[Jeff Higgins]

Steve, I agree whole heartedly with just about everything you say. I believe we should help those less fortunate than ourselves. I believe there is a genetic predisposition to "success" or "failure" as our society measures such today.

Sometimes I think our standards for "success" are too narrowly defined as purely financial; there are other ways to be "successful". Maybe the Kragan's guy has been happily married to the same woman his entire life, has loving well-adjusted children, maybe grandchildren. Maybe the rich "successful" guy has been divorced multiple times, his suicidal son is in rehab again, his daughter is a heroin addict turned hooker to support her habit, and his dog just bit him. Who is more "successful"? But I digress...

I think the real difference between liberals and conservatives is twofold. Number one, the nature of the people that need our help. While I believe there truly are people that do, I also understand that there are those who will take it if it's there. For no other reason than they are lazy. Not incapable, just lazy. Liberals don't seem to see these people; they assume everyone will try given the chance. Conservatives know better.

The second area of dissagreement is in who provides the help; who administers the programs. Liberals like big government to take over. It makes it easier for them because then they do not have to make any hard decisions about who gets the help. It gets them off the hook on number one above. Conservatives would prefer local control. They want to see the people that are asking for help. They want to know it is really needed. They want to weed out the lazy scammers they know are out there. They see liberals as, well, too liberal with the handouts. They want the qualifications to be a little tougher to meet. They even want the nature of the help to change; more along the lines of helping folks to help themselves, rather than no-strings-attached handouts.

I think we all want the same thing in the end. We want a society without poverty, without anyone doing without. The difference in opinion is how to achieve that. Conservatives lean towards helping our needy become more self-reliant so they can contribute like the rest of us. Liberals would like to coddle them.