Hunter2458 said:
I've honestly listened to maybe one Palin rally, and have more than one Liberal friend who I constantly debate with (never budging in either direction, agreeing to disagree)
That's a start, but really "more than one" isn't very impressive to me. Half my friends are quite conservative, often religious. Half are pointedly liberal and agnostic/atheistic.
You're moreso proving my point, continuing to blame rich people for all our problems, personally claiming to care for the people in disadvantaged situations, believing they should be lifted out of that situation instead of pulling themselves out. If you pull them out then they never learn for themselves, they just keep expecting to keep getting pulled out. How often do people go OFF wellfare? How often do people go OFF foodstamps? They don't, they become dependent and decide "Why should I even try and earn myself money through work when someone is willing to give it to me for nothing?"
I don't blame the rich for all problems, only the big one. See my next response after this one.
You seem to think it is easy to lift yourself out of poorness. But that's a psychologically flawed view, and I'm not convinced that such a recovery is something you can do purely for yourself. If you start out poor, you end up with a bad education. You can't really work as a child these days so you can't reach up further until you turn about 15. Even then, it's impossible to fund a good college or university degree because you didn't get a good education straight off. You're also more vulnerable to sickness due to the high expenses of health care, and are further disadvantaged should your parents manage to scrounge together an education.
This all adds up to a domino effect or vicious cycle of difficulty that relies on a great amount of luck and hard work to conquer. The trouble is, motivation doesn't just come psychologically from inside - we find strength in our community. But if our community is as disadvantaged as we are, there's no hope to absorb there. We lack the motivation to work our way out of the ghetto.
The bottom line is: you have to have universal approaches to welfare so that you cut off the lack of motivation, luck and the cycle itself at the roots. Anything else - foodstamps, charity, whatever - just solves the symptoms, not the problem. That whole part of the American Dream where people can work themselves out of poverty is a fantasy. It isn't like that in the real world.
And your complaint about rich people in general is ironic since this country was founded, and Funded, by Rich people.
Okay, let me relate my specific complaint about rich people. It's not that they are a problem by default, but that they are a problem because they tend to use their funds to support the rich over the poor. Yes, donation to the poor is common among the famous rich, but not any more common than donation to the Republicans or the Tea Party might be. Meanwhile, the non-famous rich continue to put more money behind conservative politics behind the scenes (because they don't feel any public pressure to support the poor).
I honestly don't see your bias, but let's play your game.
From CNN.com (Just headlines)
"Marine officer: Gays, straights shouldn't share housing"
"Gay prom teen hated, lauded"
"Palin pokes fun at Obama"
Msnbc talks about Basketball, and more about Palin supporting McCain, geez everyone is talking about Palin again.
Those are all articles expressing the views and rhetoric of conservative figures, mate. You've just proved Doitpow's point for him. Yes, in the rest of the world, CNN is considered quite conservative. Only in America does it seem liberal, because of how much further right Fox is.
