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My Country Tis of Thee
By davidjeffers | August 29, 2008
My country, ‘ tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrim’s pride
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
I love that song and as I’ve been watching some the speeches at the Democratic National Convention, I’m thinking… “What country are they living in?” According to the leaders of the Democratic Party, we are reliving the Great Depression!
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick says the American story of “hard work, tenacity, preparation and faith…are at risk today.” There is some truth in what Governor Patrick says, but not for the reasons Democratic leaders cite.
Governor Patrick says “the poor are in terrible shape.” Robert Rector, of the Heritage Foundation, writing for National Review Online shared these facts from the Census Bureau:
Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
Only six percent of poor households are overcrowded; two thirds have more than two rooms per person.
The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
Nearly three quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player.
Sixty-two percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.
A third of “poor” households have both cell and land-line telephones.
Governor Patrick says “the middle class are one paycheck away, one serious illness away from being poor and deeply anxious about it.” Let’s look at the average middle class family. Stephen Rose writing for the Washington Post came up with these interesting facts:
The real middle-class median income has risen 33 percent, or $18,000, since 1979.
The number of people in households that bring in more than $100,000 also rose from 12 percent to 24 percent. The middle class is shrinking due to upward mobility. There was no increase in the percentage of people in households making less than $30,000.
Median net worth has grown 35 percent since 1989, according to the Federal Reserve Board, and only 15 percent of households have debt payments worth more than 40 percent of their income or are 60 days late on any debt payment.
Employment is up at least 14 percent since 1993…
Per capita income has increased by at least 15 percent in every state since 1993.
The list of how “bad” America is really doing is long and exceeds allotted space here, but suffice it to say the old Democrat playbook is still in full use and all they have to offer America is class warfare.
Democrats get elected by telling America that it’s okay if you don’t work hard, just keep us in office and we’ll take care of you. Have a child out of wedlock, no problem! If you don’t want to kill your baby, even at the point of partial birth, we’ll take care of you, no matter how many babies you have. After all you are entitled!
That is one word that needs to be struck from the American lexicon…entitlement. Folks, entitlement, defined by Random House as “the right to guaranteed benefits under a government program, as Social Security or unemployment compensation,” is nothing more than a handout.
When Governor Patrick says the American story of “hard work, tenacity, preparation and faith…are at risk today”, it is because Democrats have for too long not enforced the “if a man will not work, he will not eat” biblical principle. Now that doesn’t mean if a man cannot work we should not help him until he gets back on his feet again. However, this constant looking to the government to meet are needs brings me to believe that the Democrats and their supporters need a new verse for “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”:
My country is misery
What can it give to me
Of thee I fleece.
Land where I have a free ride,
Taking it from taxpayers’ hide
From every hardworker’s backside,
Give me my bling!
If this wasn’t so true it might actually be funny.
[i] Robert Rector, Poor Politics: Edwards’ poverty plague examined, (National Review Online, August 27, 2007).
[ii] Stephen Rose, 5 Myths About the Poor Middle Class, (Washington Post, December 23, 2007).
Topics: David Jeffers, Uncategorized |
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