03/28/2024

How Much Is Your Vote Worth?

...and will you sell it?
By RICH ROSTRON
The Response
8/29/2022

It’s clear that Joe Biden and the Democrats want to buy your vote. Even some Republicans are not above trying to sway your vote with a little taxpayer funded ‘good will.’ But primarily, it is the Democrats who are willing to pay you, one way or another, for your vote.

Consider the loan forgiveness executive order Biden announced yesterday. For what is now estimated to cost taxpayers $500 billion, the government will forgive $10,000 of debt from every borrower who makes less than $125,000 annually - $20,000 for those with Pell Grants.

In this case, Biden is targeting 40-million Americans who fit those groups. That represents slightly less than one-in-eight Americans. That’s a voting block that could help to sway the outcome of November’s midterm elections (though the effort may backfire as those not getting the bribe don’t think it’s a good idea or fair, and some who are agree).

Over the course of the Pandemic, mostly-Democrat elected officials determined what is essential and told everyone else to stay home (as though an economy isn’t essential). Then the government passed out checks to those folks who were staying home. Some liked the idea so much that they have decided they really don’t want to work anymore.

They’ve fallen off the backside of the unemployment roles (based on the politically advantageous method created for counting unemployment). For quite some time now, we’ve had trouble convincing these people that they should work for a living. And why should they when the government is eager to pay their way? As long as the government can get enough of their votes.

In the meantime, those who bribe voters are hoping the voters haven’t noticed that what’s given with one hand is taken away with another – i.e., INFLATION!

In Illinois, pensions for teachers represent a time-honored form of political patronage. The teachers know which side of their bread is buttered. They generally vote as a block for the party that utterly dominates politics in the state.

The worst example of buying votes, however, is what Democrats have done to swing minority voters to their side for the past 57 years.

The Democrat party is the party of slave ownership in America before the Civil War. They’re the party that fought to preserve slavery. Democrats are the party of the KKK, Segregation and Jim Crow. Yet, with LBJ’s “Great Society,” Democrats have passed out $trillions and $trillions of taxpayer funds that have made minorities unflinching supporters of the same party that used to persecute minorities.

Ask a minority today, or a young, indoctrinated individual of any stripe, and they’ll assume the KKK, Segregation and Jim Crow were products of “greedy” and ‘heartless’ Republicans. They don’t know that Republicans fought to end slavery, Segregation and Jim Crow. It’s a blight on honest history as sure as a “1619 Project” that claims the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery.

The unfortunate truth is that, when someone is taking ‘free money,’ they’re not always inclined to honestly consider where it came from or what it represents. They’re not likely to consider the effects of those handouts.

For instance, consider the effects of Welfare on the inner city. America has pumped $trillions of taxpayer funds into the inner cities and people living there are no better off now than when the money began to flow. Those who took the money didn’t stop to think about how the handouts would destroy the family structure in their community, and the community in general. They didn’t stop to think about how there’s no sense of accomplishment when taking a handout, and how sorely it is missed in an individual’s sense of self-worth.

Most of all, people accepting Welfare and other ‘handouts’ don’t stop to think that the people buying their votes aren’t even using their own money to buy those votes; they’re using money taken from taxpayers. Those selling their votes haven’t stopped to think about the true cost of Welfare or the true value of their votes. This country would be far better off if they considered both.


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