Elections come down to the question of trust, which candidate do you trust more? Americans need to think about a more important question as they vote, which party trusts them? Democrats have this paternalistic quality in which they want to "take care" of Americans with the unspoken theme that government knows best, particularly the federal government. Republicans want Americans to take care of themselves as much as possible.
It's a question of trust. Democrats view society's problems and their first impulse is to legislate them away. Admittedly it is difficult to not want to take the reigns of society when there is so much chaos in the news. It's incredibly hard to watch people fail and not do something to help them. We have a social safety net with programs like welfare, food stamps, medicare and medicaid. However our safety net has become sticky rather than springy. It ensnares and entraps people rather than giving them a much needed bounce to propel them forward. Democrats use this stickiness to their advantage and try to create fear in the electorate that something vital is being taken away. What voters ought to fear is that their very self-respect is being eaten away with each silky thread added to this so called safety net. Each tendril that appears to embrace us and shield us from supposed harm in fact wraps us and keeps us in this net, this sticky web of government dependence. I don't think Americans ever would have supported these programs had they realized the supposed cushion that they were intended to provide would indeed be used to suffocate America.
Republicans are left to combat this image of being the party that takes away when in all honesty they are the party that gives to America. Republicans give to individual Americans the respect that they deserve. Republicans give to each of us the trust that it is our individual rights that are upheld by a limited government. I don't want to be sorted into any group by the government. When it comes down to it everyone would like to be viewed as an individual not just a conglomeration of quantifiable attributes such as age, race, gender, or religion to name just a few. I want to be trusted to use my own resources to help others in the way that is meaningful to me.
I want to be trusted to fail. I want to be trusted to fall down and pick myself back up and try again. I want to be trusted to do that over and over again if necessary. It's not that I have a desire to fail or that I want anyone to root for me to fail; I don't. I want the opportunity to try and the freedom to try what I want and in the manner I see fit to attempt it. Republicans have trust in the individual citizen. They believe in me that I have the right to trust in myself and my God and to act according to my conscience.
Billy Joel - A Matter of Trust
