The Conservative Conundrum

Do you believe that our country has plenty of jobs?  Do you believe that people in our country stop depending on the government, and get those jobs?

Or, do you instead believe that immigrants are taking all our jobs?  That we need to ‘make America great again’?

I know conservatives that are on either side of that dichotomy.  Many are on both sides at the same time.¹

Similarly:  How do we can maintain a similar dichotomy in our minds regarding President Obama-  that he’s been a ‘disaster’ for the country,² yet, everyone that doesn’t have a job or three is a taker and a bum and the reason they’re not working a real job is because we’re too generous with the food stamps.

Either people are really hurting, or they’re takers and bums.³

Having gotten soft in my old age, I tend to believe that the 15+ million children living in poverty are not ‘takers’.  I also don’t think that their parents are going to magically just figure things out if we cut their foodstamps.  I don’t get how you can believe they’re lazy trash, but if you cut their support, they’ll suddenly figure it all out and fly straight from here on out.

I long for the day when we’ll not only be ready for, but actually demand proposals that moved beyond simplistic, populist garbage that doesn’t account for reality, common sense, or human tendency.