Name:   copperline - Subject:   Just the Man You Are Date:   7/1/2012 3:31:43 PM

Major, you are overlooking Architect’s point that the decisions he has made in his life could sometimes be considered conservative, sometimes liberal... he says that he led a life full of complex choices that defy easy classification into one political camp or the other.   Chances are, you’re the same way.     Yet we all seem to be obsessed with the need to CHOOSE SiDES rather than respect individual differences of opinion.   

Abortion isn’t evidence of moral decay, it’s a medical procedure that some people unfortunately need.  Homosexuality isn’t a choice either, no more than your personal sexual preferences or the color of your skin.

i have a different view of government programs.  i think more of us benefit directly from them than we like to admit because it is fashionable to distance and pretend to be self-sufficient.    Few of us are, or ever have been free of public welfare benefits in one form or another.   All government programs directed toward protecting, developing or improving social conditions are welfare programs.   The Center for Disease Control is a public welfare program, so is the FDiC, the Food and Drug Administration, etc.  This lake was built as a public welfare program.  We went to public schools, sometimes on to college using government assisted loans.   Our businesses are aided when federal programs bring in community development dollars, or pave the roads to our door.

Those programs that specify a distinct population to be targeted with funds are referred to as Entitlement Programs and this is considered to be a derisive term for hand-outs to freeloaders.  in the view of conservatives, these include food stamps, support to dependent children, disability programs... but entitlements also include programs such as Medicare, Tricare, the VA and Military retirement.   The political choices made to give tax dollars to one group or another have more to do with maintaining a stable social order than morals.   People who have received or are currently receiving benefits assume this to be their Right.  it's not.  it's a government welfare program and none can claim a higher moral standing than the others.

And without those government programs, our lives & the conditions of society would be much worse.   it's easy to forget that programs once considered too over-reaching and expensive are now just part of the landscape.    For instance, nobody is going to argue for abolition of Social Security Disability, Medicare, or the VA....  All expenses to the taxpayers who acknowledge them to be useful and necessary.   it will be the same with healthcare reform.  in a few years, you won't find many conservatives able to recall opposing it.