Dems perpetuate victimhood

Most people who are poor want to be rich, or at least self-sustaining. But politicians like President Obama and Sen. Claire McCaskill never talk about fundamental steps of self-responsibility, self-motivation and self-determination by which one might work their way out of poverty.

Instead they employ rhetoric that makes being poor a virtue; that keeps the poor bottled up in a state of victimhood; that rationalizes and perpetuates covetousness, anger, resentment, envy and hate to be released at the polls. The Obama/McCaskill plan is to keep poor people poor, hopeless, angry and eternally dependent upon them. Obama/McCaskill preach endlessly that giving them and fellow Democrats their vote is the most effective means of retaliation against the rich.

Today's Democrat political career depends on promoting victimhood. Fifty years of cynical Democrat manipulation of the poor has led us into a society in which welfare and quotas are "civil rights;" government handouts are "entitlements;" payments to girls having babies out of wedlock are "compassionate;" hardworking, ambitious people who are independent and self-sustaining are scourged as "greedy;" punishment of crime is "oppression;" an independent thinker who stands for courage and self-reliance is dismissed as an "Uncle Tom" if you're black and "a racist" if you're white.

Capitalism and communism are at opposite poles. Their essential difference is this: The communist seeing the rich man and his fine home says, "No man should have so much." The capitalist seeing the same says, "All men should be free from government manipulation to achieve as much."

JOHN McMILLEN, Sikeston, Mo.