Duh....

It seems as if a majority of Americans prefer lower taxes and less government services than higher taxes and more government services.....

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 62% of voters would prefer fewer government services with lower taxes. Nearly a third (29%) disagrees and would rather have a bigger government with higher taxes. Ten percent (10%) are not sure.

A majority of Americans still remain American maintaining the traditional values of self-reliance, a faith in God, prayer and the Bible, honor and respect for the family, diligent work ethics, absolute values of right and wrong, honesty in business practices, wholesomeness in leadership, respect toward authority, moderation rather than excess, marriage as a prerequisite before having sex or bearing children, a family which consists of both a father and mother, taking responsibility to provide for our own — such as one’s spouse, family and children, and so forth.

Nowhere in the portfolio of American traditional values is there anything even approaching asking or demanding government to provide us services or goods. The United States is not Europe and if they want to have or try to achieve cradle-to-grave entitlements, then they are a free people and should pursue this course. Its their choice. But because Europeans want to go down this path, it does not mean that we have to travel that road. We, as Americans, have always blazed out own trails.

When our forefathers in the US decided to go out on their own they wrote the Declaration of Independence. In that document, supporting the inalienable rights of man included "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the writers were adopting 17th century philosopher John Locke's concept of "life, liberty, and estate." Estate refers to one's own property as one's own to use and consume as one see's fit.

Unfortunately, a swath of American society seems to think that since they are lucky enough to be born there, that they are due such things as healthcare conveniently paid by someone else. The concept of healthcare, obviously very important to one's life, is a consumer good that people have been convinced is now a 'right' that they are entitled to. But this is not what the United States is all about. There is no right to the specific good of healthcare, but there is the right to life, liberty and to pursue one's happiness. Do these rights, particulary the right to life, entitle one to access to healthcare even if one cannot afford it or a right to frantic and expensive healthcare that only extends terminally ill people short periods of time? What I think that the framers had in mind is that one has the right to life and this refers to the right that your life cannot be arbitrarily taken from you by either government or by your neighbors. One still has to be self-reliant, whether the reliance be on yourself, your family or your community and people need to consider that one may have to save or consider options for the potential that one may need to pay for healthcare that extends life. I do not think that what this means is that you have a right to this healthcare and that therefore someone else is compelled to pay for it. As far as I am concerned, seizing my assets to pay for someone else's healthcare is a seizure of my property and infringing on my own right to pursue my own happiness. Is my right to pursue happiness as I see fit, trumped by someone else's need, even if I do not even know them, to my assets to pay for their healthcare? What if the need to funds is so great to provide healthcare to others that it takes all of my property to provide these services?

So, in the end, I just don't get it. It has become a mystery to me why anyone would vote for Democrats. People that want to take your money through seriously higher taxes to distribute to people to create some kind of Utopian society molded in what they think is right. This is not what my nation is all about. If one wants to be European, then one has the opportunity to move to Europe. Of if one wants to create this utopia, then why not create it in one state. I figure that all kinds of progressive Democrats will move to that state and prove how wonderful their plan is. But, in the meantime, I cannot foresee me ever voting for a Democrat since I do not think that Democrats have my best interests nor the best interests of the nation in mind.