A letter from Illinois - Part 2

From Joes' letter:
The purpose of this message is that I'm concerned about the future of this great nation. I'm worried that the silent majority of honest, hard-working, tax-paying people in this country have been passive for too long. Most folks I know choose not to involve themselves in politics. They go about their daily lives, paying their bills, raising their kids, and doing what they can to maintain the good life. They vote and consider doing so to be a sacred trust. They shake their heads at
the political pundits and so-called 'news', thinking that what they hear is always spun by whomever is reporting it. They can't understand how elected officials can regularly violate the public trust with pork barrel spending. They don't want government handouts. They want the government to protect them, not raise their taxes for more government programs.

From me:
Joe, so many thoughts! At the risk of sounding critical ... never mind, I'll just try to address each one.
Concerned about the future of this great nation
Me too. I think most people are. If they aren't, they just aren't listening.
Passive for too long
That could be. Certainly can't argue with it. But you know what? You can lead a person to the polls, but you can't make'em vote!
Not involved in politics
Now we're getting somewhere! Could this be the source of the problem? Do you think your responsibility to the country ends at the ballot box? Do you think your responsibility to the country ends when you pay your taxes? Well I say, if you do, then think again.
Yes, you are allowed to make this choice, to ignore politics, but if you do you forfeit any credibility when you complain.
Maintain the good life
Paying the bills is good. Raising the kids is good. As for the 'good life', that's a very subjective subjective thing - but I'm thinking it's all good.
Voting - a sacred trust
It is.
Pundits and spin
We probably agree here more than we disagree. But here there is a solution, but it's not for the lazy. Use your head. Think. Listen to both sides. Think. It requires work and time and effort. Think. Read. Analyze. Figure it out yourself. Use your head. You know, if you do this you can watch the 'news' and laugh. You can listen to the speeches and laugh. You can discuss things with friends. You can debate things with those who see thing differently than you. Be curious. Think.
Pork
Can't understand how this happens? Have you ever turned any down? Do you know what 'pork barrel spending' is? Do you know how much of the budget is considered pork? (note - it's not as much as you might think) The term is misused so much that perhaps we should define it. But I'm not going any further with this. We agree that some government spending is wasteful, even though we don't know how much that is. I have to say this - if "pork barrel spending" is anything it is a hotbutton used in political elections. By all sides.
Handouts
Of course the honest, hard-working tax payers don't want handouts. Not for themselves. But many of them understand the need for charity, the need to help other folks who need help, and they don't begrudge this use of their tax dollars. There's a deep well here that we could fall in, but let's not right now. We agreed earlier that one role of government was to help people who needed help - let's leave it at that for now.
Protection
Yep, not question about that one, one of the primary roles of government is to protect the people. On many different levels - make the streets safe, enforce the border, defend from terrorists, defend from agressive nations, financial security, health security - the list just goes on and on.
Raise taxes for more government programs
The last point in this paragraph - finally! Do you see what I meant about so many thoughts? Hey, every one of them is good and important, and they are loosely connected in a way.
As a general statement this one is true - no one wants more taxes, although believe it or not, there are those who believe it just might be worth it in many cases, and who believe they have a responsibility not only to pay their taxes but to understand just how they are being spent and to speak out when they agree as strongly as they do when they disagree.
And hey, 'more government programs' is just too broad. If there is an axe to grind about specific government programs, bring it on, but just grouping all government programs into the 'bad' basket is a cop-out.