Yesterday, I was very quiet. In the wake of the election, instead of complaining I just sat quietly - working and thinking. A friend at work asked me if I was okay. I said, "Sure. I am just sad." He consoled me as best he could, saying, "Look, everyone thinks the world will end when their candidate loses." Now part of that sentiment is true. But my disposition seemed different this time than even 4 years ago when Obama was first ushered into the Oval Office. So, I gave that some thought and came to a harsh truth (I think) about my beloved country.
I am not a huge fan of Bill "I am a tall man" O'Reilly. I can't barely stomach him in fact. I put him in a class of Conservative pundits people accuse me of watching/listening to even though I decidedly do not. These include Hannity, Rush and O'Reilly. Yet, as the results rolled in O'Reilly spoke very clearly about his take on the election results – it was a damning, albeit true, thesis regarding how the Electorate has changed.
I don't have time to dig up the transcript right now, but his message was along the lines of the following:
The Electorate has hit the point where enough people are on the dole and slaves of the Statists that the American Electorate has changed. That Kennedy's famous lines about "…what you can do for your country" ring hollow for 50% of the country.
Anyone who's bothered to read my crap in the past can attest I am a fairly-Conservative dude. Okay. I am very Conservative. And what Bill O was saying was not something no one else has said. It isn't anything all of us who post here haven't said. But for some reason, in that moment… knowing the election was lost… hearing O'Reilly say what we all know to be true… really hit me. And it made me very sad.
Like I said, I was upset when Oblowme got into office the first time around. But this time is different. I am not so much upset as sad. Sad because I feel like the country I love is gone. Dead.
Of course the country lives on and will continue living on for some time. It is the Country of my Mind's Eye that is truly dead. The country I love. It is dead.
When I was a child, we were still proud of our political forefathers. Proud of our American Heritage. We were still proud and defensive about the Truths upon which this great country was founded. And when I say "we," I mean We. A majorty of Americans still believed in things like Honor, Love of Country, Service, Charity, God, Providence… No longer is this so.
This is why I am sad.
It is different this time.
Half of the people I pass on the street are takers. Half of them are in it for themselves. Entirely. Half of them really do believe the Government is their savior.
A friend told me he was going to vote for the candidate who would best defend his own personal interests. And by interests, he meant comforts… lifestyle.
How silly of me to have, for all of these years, thought my responsibility extended beyond me personally. How quaint and naive I was to think there were things larger than me. How ignorant of me to worry about my great-grandchildren who've yet to be conceived. How stupid of me to have felt some responsibility to preserve this great gift, given to me through no merit of my own… America.
My Dad says the Sixties taught America that if enough people broke the Law, Authority was powerless to stop it.
So, I guess I congratulate Obama and his faithful soldiers.
Today I may sign up for food assistance. Why should my family suffer for such silly ideals as self-reliance?
Chris W. on November 8, 2012 at 9:59 am said:
I was watching O'Reilly when he made those observations Tuesday night. He looked personally upset while he was speaking. Keep in mind that was before Ohio was called for Obama and during a tug-of-war when it came to the Florida count, and before the Republican-leaning panhandle votes had been counted much at all. He saw the wriging on the wall and I think his words were stirring. And I feel exactly the same way about O'Reilly as you do (I think). I haven't watched him since 2005.
I live with my girlfriend and her son, I am a card-carrying stepdad and proud of it. My girl does not work, because the boy just started preschool and the hours she was working resulted in the preschooler being out of his home for almost 12 hours per day between school and before and after school care. It wasn't worth it for her to work and I make plenty to keep us afloat.
She just graduated from college and has been collecting food stamps. I haven't discouraged it and I won't discourage it now. In fact, we're not scheduling to get married any time soon mostly because I don't want her to lose food stamp eligibility based on my income. Now, does this make me a taker? Possibly. It's also a way to get paid back some of the taxes I've put into the system, because Lord knows there will be no Social Security for me when I reture (I am younger than 40) and I fail to see why I'm getting bent over week after week to fund someone else's retirement.
So yeah. Take your taxes back and take the food stamps. It won't last forever, but it's a whole lot better than the zero-sum tax game the "honest" among us are playing. Take it back.
Enoch_Root on November 8, 2012 at 11:42 am said:
I hear you. It sucks.
jefferson101 on November 8, 2012 at 5:08 pm said:
I've pretty much decided to go Cloward-Piven on them, if possible, and at least Gault.
A whole lot of my time since the election has been spent with a calculator, figuring out how I can make sure that I fall below the threshold of "taxable income" next year. I may have to take three or four months of voluntary layoff, but I know a couple of places where I can get a job for cash, or payment in kind.
So, all I need is to be able to work enough "on the books" to keep my medical insurance in place and come in under the level that would require me to pay into the system. At that point, I can probably get Food Stamps, too.
I'm purely against paying for someone else's cell phone, when I don't have one because I won't spend that much money for it. I'm also purely against paying for someone else's groceries when they eat better than I do most days. We might as well keep turning the handle the way it goes until it breaks off.
I've got some skills that people are willing to pay fairly well for, at least currently. Once things go down the tubes, I might be still able to use them. In the meantime, at least I'm not supporting a colony of leeches.
They say that if life hands you Lemons, make Lemonaide. OK. If life hands me Socialism, I'll take the free Lemonaide, as long as it's going. When it runs out, I'll be ready to go back to making my own way, I suspect.
Danger on November 8, 2012 at 5:11 pm said:
Enoch,
I hesitate to criticize you as someone with a steady income, but I would advise you to be wary of the temptation to give up. I'm not accusing you of it but I fear that you might fall prey and if that happens you may not be able to recognize or take an opportunity to regain your independance.
Of course this is a feature not a bug to the Socialists.
AIRSUPREQ (prayer) xmitted for you (and all of us)..
Enoch_Root on November 8, 2012 at 9:18 pm said:
Danger – I am guilty. I do have a steady-paying gig for now. However, as Jefferson101 mentions, when I do the math I also find that it makes more sense to earn some degree less and take more. So, on paper I will make less from my day-job and more from someone else's.
It is when we lose the higher ideals that we become self-interested, regardless of the cost. And, i must agree: if we are headed down the tubes at present and there is no turning back… why not hasten it.
Perhaps we can convince the libs that this is like Nation-State Euthenasia.
I am thinking back to the Austro-Hungarian conjoined twins. One productive, one a corpse. Look how it worked out for them.
jefferson101 on November 9, 2012 at 8:25 pm said:
Difficult isn't the half of it. It goes to your whole outlook on life.
I'm still working on convincing myself that I not only need to take unpaid time off work when I can, but that I need to actively turn down Overtime. That doesn't come easily. I get paid by the hour, on the clock, and my whole mantra for my whole working life has been that it I'm not on the clock, I'm not making money, and I should be there if I can.
When you are in the top Hourly pay grade, and are used to working at least 300 or 400 hours of O/T a year, it is really hard to try to reduce all that back to the point of not being required to pay taxes. No O/T and about five weeks of voluntary Layoff per year will get me there, but it isn't in my nature to do that. The Voluntary Layoff is hard to come by, for that matter, because my superiors throw a couple of cat-fits when HR lets me take even a week.
Whatever……I'm working on it as hard as I can. The most difficult part is deferring my new toys until I get my Tax Refund. I never used to get enough back to matter, but when I work on not working, get a huge amount back. (Well, $3,400 was huge, to me. I'm used to about $500 at best.)
It doesn't cover what I'm losing by not working, but I haven't gotten to nutrition assistance or suchlike yet. I'm trying the best that I can.
SmartOne on November 11, 2012 at 8:44 am said:
This is such a sad state of affairs. I would rather, and have done without than accept a handout. I am smart enough to know how to provide for myself. I can think for myself. I do not need a "Dear Leader" to tell me what is good for me or what life decisions I should be making.
My husband and I are self employed, and for the last four years each year I start out thinking about the tax code and how best to impliment it by taking advantage of it If it means we hire no one that year, so be it. If it means we have to let someone go in that year, so be it. You see, business owners are not stupid either. We can play the game too. We can live comfortably on just under $250K a year.
When I was a kid in the seventies, my family was dirt poor. Yet, I would have rather died than taken any sort of government handout. We did without before we accepted anything from anyone. Even as I kid, I felt the stigma of being a welfare recipient. To Chris W. I say what a catch you must be. Living with your girlfriend so she can collect welfare/food stamp money is just the kind of man I would have liked to live with.
I really beieve it is the moral fiber of this country that has been degraded beyond belief. No committment, no responsibility, what is in it for me is the attitude that previals. Well, when the producers produce only enough for themselves to be comfortable and stop contributing thousands of tax dollars each year, then what will the takers do? Trust me, if I can do the math and figure this out, there are many others smarter than I that can and will do the same thing.