Do We Really Celebrate Success Today?

Americans used to celebrate success, regardless of a persons race, ethnic background or status in life. Our friends and parents taught us to admire independence and self-reliance which in turn gave us liberty to do or not to do certain things in our life. We thought it better for people to thrive on their own rather than to look to the government for a handout instead of a hand up. It seems that most all of those positive thoughts have been changed and/or have gone by the wayside since Obama came on the scene.

All we seem to hear from the Obama Administration and the Democrats is that you need to take advantage of what the government has to offer you, whether you need it or not. In order to get votes, they have encouraged “poor” people to apply for food stamps in ever increasing numbers. In fact, when he took office in 2009, there were 32 million people on food stamps, but now the figure is 47 million (even middle-class people are now eligible for food stamps) and the cost is around $70 billion per year. In addition, the Obama Administration has given “free” cell phones to the poor people at a cost of many millions of dollars, just because they are poor, he has also included a provision in Obamacare that “children” up to the age of 26 can be included on their parents health insurance policies, and on and on goes the offering of “freebies”.

The modus operandi of Obama has been to get as many people as possible relying on government largesse and handouts and of relying on the government, as they then will be motivated to keep the “freebies” coming to them by voting for the Democrats.

During his first term in office, he has increased federal employment which has now become a built-in voting bloc, as these people want to keep their jobs, whereas the big, bad, fiscally conscious Republicans want to cut the size of government which will then mean fewer jobs. That’s one reason why the State of Virginia has become a “swing state”, as the northeastern counties are considered to be bedroom communities for the vast army of government workers who work in D.C and surrounding area.

We can’t continue on this road to financial ruin by making more and more people dependent on the government for handouts. The old saying of, “Give a man a fish, you have fed him for today, Teach a man how to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime”. This “nanny state” mentality is getting worse and worse. The incentive to sit on your butt and collect government money is becoming more and more common. They think they are entitled to the largesse of the gainfully employed and those who run their own businesses and who pay taxes. It seems like the “takers” are multiplying and the “makers” are dwindling. Before you know it, we’ll become another financial basket-case like many of the countries in Europe with their socialist-styled economic systems. As former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher once said, “The trouble with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money”.

Which brings me to think of the saying, “I can remember when being a success in life was a cause for celebration, not a grievance”. Success should not be a dirty word.

Conservative commentary by Chuck Lehmann