THE LIBERAL, PROGRESSIVE MINDSET

As if anyone really needs an explanation of the Liberal mindset, it can be found in the Post and Courier articles, "Forgotten South Carolina". The first tome enumerates the historical failings of the SC education system and points out the fact that SC has definable groups of "haves" and "have-nots".  Predictably, the author places the blame for these statistics at the doorstep of "taxes are too low" and "there's a lack of a sufficient number of government programs" to fix SC's problems.

If anything, Liberal are predictable.  For some strange reason, they all think any problem can be fixed if only they could throw enough money at it. They commiserate the failure of the last "program" due to the lack of yet another expanded government effort funded by increased taxes. Each generation of Liberals is convinced their failed retread will succeed if only they can squeeze more money out of the producers to apply to these programs.

Also, it is beneficial to Liberals to hold and preach a very degrading opinion of people in general.  Liberals are convinced that no one, except of course those few greedy rich people, can succeed without government assistance. In their opinion, the rest of us, both black and white, aren't smart enough, ambitious enough, or clever enough to do anything on our own initiative. This erroneous "fact" is woven into the fabric of the Liberal mantra.

According to the Liberal philosophy, most of us are incapable of feeding ourselves, housing ourselves, or even making our own decisions.  We can't compete in the work force or in the schools unless the benevolent Liberals provide us with a handicap.  We "deserve" to be "kept" as no more than pets of Uncle Sam.  Unfortunately, after three generations of this indoctrination, accompanied by the financial rewards and lack of expectations,  the Liberals have a lot of people convinced of this lie.  As a result, the United States now has 46%+ of its population on some version of unearned government assistance. This number is in addition to those receiving earned retirement such as Social Security and government pensions into which producers have contributed during their work years.

In order to support this Liberal philosophy, one must totally ignore the history of the United States, which is inundated with examples of people going from rags to riches, from the bottom to the top.  Many of the "greedy rich people" criticized by the Liberals today started out somewhere in their lineage with their asses in their hands.  These innumerable examples range from Abe Lincoln to Tim Scott. But, Liberals want the actual facts left out of the conversation. The facts invalidate their theory that the infusion of confiscated money (redistribution) is the only answer. No matter how many years pass or how many times Liberals repeat their failed endeavors, they will never abandon this flawed theory.

The producers, on the other hand, hold to a diametrically opposed philosophy.  This group, composed of mainly Conservatives or other like minded individuals, cringe at the "handout" theory.  Their values are simple: "Get out of my way and let me do it for myself." These producers embrace the true meaning of the term  "American Dream".

When actual facts are taken into consideration, it is impossible for us to find an upside to the Progressive philosophy.  Just for the sake of argument, let's look at the most recent wide spread disaster to befall the low country, Hurricane Hugo.  Anyone who lived in this area in 1989 remembers it well.  Let's examine what happened in the different areas and how the residents of these areas reacted.

After the storm left the coast and aimed its wrath at the inland areas, the power was off; the water was off; the roads were blocked with debris; the grocery stores were closed; banks and ATMs were closed; the gas stations were closed; all TV stations were off the air and all but one radio station was off the air. To put it simply, life as we knew it had ceased to exist.

As day broke the morning after the storm, the first sign of life other than our own was the sound of one of our neighbor picking his way from his house to ours on his farm tractor.  Another neighbor was riding shotgun.  Two other neighbors were walking through the fallen trees that covered the highway to our house. This group of men and women had a meeting on what was left of our front porch to take a cursory inventory of what supplies were available in each household.  It was decided the most important task was to plan how we could start to clear the roadways for emergency vehicles.

Over the next two days, these men and women, with the help of the farm tractor, cleared a path down highway 59 from highway 311 to highway 176.  Admittedly, sometimes the path went through people's yards or through the wooded areas, but a drivable path was created.  Another group started from the old fire tower at Cross and cleared one lane on Highway 311 from Highway 6 to Highway 59.  Several first responders later voiced their appreciation for the efforts.

All the folks in our community had prepared for the disaster in one way or the other.  Most had laid in emergency supplies, food, water, batteries, and gas for the cars.  Even so, we cooperated and helped each other. During this crises, one neighbor who had a way to cook, shared hot food with the others.  One neighbor who had a generator to pump water shared with the others.  Some who had freezers full of food contributed that food to the community dinners.  We didn't wait for "the government" to see to our needs.

One the other hand, in the densely populated areas, Charleston and North Charleston, folks were lining up to demand that something be done to help them.  In Charleston, these groups came to near riot when their needs were not met as quickly as they thought was reasonable.  None ever asked what they could do to help alleviate the problem.  None of these complainers organized work groups to help clear the streets. None of these dependents even offered to help distribute what supplies were available.  The mindset seemed to be "take care of me without any effort on my part".

Even some communities near to us seemed to hold the same opinion.  On the third day after the storm, a delegation from one of these communities came to our house lamenting that they couldn't get a response from the aid office in Moncks Corner. They complained that they had no food or water and they asked if we would intervene on their behalf.  When we suggested they bring containers to get water from our neighbor's well, we were told they preferred to get the bottled water like they heard about on the radio.  (It is important to note that these same people sat on their front porches watching and never offered to help as our group cleared THEIR road.)

Why can't the Progressives see that their entitlement philosophy has created a self devouring monster.  We can see why they would think it is beneficial in the short term to play Santa Clause and give "stuff" to the masses in order to perpetuate temporary power.  BUT, why can't they see the long term damage that is being done to our country?  At this point, almost half of our population, black and white, young and old,  thinks God lives in the mailbox.  They have never had to work for anything.  Uncle Sam gives them food, clothing, housing, education, medical care, and, now, even luxuries like cell phones.  They don't have a clue as to the meaning of self reliance or self respect.  They have never heard of individual responsibility.

Today, most of the people who number in this entitlement society have never had to be accountable for themselves or the children they create.  Neither do most of them have any foundation in Faith or religion.  Morals and decency have been relegated to unnecessary inconveniences by this group.

So, here we have the product created by the Progressives.  We have almost half of the people in our country standing there with the palm of their hand facing the moon, waiting for someone to put something in it.  Most of this group haven't even finished school so they are totally unaware of how this country is supposed to operate. Most don't know how to or don't care to get a job if they could.  The family unit is virtually absent in this group.  Morals and values are sorely lacking among most of them.

So, if you will, please consider what will happen when this economy fails, and it will. It's only a matter of time, considering the $16.5 TRILLION debt.  Eventually, the whole world will realize the money the Fed is pumping out is worthless.  The bill will come due.  The checks won't be in the mailbox.  The food won't be provided.  There will be no funding for any of the things the perpetual dependents are  accustomed to having.  What will the totally unprepared entitlement society do then?

The United States and all of the producers herein owe the Progressives a debt of gratitude for creating this time bomb.  And, by the way, Post and Courier, throwing more taxpayer money at the problem is NOT the answer.