Inside the Mind of a Political Liberal

Vox Day says that the mindset of a liberal is "entirely alien" to him. I have to admit that is my experience as well. After reading this article I have a bit more insight into an ideology built almost entirely on feelings without logical support.

Overheard at a Community Meeting...

Our local government school board hosted an informational meeting to explain the upcoming 25 year bond for $5,000,000 which will appear on our election ballots in May. The district business manager said this:

A bond is a loan, taken out by the school board. But the school board doesn't pay it back, the taxpayers pay it back. So it is only fair that the taxpayers get to vote on it.

Either this woman is a complete idiot, or she is purposely misleading people. You see, there is no correlation between being a taxpayer (property tax payer) and being a voter, except by coincidence. The voters are made up of all adults (ages 18 and above) who live in the district and have registered to vote. The taxpayers of this bond, if it should pass, are the individuals and businesses who own property within the district. 

We see that voters who don't own property will get to vote on the bond, even though they have no obligation to pay on it for the next 25 years. We also see that  property owners who don't physically reside in the district do not get to vote and businesses that are not individuals get no votes at all.

If the school district business manager intended to note that it would be fundamentally unfair for anyone but the ones paying back the loan to decide whether to pass the bond, she would be correct, but I don't think she really feels that way, or she would be against the bond for its objective unfairness.

The Bible says:

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children...

The world says leave some debt to your children. It's our duty, after all, to keep those government schools open and then bill the children for it later.  This bond will impose taxes on those with no representation in the matter and it will affect people who aren't even born yet. It is theft. It is evil. It is a bad idea.

Is Taxation Theft?

Thou shalt not steal. 

You may recognize that from Exodus 20:15. It is part of what we call the Ten Commandments, the laws given to God's people, through Moses. I am going to make the case that taxation is a violation of this command.

The reason I'm sort of stirred up about this right now is that our local school board is asking the voters to undertake a 25 year bond in the amount of 5 million dollars which will be paid by adding a levy to what property owners pay every year in property tax. Let's talk about the local school district. 

Current enrollment is 161 students. For the entire district. Kindergarten through grade 12, there are 161 students in the entire district. Including all sources of funding, the spending per student in this district is over $20,000. You read that correctly, $20,000 is being spent per pupil to educate the little crumb crunchers in our district. The state government has awarded a grant (money taken from tax payers all over the state) of 4 million dollars to our local district based upon the fact that we are one of the most impoverished districts in the state. 100% of the students get free breakfast and lunch at school, because our district is so poor. However, the grant comes with strings. The district has to match the grant with at least 4 million dollars from the local taxpayers. (Remember how the state has already determined that we are one of the poorest districts in the state?)

Now, for $20,000 per pupil, I could take charge of the entire district and I would enroll every student at a private school 60 miles away, bus them to school every day, get yearly passes to the zoo and aquarium and science museum (and bus them there twice per year), and provide them with new clothing. That's right, I could arrange for a superior private education for EVERY student in this district for what is being spent to keep them in the local government school. 

So, even if taxation was not theft, which it is, it would still be the height of foolishness to spend one more cent on this over-spending district.

Let's suppose that a man in my town wanted to have relations (of the marital type) with a woman from this town who did not wish to relate to him. Now suppose he took her by force. Would that be rape? Of course it would be. 

Now, let us change the story a bit and say the man in question has the same desire as before, but instead of taking her by force he holds an election. In this election, a majority of town's people vote that the man MAY legally take the woman. The town's enforcers hold her down and the man has his way with her. Is that rape? Why or why not? If the majority of the people vote for the act to occur, does it change from a crime to a legal act? Does it go from being immoral to being moral? Why or why not?

We shall now change the crime from rape to theft. If a man in my town wants a percentage of the value of the property of another man, and he goes to the second man's house with a gun and demands the money, is it not robbery? What if he intends to use the money for a good cause?  Let us now say that the first man holds an election whereat the majority of the people vote that the property owner should turn over a percentage of his property value to the first man. Does it cease to be theft because of an election?

What other crime, besides theft, becomes a non-crime based upon the will of the majority? Murder? Arson?

My conclusion is that theft is theft is theft. My neighbors have no more right to vote on whether my money can be taken and used for a school than they can vote on whether to murder the man who has pink flamingos on his lawn.  

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.