I am middle-of-the -road, neither conservative nor liberal. I am sick and tire of the backbiting going on between and within both parties. The personal attacks, especially within the Republican Party, have nearly “turned me off” politics. I used to be a Democrat, then along came the “controlling tendencies” by the Democrats, trying to tell us what we “can” and “cannot” do. I have seen the Republican Party become more corrupt and closed to individual contributions to its policies. The Democrats are just as bad telling us we MUST “help” the poor. There is no merit in being FORCED to do “good.” The government takes from “the rich” and gives to “the poor.” This is not charity, this is robbery! When the "government decided private entities could no longer give unlimited charity to those in need, it was then required to fill in the gaps created by this new “policy.” New government agencies were created to oversee these new needs, raising the cost of aiding the poor."

The problem with ObamaCare and most of the programs introduced by Obama is that these smack of Socialism because we, the people, have no choice but to abide by the government’s fiats. We are to do “many things of our own free will,” as has been said the “free will” part is the problem. We show no merit when the government takes from the “rich” to give to the “poor.” These programs create a bureaucracy which takes millions in tax dollars to sustain.
When the government began telling us how much we could contribute to private charitable organizations, it began its incursion into our lives. We are now limited as to how much we can contribute to tax-exempt organizations without being taxed by the government. It is much more efficient for private charities to distribute to the poor than for the “all-knowing,” “all-powerful” government. These bureaucracies take unnecessary tax dollars from the donors to pay their employees (who, by the way, generally have little concern for the poor. The Church and other “private” organizations are much more caring about how to help the poor. The government is too big to vet the recipients who have a tendency to consider the goods “entitlements.”

Danger is found in the extremes: liberal AND conservative. Safety and compassion are to be found in the middle. We must beware of leaning too far to the left and too far to the right. When the “ship of state” begins to list to the right, we must move to the left; when she begins to list to the left, we must move to the right: only this will keep us on the correct course!