In Atlanta, Bernadette Smith, 31, has watched her credit-card debt climb to nearly $40,000. That's more than her annual take-home pay, though she works 13 hours a day at two jobs. Once obsessed with the latest style of designer jeans, Smith now shops for clothes only at Wal-Mart, or maybe Target. She has come to consider a dinner at Ruby Tuesday a splurge.In other words, after years of frivolous shopping beyond her means, she's now compelled to live like a normal person, and she thinks the government should step in to facilitate her previous lifestyle. This is the limit, though:
The faltering economy costs Leslie Garza, 18, nearly an hour of sleep each morning; her mom won't spend the gas money to drive her to downtown Los Angeles for her job scooping ice cream. So she sets the alarm early and takes the bus.Poor baby, her mother loves her. Meanwhile, how is expensive gasoline Bush's fault? It's the deliberate policy of the enlightened to put prohibitive taxes on gasoline to force precisely this result --increased reliance on public transportation-- thereby lowering greenhouse gas emissions. When liberals achieve the results they want, they whine and blame Bush!
Where is the sense of pride in making one's own way, of living modestly but owing nothing to anyone --where is the love of liberty and self-respect?
By the way, in a trend I believe is related, on all the AM talk shows here, the Heritage Foundation is advertising free pocket copies of the Constitution and pushing a "What Would Reagan Do?" educational initiative. And Gary Aldrich is pushing his Patrick Henry Center with come-ons that include explanations of our founding principles. (Are those ads playing in other markets?) Behind the scenes, Conservatives in official Washington are all talking about how to re-found the GOP with a return to Constitutional principles.... Whoever they may be supporting in the election, there seems to be a renewed effort to teach people about liberty.
