Glen Beck and I

Last weekend Grant's parents were here, and we went downtown to the Glen Beck rally. They had told Jefferson it was a big party, and he was sorely disappointed when we arrived. He began to walk around calling "Who has the candy?? Where is the candy??".

Anyways, I have been thinking about Glen Beck, and politics, and just trying to figure out my thoughts on them. For some reason listening to Glen Beck makes me... Cringe. And I'm trying to figure out why. I mean, I think I'm more republican then democrat, so I think I should agree with him. But I think I have a problem with the way he paints all liberals as either designing and evil or stupid, and republicans as the last hope for the future.

I don't really know if I am republican or democrat I guess. I don't feel like I'm either. I was thinking about it this morning, and I decided that I think it comes down to
Republican = take care of yourself & teach a man to fish
Democrat = take care of others & take the man some fish .
I'm a pretty independent kind of person, and I believe in taking care of yourself. But at the same time I do see cases where there are very real, legitimate needs, and it seems like the private sector isn't properly taking care of them, so I can't think badly of people who want to set up government institutions to help.

I was very blessed to have been raised in a home where I had opportunities for a great education, I learned to cook and clean and run a household economically, and I was rewarded for hard work and learned to appreciate that. I also have great family support, and I know that I can always call on them in times of need. I think sometimes I tend to take all those things for granted. But now I see there are a lot of really messed up homes in America, and kids are growing up without any of that, and to say to them "Look, I've managed to make it on my own, what's your problem?"... I don't know, but I used to think anyone who was living on welfare was just lazy and dependent, but I guess it's a lot more complicated then that. And while I do think you should teach the person to fish whenever possible, just because you grow up fishing doesn't mean you can just throw out fishing poles with instructions attached and say "It's simple stupid, just go out and fish" and then expect people to be able to provide for themselves in the same way you do.

But I do believe that government is by nature not very efficient, and simply creating more and more programs and spending more and more money is not going to solve all the social problems out there. So I guess I just feel like we need some balance. The government may have a very important role in the welfare problems of our day, but I think government alone can't fix it, and more government isn't necessarily the answer. But it doesn't get fixed by just shouting "self reliance and strong business!" in a megaphone either.

Well, the boys are awake so I'll have to solve politics in America another day. ha ha ha.