http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/30937.html

by Thomas D. Segel

Where Do We Find Our Values?
February 25, 2008 01:00 PM EST


If you make your home in Texas, you can’t escape them. They are everywhere these days, hurriedly promising bounty to all within range of their voices. Even their printed matter is filled with pledges of greater public funding. The Democrat contenders for the Oval Office will GIVE everyone healthcare. They will GIVE everyone a meaningful education. They will GIVE those who are about to lose their homes, protection. They will GIVE those on the border and across the nation security. They will GIVE the illegal alien his or her unearned path to citizenship.

The only thing wrong with all these wonderful gifts is they are not the property of political office seekers to pass out as if they were door prizes. What they want to give away is not theirs. It is a redistribution of every hard working American’s wealth.

The reality is, those who march on the secular left, while parroting compassion and reaching out to the poor and underserved with grandiose monetary rewards, rarely give anything from their own personal treasuries. They speak of change and hope, but what they really mean is they hope to give their followers your change…along with the folding money from your wallets.

Where do people find their values? For me, I guess it was spending many years wearing the Eagle, Globe and Anchor of the Marine Corps. It was my family. It was obtaining college degrees after I learned the difference between education and indoctrination. It was dedicating my post-military years to laboring in the non-profit sector. But, most of all, those important life molding values came from the church.

Coming from such a background also makes me to look upon political candidates with great suspicion and causes me to develop particular distain for those who trumpet a socialist agenda. These same politicos also anger me because they treat the public purse as if it were their own private piggy bank.

I wonder why a political party that is blatant in socialistic pronouncements can’t be honest about the party name. Those who advocate socialism should be proud of their heritage and not hide it behind the title of Democrat. Because their agenda is liberal and left, why do they hide this fact and label themselves Progressive? Most of all, when they claim to be loving and giving and caring about those who are less fortunate, why do they not display these feelings with the generous giving of themselves and their bounty?

This final thought actually brings me to the heart of this commentary. When defined by the left, conservatives, particularly religious conservatives are always portrayed as uncaring people who lack generosity. These observations are far from factual. According to Dr. Arthur C. Brooks of Syracuse University, religious conservatives are among the most caring and giving people in America.

In his book, “Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservativesâ€