Simplicity vs. complexity

“Here’s Williams’ roadmap out of poverty: Complete high school; get a job, any kind of a job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen. Among both black and white Americans so described, the poverty rate is in the single digits."—Walter E. Williams, noted columnist and economics professor

One of the great things about being a conservative is that there is very little gray area when it comes to life. This is a pleasant and rather convenient side effect of having your “stuff” together. It isn’t that I’m not compassionate, particularly if you’re A) a child, B) have a mental illness or C) suffer from a physical or medical condition. I’ll allow for the possibility that there may be a few others on that list, but basically beyond this, my compassion (and tolerance) diminish considerably.

Every week for roughly the last four years I have witnessed classrooms full of students ranging from their early 20s to late 60s taking steps to improve their lives. Without fail most are not only working full time but also raising a family—as well as enduring my class on a weekly basis, which many would attest is no small feat.

Not that a formal education is the only way to improve oneself. My business partner, for example, never received a college diploma, but I can put him in a room full of ivy-league MBAs and watch him slice and dice them all day long. Just another small example of someone who couldn’t tell me the plot line of Desperate Housewives but could explain the economic theory of “supply and demand,” tariffs and their specific effects on the world’s major stock markets.

Compare this to your average liberal who can find all sorts of ways to explain why an otherwise fully functional adult can be allowed to find any excuse not to survive without some form of government-sponsored giveaway that was enacted with some noble sounding purpose designed to appeal to the delicate sensibilities of liberals’ feelings.

Oh, yes, and the money for this noble cause gets taken from otherwise productive members of society. (The typical liberal thought process: Tax the productive, all others should get a free pass because, after all, it’s only “fair.")

This is why, when spineless Republicans (like Sen. John McCain) move left on an issue, the mainstream media cheers these “centrist” Republicans as “mavericks” rather than recognizing them for what they are—political hacks.

When our own Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic floor leader, wants to be portrayed as a “centrist” or a “moderate,” he whips out his “independent like Nevada” theme.

I have no doubt some Democrats (and Republicans) are in fact “centrist.” You can tell this when they spend so much time blathering about “all sides of an issue” before reaching some centrist consensus—which, as I understand it, lies somewhere politically between Lenin and Stalin.

The rest of us knuckle-dragging Neanderthal conservatives, on the other hand, are painted as hopeless “extremists.”

Of course when a doctor goes to extreme measures to save a patient that’s a good thing. When a lawyer goes to extreme measures to help his client, that’s also a good thing. But if I understand the liberal mindset, being a dyed-in-the-wool, extreme, right-wing Republican? Not so much.

Let’s look at how extreme these positions really are. Let’s see. I’m opposed to infanticide, stealing from others, racial discrimination and illegal aliens.

Liberals, on the other hand, “re-tool their message,” and suddenly, being for abortion, higher taxes, affirmative action and undocumented workers makes one a perfectly reasonable centrist.

Or perhaps not.