Give and Take

It's often noted that many people make the transition from Liberalism in their youth to Conservatism in their more mature years. The quip, often attributed to Churchhill as well as others, that, “The man who is not a liberal in youth has no heart, and if he is not Conservative when he matures he has no head,” is the most famous example of this.

It is also remarked as being strange that few people move from Conservatism to Liberalism. Why is this? Why does it seem to be only one-directional?

Well, the most simple reason might be that when we are young we are used to getting an allowance from our parents – and thus we utilize and praise a system that takes care of us. But when we mature we have to subsidize our own brats with money – and we rarely receive either noticeable gratitude nor better behavior from our reluctant hand-outs. In other words, payback is negligible.

At its most extreme, some youths and liberals do believe Big Daddy or Big Mama should provide everything for their children, so that those provided for can lie back without a care in the world and do nothing to contribute other than spend the money that magically rains down like manna from heaven.

And the most extreme form of Conservatism does consist of bitter, cynical misers who will contribute to police, prisons, teargas and concentration camps – as long as their contributions are voluntary and someone is horribly punished – but they won’t willingly contribute to much else.

These extremists on both sides may well be many in number but they are of little interest once mentioned. Of far more interest is the average citizen who lives in perpetual confusion, vacillating between being the loving, giving sharing individual, and the hard-hearted and hard-headed rugged individualist primarily interested only in his or her own happiness. A quick way of describing this majority might be “I genuinely want to help others.. but only when I feel like it ..and I only want to help those I choose myself.”

This feeling, whether conscious or subconscious is understandable. But it’s no way to run a sophisticated society. If our government, in its folly and its fear of the populace, allowed each of us to choose what should be supported from the common treasury, we might find that public libraries might cease to exist along with orphanages, charity and veterans’ hospitals. Voters already, in their bizarre logic, often vote for longer prison sentences for criminals while voting down bond initiatives for building more prisons!

Americans must and need to live with the painful fact that Washington is, in fact, often more sensible and far-sighted than the average citizen while at the same time being more corrupted, as this sensibility and far-sightedness is largely motivated by the politicians’ desire not to kill the goose who lays all those golden eggs.

The average voter seems to be eternally waving an ax, threatening to kill the goose for any number of selfish private reasons.

You know your reasons and I know mine.

But remember, while your tax dollars go for my Medicare and college scholarships for my kids, my tax dollars go for your prisons, B-2 bombers and napalm. So shouldn’t we all be happy?

P.S. Remember that Truman spent billions to revive war-ravaged Europe and save it from communism with his tax payer funded Marshall plan. And his successor, Eisenhower, did the same for Asia - while at the same time building the Interstate Highway System that mainly benefited rural America in the west with money mainly originating in the urban north east. Socialism or practical farsightedness? Call it what you want.