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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

On another thread, Tazzy brought up a quote from good old Saul Alinsky that I thought was worth a look, and some comment.

A People's Organization is dedicated to an eternal war. It is a war against poverty, misery, delinquency, disease, injustice, hopelessness, despair, and unhappiness. They are basically the same issues for which nations have gone to war in almost every generation. . . . War is not an intellectual debate, and in the war against social evils there are no rules of fair play

The snip is from his 1946 book, Reveille for Radicals, and it's interesting because the libs of today would love to pretend that they hold exclusive interest in resolving these eternal ills. They would have us believe that the solutions they are offer are the only solutions, and that to reject their methods is to maliciously wish the problems continue.

I'm of the opinion that one big reason the Democrats squeaked through this election was by successfully defining and demonizing the opposition with just that slur.

That box which Dems want to force Repubs into, must be dealt with. It's time to call "bullshit," on the ploy.

Democrats love poverty. They love misery, and delinquency, and hopelessness, despair and unhappiness. It's how they recruit. Happy optimists with a few bucks in their pocket, vote Republican.

We now have a nice long record, a multi-generational record, of what happens when Democrats/liberals try their hand, at dealing with poverty. It has turned the traditional family into a rarity in our inner cities. It has given us taxpayer funded "mentors" for the poor, who cannot show their clients how to cover a hole in a window with a bit of cardboard, and who give them little plaques for not deserting their children, or getting themselves sent to prison. It has given us program rules that hold people right where they are in poverty, and deny aid to fixed income seniors who went into retirement with a little bit set aside. It has given us the thought process of the Obama phone lady, and a sub-culture that thinks a job is something you are given, instead of something you go out and get. It has given us 47 million Americans on food stamps, and radio advertising to go sign up. This is the Democrats idea of fighting poverty, and it has given us more poor people than ever before, whose leading health problem is obesity.

What is the conservative approach to poverty? You can look back to the quote above, and see what, "A People's Organization" is NOT committed to fighting for. Individual liberty. Self-determination. Economic freedom. These are the tools we address poverty with. Unlike the thoughts of our President, who denigrates the values of hard work and being smart, a conservative will believe that these are the core essentials to leaving poverty behind.

A conservative believes the way to assist people in leaving that miserable condition is with opportunity, and the freedom to pursue it. A conservative believes that if the government is going to deliberately create jobs to prime the pump of opportunity, then we should get something real and tangible for our money. Even FDR, the man who gave us the New Deal, understood this. The art is still there, in the old post offices, the stone guardrails still line many a scenic road. The Reagan military build-up ended the Soviet Union, after it got GM and Ford back to production.

The position is not, and has never been if conservatives care about people in poverty, it's what do we think is best to do about it.

What do Republicans need to do in the aftermath of this election? They need to stop allowing the Democrats to be the ones who define what conservatives values are.

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

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ORIGINAL: dcnovice
It would be interesting to hear what the food bank staff/volunteers think about whether their efforts are enough to address poverty or if they see a place for governmental action as well.

One is run by a church that I don't have any sort of contact with, but the other is operated by a really decent sort of guy that I do know. His central focus is a privately funded "recovery ranch," west of town, where homeless addicts can go and live for a while, when they leave rehab centers. They are the staff for the food and clothing distribution center. I sit on the mock interview panel he does as part of the job training, and help the guys come up with better answers to the questions potential employers may ask.

What does he think of government action? A percentage of the guys who come will stay a few weeks, then bail back across the county line, where they can then report to the welfare office that they have sought treatment for their "disease," and get right back on the handout train for another two or three years, while they are running a Social Security disability claim for their incurable addiction.