never even contemplated using food stamps(I've never even taken the aid of a food bank or food pantry). When my property tax installments are due I don't go looking for a different governmental entity to help me get by until pay day. When it comes to clothing, transportation, or my health care insurance all of these things I have paid for myself and at no time did I ever think about getting such things from the government.
Because I have been taking responsibility for my own life and my needs, on top of being a taxpayer, I become truly enraged when I see the profligate and reckless spending taking place in Washington and Springfield. This too sets me apart from others because they don't seem to mind the trillion plus dollar Obama deficits or the totally irresponsible spending of Mike Madigan and Pat Quinn.
Since I am a taxpayer and not a leech living off other peoples money, I oppose any and all efforts to take more from the people who earn it and redistribute it to the slackers. Because I want to one day be successful I despise the progressive income tax that punishes success and achievement(hence my support of the Flat Tax and the Fair Tax). Since I am a politically aware creature I know that "taxing the rich" is a failed idea. Due to my studying of history I understand and grasp how wonderful a thing the Reagan tax cuts were. And since I can do basic math I can see as plain as day that our nation has a spending problem not a revenue problem. Yet those things are beyond the grasp on the average Obama/Democrat voter.
It is so sad that people have more interest in living selfishly and/or off of others. If more people were willing to live my conservative life, this nation would be much better off. Hopefully one day enough people will get it and then thing will really begin to change.
