Government exists for the whole not the groups

We the people, of the people by the people and for the people. Founding phrases and the stuff of greatness. Somewhere along the way (I believe it was 1932) we stopped being for the people and for the groups.

President Obama exists for a small set of groups. Nancy Pelosi exists for groups. Arlen Spector exists for groups. Groups get politicians elected. This is unmistakable. Prior to every election we hear the pollsters tell us candidateA is doing well with white males, candidateB is doing poorly with hispanic females. Who is here to help the Joe Citizen? The guy who is trying to teach his children that you are in charge of your destiny. The guy who is trying to put away enough to live in retirement without turning to the government. The guy who wants his children to grow up with the values the he has. Don't get me wrong I believe all politicians believe they are doing just that. They stand up for the 'little guy'. We hear it all the time. By doing so they encourage the little guy not to stand up for himself. Roosevelt called him the forgotten man. He made great prose by espousing the forgotten man. He went to work attacking the powerful. President Obama wants to stand up for 'main street instead of Wall Street'.

Unfortunately we don't live in groups, we live as individuals and families. I know a man that has two houses because he had to move closer to his extended family that couldn't take care of themselves and can't sell his old house. He is in financial straits. He has kept his mortgage current, although it takes an incredible balancing act. President Obama wants to help those who took out mortgages they couldn't afford. There is no stimulus for those like my friend. By the way I don't want more people covered in the stimulus. The problem with government being the savior to all is they can only be savior to a small percentage of the population. In doing so they have to punish one group to help another. They leave very credible 'forgotten men' on the field.

I was having a debate with another friend the other day. This friend was very concerned about the poor who can't live as well as she does and she worries about how much it costs to go to the doctor. I strongly support the compassion and agree with it. Her savior of choice is government, mine is the people themselves. I happen not to believe that getting more and more people addicted to the debilitating power of government is compassion. While the intentions are good, the results are disastrous. Health care insurance is a problem for many people. My friend looks for the government to step in and make her doctor bills go away. Unfortunately we have found nowhere in history where government health care insurance has done that without creating shortages in actual health care as opposed to health care insurance.

President Obama makes pretty sounding speeches, he attempts to put a struggling people's minds at ease. His solutions have never worked in the history of man. They will however get him votes with the groups he needs to get re-elected, whether he accomplishes his goals or not. He looks to FDR as a model of how to fix this crisis. FDR got re-elected without fixing any economic ills. FDR did however make his groups feel like he cared about them. I would rather a leader that respects me. A leader that believes I can make better choices about my money than his planners can. Do we have any of those leaders today? Leaders that believe that the American people one American at a time is more powerful than the America made up of lobbying groups? A leader that will tell the people you can fix your life far better than I and my planners can? I sure hope so, we need one now.