They Did It Because They Were Poor? Sure. Now, I’ll tell one.

April 14, 2008

Obama put his foot in his mouth again by making a comment about the bitterness associated with being poor. I’m going to give the guy a break today. Instead of critiquing his speech, as countless others have done, I will, instead, discuss the sub-conversation that developed as a result, namely that of using poverty as an explanation for evil. This is nothing new. The liberals have been writing and reading that essay for the last 40 years.

It is easier these days to explain evil than to accept evil. If one finds himself too sophisticated to embrace such a tarnished, old fashioned “cowboy style” “extremist” idea as evil, then he is left to explain the actions that we “mistakenly call evil” and poverty always sounds like a logical place to start. After all, bad circumstance can create jealousy and breed discontent.

Unfortunately for this tired but popular explanation, it works about as well as blaming the gasoline tax for my cat ‘s desire to eat birds.

Why did our country have a lower crime rate during the Great Depression then we have now? Far more people were poor in the 1930’s. Could it be that in those days people also had better values? Were children taught from their parents not to take their misfortunes out on others and to always take responsibility for their own actions? We should consider this theory in as much as there were less ambulance chasing lawyers in those days teaching people how to whine and view themselves as victims.

How do we explain the terrorists of 9/11? They came from very well to do families. So did their leader and hero, Osama Bin Laden. He was from a millionaire family. Besides, they didn’t offer poverty as their reason for attacking America. Their stated reason was actually a lot simpler: America is the Great Satan who will not convert to Islam.

Of course none of this matters to the liberals. They will explain away Al Queada’s behavior, even if Al Queada offers a different explanation. You see, sometimes people just don’t know themselves as well as liberals know them.

Not that poverty is the only excuse. It may be that some didn’t get enough attention from their parents when they were growing up. Or maybe they were picked on too much in school. Maybe when Osama was a little kid, his dad didn’t give him the birthday present he had always asked for, France.

All we know is that we can’t call anything or anyone evil….Unless we are talking about George Bush or Republicans or Christians. In those cases, well of course there is such a thing as evil.

The consistency is so obvious, is it any wonder liberals like to point out how they own the intellectual high ground?