This weekend I attended the swearing-in of a Democratic district magistrate.  He is the first Democrat to hold that office in the history of his county.  While there, i had the opportunity to rub shoulders with numerous pols, including a state supreme court justice.  One Democrat, a very personable fellow who has been involved in politics since the '50's, gave me the following wisdom regarding typical party members:

Democrats: lower-class working stiffs who see others leading the "good life" and would like a hand in doing so themselves.

Republicans: former Democrats who now have a couple dollars in their pockets.

Libertarians: former Republicans who have convinced themselves they put that couple dollars in their pockets entirely through their own efforts.

I find little to argue with in his points, although I will stipulate that his take on things might be different if the area in which he is active included a major urban area.

My theory is a little different:

Democrat:  everyone

Republican:  Democrat that has been mugged

Sorry, I don't have anything for the Libertarians...

I take issue with his deffinition of a Liberatarian. Don't we all(Expect for welfare recipients) make money through our own efforts?
Noone has ever given me free money.

Unfortunately for him, he left out a HUGE part of the Democratic party--

The "Entitlements"--the people who are NOT working stiffs that want the government to pay for them for the rest of their lives.  I used to work for a Rent to Own place and did a lot of work in the projects in Richmond.  The "popular" thing at the time was to knock your girlfriend (often 15, 16, 17 y.o.) up so she gets a free apartment, and a monthly check.  Then you move in and have free living quarters, and whatever money you could get out of her when the monthly ADC check showed up.   These are the people in the City that keep the Democratic administrations and Pols in place.  They don't want to give up the free handouts they have come to rely on.

What AFARR said!

I believe there's a substantial democrat party constituency that prefers the government take responsibility for their well being, and that democrat politicians are actively engaged in growing that customer base.

A top ten people of the year type article recently held up as an example of personal commitment and initiative a woman whose child was killed in an auto accident after she failed to strap him into an appropriate child seat.  Her response to that tragedy was to lobby one of the northwestern states to pass legislation requiring such seats in the future, rather than taking responsibility herself or educating other parents.  Based on the article, her apparent rationale was "if only the government had made me do the right thing....... they should have checked this out and known that what I did wasn't safe".  Moral of the story - the government should be responsible for children's safety, not the parents.  Naturally the media held her up as a shining example of how one person can make a difference by getting new legislation passed.  I hate to seem callous about the death of a child but this just seems like the wrong approach to me.  How much protection from themselves to democrats need?  Is there any limit or end?

Sorry for the rant, but when I hear wisdom and the democratic party mentioned in the same sentence I start to get spun up.

I heard this a while ago-

A Democrat will give you a loan
A Republican will guarantee you a loan
A Libertarian will leave you alone

Powergen, that story you stated just burns me up (typical liberal mentality).

Just saw a thing on the news a few days ago that was very similar.  A family (liberal idiots) were sueing Ford Motor Co. because their son was killed in an accident that went as such:

He was riding in an Explorer Sport, the type that is only a 2-door version.  It is specifically designed as a 4 person vehicle as it only has **2** seat in the rear (and therefore 2 seatbelts) and 2 seats in the front.  The son was the 5th person riding in the back, sitting **inbetween** the 2 seats that did have seatbelts, when the teanage driver, speeding late at night, "lost control" of the vehicle.  The vehicle rolled and ejected the young man, as he was the only one not wearing seatbelt, and he was killed.

The parents have filed a lawsuit and said, "Ford should have known that people would try to fit a third person in the back (even though there are clearly ONLY 2 seats) and added another seatbelt."

With the liberals it always "[insert entity here] should have known."

Yep, it's true.  The meek shall inherit the Earth.

CMOS

In the Bible,a very wise an kind man said, "  give a man a fish, an you feed him for today,  but teach that man to fish and he can feed himself for his life"
   I'm a Replublican an belive in helping, but Dam if I'm going to do it all for you!!!!!
 There are blind an deaf folks working in this country, if they can overcome such mountainous disabilities, then anyone can work!!!  I rent to very low income people, an if you don't belive there are jst BUMS in our country then YOUR stupid.  One guys a drund an when he isn't drinking he's too NERVIOUS to  work, he gets a disability check.  Another girl Wouldn't go to school, so now she's too uneducated to work, so she gets a check an her rent. Another woman is too dam fat, so she cant work, an every one of her 3kids are buckets of blubber too.   THese ARE NOT disabilities, they are self inflected troubles, and WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WORK FOR THEM !!!!!!!
If you can't make it in this country then there isn't a place on earth you could survive in.
 Like I said I belive in helping these folks get their lives together,  but they have to do it.  The DEMs just blive in paying them for their votes.

Now, the first question that comes to my mind is "who's cutting you the check every month for the rent?"  Are they paying you or are you accepting gummint money (not that there is much difference if they are on public assistance)?