Entitlement Mentality

You might be tempted to assume, from the title of this post, that I'm going on a rant about welfare recipients. Normally, you would be correct. But today I am sharing what I experienced last night at an election event.

Background: Yesterday was Primary Election Day in Oregon. Our county hosts an event where the candidates from the various races can gather with their supporters to watch the returns come in and celebrate (or in the alternative - weep). Let me just emphasize that ALL of the candidates and their supporters, from all the political parties, are gathered together in the SAME room. I attended this event in support of a candidate for the Board of County Commissioners.

The event took place in a venue called, oddly enough, the _______ Events Center. Clever name, eh? It consisted of a large convention style room furnished with many round tables, each seating approximately 8 people. Earlier in the day, workers from each campaign arrived at the Events Center to stake out their claim. The tables were decorated with campaign signs and festive banners, etc. My candidate decorated just one table, as his was a small campaign.

Because the Events Center wasn't charging for the tables and because they were hoping to make some money from the election night event, it was prohibited to bring in any outside food or drink. Instead, the Events Center had its catering staff on hand to deliver to the candidates food, which had been previously ordered. In addition there was an pay-per-drink bar set up on one side of the room. My candidate, who took in no campaign donations, purchased for his partying supporters a large tray of layered mexican dip and a huge bowl of red, white and blue corn chips. It was supposed to be enough to feed 18 people and cost a whopping $45 dollars.

The festivities began around 8 p.m., which is when the polls close. As the results were tallied, they were projected onto a large screen on a stage at one end of the room. The supporters of the various candidates were milling around the room, visiting with friends and making new acquaintances when they weren't gathered around their favorite candidate and holding his hand as he chewed his fingernails nervously.

From the very beginning it became obvious to me that the most conservative candidates were the ones who had purchased food and set it out on their tables for their supporters. The most liberal candidates, on the other hand, had purchased none. As I sat there at my candidate's table, holding my baby and visiting with others, I became increasingly dumbfounded at the audacity, rudeness and arrogance with which the supporters of the liberal candidates helped themselves to my candidate's food!

At first, a couple of ladies came up and introduced themselves to my candidate and asked him about his candidacy, a pretense for commenting on the bean dip and begging an invitation to sup. After they had returned for seconds and thirds, their colleagues starting inching closer and closer to our table. Some of them had to walk all the way across the room to get to our table to raid the chips. I witnessed them sharing the good news with their friends and pointing to our location.

At one point I had pulled a package of graham crackers out of the diaper bag and set it on the table. I opened it and was removing the crackers one at a time and breaking them up into 4 sections to feed my baby. As I watched, some greedy old freeloader of a guy actually reached into the package and took one of the graham crackers on his way to the chip and dip. I said, "Excuse me, those are my baby's crackers." He thought that was hilarious and went around telling all his friends how he stole candy (I mean crackers) from a baby! Unbelievable.

And these people weren't starving or poverty stricken Nearly every one of them was holding an expensive drink in his/her hand.

I think I'm finally starting to get it. The liberal elite don't just use entitlement programs to buy votes and secure power for themselves, as I had previously believed. They actually have an entitlement mentality THEMSELVES! They believe everything in life is free - at least to them. Other people's hard work and the fruits of it belong to them by rights. If you have something, and a liberal wants it for himself or someone else, he's going to take it. And he's not going to ask permission or even announce his intentions.

Oh, and if you have the gall to protest, you're just selfish. Don't you want to be giving and charitable like the libs? Oh wait, they are giving and charitable with other people's money! Hardly a virtue. Sounds more like a crime.