Ron Hart: Why liberals are liberals

Liberals invariably fall into two distinct categories, both of which are essentially comprised of people who want to take something from others without having to pay for it — except with their self-esteem.

First, you have your limousine liberals. These folks either inherited money, married money, or are actors. The reason they are liberal is that they have an innate guilt about the source of their fortune. They feel their money is unearned and is accompanied by the knowledge they have not accomplished anything tangible. Being a liberal comes across as nicer at cocktail parties, since liberals are for giving to the poor and are only against the "greedy people" who want to keep the money they earned themselves.

Since they were given something they did not earn and feel they must now do the same for others, they are in constant "raising awareness" mode - always with someone else's money. It is cute when liberals do this; it reminds me of people who dress up their poodle in a sweater for Christmas. And for the same reason, it tries to make adorable something that is silly.

If you ask one of these limousine liberals any question about their beliefs, their answer is as awkward as one of Barack Obama's when his teleprompter gets unplugged. These people tend to speak of a utopian world of equality, yet they seem very focused on who is on the A-list and who is relegated to the B-list. They take limos to the Al Gore documentary on global warming. They like to surround themselves with equally guilty and unaccomplished folks so as to avoid the inconvenient truth that there are people out there who have made their own money. The self-made success of others reminds them of what they have not done, and they vilify that success as untoward and greedy.

Second, you have your lesbians/gays, teachers, plaintiffs' attorneys, mainstream media and union members. As a core constituency of the Democratic Party, they are there for the free T-shirts and all the other goodies the Democrats dole out to them for showing up at rallies.

The cities with the highest rates of poverty and crime, like Detroit, New Orleans, Oakland, Buffalo, Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, Memphis, Newark, etc. have had only Democratic mayors for decades; in fact, these cities are rotten with the aforementioned Democrats.

Drive through these towns (lock your doors when you do so) and you will see liquor stores, pawn shops, ads for personal injury attorneys and lottery ticket vendors. These cities are very government-centric. Their mayors have been drawn from the worst ranks of opportunistic corruption each city has to offer. They spend the most per capita on education and their kids have the lowest test results. Smart, self-reliant and honest people move out, leaving only looters. When they loot the few businesspeople left and run them out of town, these cities then turn to the federal government. And for their votes, the Obama administration is more than willing to pay them off with your federal tax dollars.

These same Democratic strongholds, like the ones that manufactured votes so Al Franken could steal the election from Norm Coleman (a health warning to Minnesotans: if an election lasts more than four months, consult your doctor), will be at work again via taxpayer-funded, ACORN-type groups, to support Obama in the next election.

The 17-year mayor of Memphis, Willie Herenton, is so arrogant that he stepped down three months before his term ended, causing the city to spend $1.5 million it does not have to facilitate a run-off election. Now, and I am not making this up, he wants to run again. Sadly, the people of Memphis will elect him again. Herenton is starting to make Marion Barry look like Thomas Jefferson.

Common to all of these hitchhikers of society is their desire to get something for nothing by "organizing" and, with the help of government, taking by force something that is not theirs. Once they run the economic engines out of town, there is no "trickle down" wealth — only trickle up poverty.

Ron Hart is a southern libertarian columnist whose weekly column about politics and life appears Saturdays. Contact him at RevRon10@aol.com.