My first political eye opener was about 13 years ago. I was in an Eastern city taxi cab when I started a conversation with the driver. What he told me forever changed how I view the political system and voters. His belief was that welfare result, if not its intention, was to keep poor people down as virtual slaves. How? By making people dependent on another (in this case the government) you take away their pride and integrity as independent souls. And in doing so subvert their future to make them even more dependent by making it more lucrative to be on welfare than to work for minimum wage.
After thinking on that for sometimes, I came to agree that it was better to be poor and independent than to be dependent on anyone else for your livelihood. I am not sure why this wasn't more obvious to me and everybody. When we are old enough to leave our parents house, we do so to make something of ourselves, even if things may not be as easy as when we lived at home. And ultimately, what is the gap between economic dependency and slavery other than ownership?
While I am not suggesting that the Democratic party perpetuate a welfare state intentionally to keep the poor and disenfranchised beholden to the Democratic party politically, the result never the less remain just that. The poor and disenfranchised remain a core voting block for the Democratic party.
Yesterday I chanced across this video at the Anchoress which in essence voice a similar cry against dependency.
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