Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Compassion Does Not Mean Throwing More Money At the Problem


link

I've certainly made it no secret that I'm a fan of Congressman Tim Huelskamp, representing Kansas's Big First district, where I live. Here he is hammering on food stamp loopholes and the idea that we as a country need to have jobs for people rather than just handing out more food stamps. He's been really working on getting his colleagues to approve a budget, noting several times that we've gone over a thousand days (since 2009) without one.

Frankly, his efforts seem to have the same effect as urinating into a stiff breeze, as it were, but he's doing the job we elected him to do. He's asking rather pointed questions, and is certainly a thorn in the side of certain elites.


Or as Sally says: "Sydney or the Bush!"

In the past week or so, Og has been promoting the idea that voting can help bring incremental change, and getting hammered for it. He argues that it took incremental changes to bring us to this point, and that it won't change overnight. By refusing to become involved, we are only hastening the day when we have no input into the system, or we have to hit the "reset" button. And truthfully, "our" side has a lot of people who are living for and counting on that day to arrive with SHTF food and weapons supplies and a prepper attitude. Livin' the Red Dawn dream. Some feel that refusing to vote for the presidential elections will rain death and destruction on the Republican Party and teach them a severe lesson for bringing such tepid and progressive candidates so far from conservative values to the fight. Keep letting it get bad enough, and people will see, by Gawd. So there.

My thoughts on that are that by not exercising the right to vote, one might just lose it, regardless of how bad y'all made the Stupid Party feel. And I'm not too wild about bringing about anarchy and trying to start over again - I'm kinda invested in the system running to keep me in things like electricity and drugs that I need to live. Not gonna last long off the grid and away from a functioning pharmacy. Call me selfish, but that's the way it is.

So I don't think we've completely gone around the bend if we've got people like Huelskamp in Congress who aren't letting go. I'm pretty tickled at my Senators as well, even though they're certainly political animals. They've been making the right noises for quite some time as well. Even if the MSM isn't listening. I am, and now you know as well. So goes my hope for our future.

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