What Political Color Are You?

These days, a great deal is being said about the ever-increasing political polarization the United States. We have seen this taking shape for a number of years now; for decades, it could be argued. One might say that it began in the 1930’s as the social programs of President Franklin Roosevelt were unveiled. We could certainly look at the 1960’s and see this beginning to evolve as the free-love, progressive, hippie movement began to take root. Those aging hippies are now in their 60’s and 70’s and many are in positions of power both in government and in business.

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Now that we are more than ten percent of the way through the 21st century, we have seen the political winds shift even more as both sides have withdrawn into their corners seemingly ready for a 15-round heavyweight bout. The gloves are on and the combatants are right now receiving strategy plans from their coaches. This begs the question – what color are you politically? This has nothing to do with race; not by a long shot. But it has EVERYTHING to do with defining where you stand with regard to the subjects of government spending, free markets, and entitlements. It seems that, with the ever-increasing polarization of the country, there are ever-decreasing numbers of true “independents”. Sure, a great many people are disgusted with both major political parties – and rightfully so. And these people identify themselves as independents or as having no party affiliation. But even the most strident “independent” has to come down somewhere along the political number line as either positive or negative – or, as conservative or liberal – when it comes to the aforementioned issues. There really is no zero. The bottom line is this: A person either espouses a strong work ethic – taking pride in getting up, going to work every day, and providing for his or her family – or one stands for government providing for one’s subsistence and believes that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, food stamps, section eight housing and the vast and seemingly endless government social programs need to, not only continue, but receive even more funding. It’s a matter of basic philosophy: Whom do you trust for your day-to-day existence and future security? Do you trust the government or do you put your trust in your own abilities and work ethic? Right now, we have a country that is very evenly-split between producers and consumers. The producers are determined to keep producing but they are growing weary of producing for the other half. Working people need to work twice as hard to provide, not only for their own families, but also for the families of those that are NOT producing. And what we are seeing is a push-back amongst these producers who are tired of carrying the burden. Even feel-good Democrats that work hard at their jobs and struggle to pay their bills are beginning to abandon President Obama and his liberal cohorts in Congress. These folks, like everyone else, are seeing a decrease in the purchasing power of the dollars for which they work so hard. The election of 2012 is shaping up to be one of epic proportions as the pro-government, free-spending liberals try to hang on to the Senate and the White House (and take back the House of Representatives) while the fiscally-responsible, pro-freedom conservatives try to run the table in an attempt to roll back the programs and policies of the past three to five years. It is a simple as black and white. There is no gray when it comes to the fiscal survival of the United States.