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“obama s minions ARE better off
Original Chinese Proverb: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
New Proverb: Give a man a welfare check, a cell phone, cash for his clunker, food stamps, section 8 housing, Medicaid, 100 weeks of unemployment checks, a 40-ounce malt liquor, needles, drugs, contraceptives, designer Air Jordan shoes and you got his vote for a lifetime.”

Thanks for one of the more prescient postings I’ve seen on FR in a while.

Your “new proverb” illustrates why the “old polling questions” — such as “are you better off now?” — and why “employment stats” are losing relevance in trying to put one’s finger on the pulse of the campaign.

It also goes a considerable ways towards explaining why Obama’s “numbers” never seem to drop below the 42% level (perhaps with an exception in “the reddest states”), and in some of the blue states, his approval approaches 60% or higher.

And it illustrates the increasing “divide” between two “emerging Americas”, which bodes ill for the future.

On one side are those who believe in what I’d call (for lack of a better term) the old “Scots-Irish defiance”. This is the philosophy that embraces freedom, family, home, work, independence, and the mistrust of government which is regarded as a “taker” of what the individual creates. Simply stated, these are the “Don’t Tread On Me” folks.

On the OTHER side is a growing cohort of people who harbor beliefs that are diametrically opposed from the above group. These people see government as “the giver”. They view the “Don’t Tread on Me’s” who oppose government largesse and power as a threat to their needs, and label them as intolerant and “racist”, or whatever.

Call this paradigm “the new slavery”, if you will. Only now, it’s government that has become “the new Massa”, and corrupt politicians and their ever expanding cadre of bureaucrats, administrators, and regulators who take on the role of “the new overseers”.

On one side stand those who love freedom and mistrust government. On the other are those who love entitlements and government and its “gifts”, and who don’t seem to care much about “freedom”, so long as they get handouts.

To these people, “employment statistics” no longer count for much, they may do as well or better by NOT working than by being employed.

And for this reason, it makes no sense for them to vote for Republicans, no matter how RINO-ish they may be — because the democratic candidate will ALWAYS offer them “more”.

And as this voting cohort grows demographically, we are seeing America’s second “Great Divide” in progress.

And your “new proverb” has as much to do with that as anything....