Gay Conservative

Most of the media hasn’t had much to say about Barack Obama’s recent comments to the now-infamous Joe the Plumber, a working-class guy in Ohio who had the audacity to ask Barack to his face about his tax plans.  Barack specifically said, “we need to spread the wealth around!”  The conservative blogosphere went nuts for Joe, liberals in key offices illegally searched for information on him, and McCain immediately made him the posterchild for blue-collar America.  In the conundrum we’ve lost the reality of Barack’s remarks–though stories aplenty, including taped radio interviews with a younger Barack Obama, prove that he firmly believes in socialist wealth redistribution ideals.  Joe Biden denies it, but it’s right there, staring us all in the face.

I have a different kind of posterchild for you.  She’s the posterchild for Barry O’s “wealth redistribution” plans.  You might even recognize her:

Her name is Sharon Jasper, and she’s a classic example of what happens when you take from those that have and give to those that have not.  The trouble with Sharon isn’t that she can’t work.  She’s not disabled at all; in fact, she was arrested last year for a very spirited, physical protest outside of a public housing unit in New Orleans that was to be razed for the rebuilding effort.  Her education level is unknown, but she can at least string enough words together to get her point across.  She was caught on video screaming anti-white epithets at a man quietly sitting in a city council meeting and asking her to calm down so the meeting could start.

I blogged about her last year.  After the debacle at the city council meeting, Jasper allowed a reporter and photographer from the Times-Picayune into her home, which she described as a “slum,” to get her point across.  She made herself a laughingstock.  She took the reporter onto her balcony and said, “I may be poor, but I don’t like to live poor.  I thank God for a place to live, but sometimes it’s pitiful what people give you.”  She was snapped, sitting in her so-called slum, on brand-new furniture with hardwood floors and a 60-inch Sony flatpanel TV next to her.  Some research showed that the TV was selling at Best Buy at the time for well over $10,000.  She also pointed to a homeless encampment a half mile away and said, “I might do better in one of those tents!”  (She might miss her TV, though!)

I pointed out then that Jasper also bragged about taking her daughter to the welfare office on her 18th birthday to begin collecting her very own welfare check every month.  Jasper’s family lost their house in Hurricane Katrina, a home they’d owned for generations in a part of New Orleans that was crime-ridden and flooded with welfare dependents.  After the storm, they were given public housing and told to use the help to get back on their feet.  They never did.  When the news came that the extra check they’d been getting ON TOP OF THEIR MONTHLY WELFARE CHECK was about to stop and their housing was about to be rebuilt, Jasper threw a fit.  All of those like her did.

This is what wealth redistribution does–it sounds like a good idea on the surface, at least to those who aren’t rich and paying more.  It takes from those who have and gives to those who don’t, but when you keep doing that long enough, eventually you create an entire class of people who aren’t concerned with getting an education or actually earning a living.  They could care less about acquiring useful skills.  Why do that when you can sit on your backside your entire life and drink and/or snort the check the government gives you every month?  At least you don’t have high blood pressure and stress from working every day, right?

That’s not what a free society is supposed to do.  If I’m working for my money, I damn well expect to keep it.  I was raised to work hard for what I have so I could appreciate it.  If you want a good idea of the stark contrast between what attitudes were during the great depression, first watch Cinderella Man–then watch Million Dollar Baby.  Both movies will make you cry.  Both movies show the reality of welfare as it is today.

The Sharon Jaspers of America live only for their next handout.  They’ve been getting it so long that they live in a culture of expectation.  Wealth redistribution only makes society weaker, and America cannot afford that now.