democrats and republicans

when i was in my teens and just starting to get interested in politics i decided i must be a democrat because the democrats were the ones that seemed to oppose the war in vietnam, which i opposed too. i have never been one to follow the crowd, however, and eventually i decided i must be a democrat because democrats seemed to believe, as i did, that the american people were, on the whole, too stupid to take care of themselves so the government must take care of them. my personal opinion was this: we must protect the people from themselves. left to our own devices we will surely destroy ourselves. the goverment must take care of us. one big problem with this line of thinking is that it doesn't take into account the number of people who lack the integrity to let this system work without trying to exploit and take advantage of it. people will find very creative ways to defraud the government and literally steal the funds that our tax dollars created to help the poor and disadvantaged. therefore, i have revised my opinion that the goverment should be the ones to help the people. it doesn't work. if one cannot make it through hard work and diligence, they will just never make it. it sounds harsh but that is the way it is ...in nature and in life. this does not come from someone who has made it. quite the contrary. i struggle every week, every day just to make my bill payments and often i find myself short of the needed funds to keep my electricity on or the eviction notice off my door. however, it is a lifestyle that is a consequence of my own poor choices and bad decision making and i won't blame anyone but myself for these dilemmas. hence, i am something of an enigma...a conservative leaning republican with no money. there are many other reasons that i have decided to be a conservative, but i will reserve that information for future posts. i will add that after observing liberals for sometime i have noticed one glaring fact. liberals are for the most part a very mean spirited bunch, preferring to launch personal attacks against their opponents, rather than attack their viewpoints in a respectful manner...that alone should be enough of a reason to not be a liberal, but i know that some people are small minded enough to think that personal attacks are the best way to resolve differences...i fail to follow this logic, but that's just me.