By Louis Avallone
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Recently, the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals to the Boston Bruins. Back home in Vancouver, their distraught fans rioted, with nearly 100 people arrested and almost 150 injured, while cars were burned and an estimated 50 businesses vandalized. The total damages are expected to run into the millions of dollars. Of course, sports rioting is not new, but the recent Vancouver riot was unusual because it is usually the winning team that riots.
The winning team riots, really? For example, when the Los Angeles Lakers captured the NBA title in 2000, its fans began vandalizing property, setting bonfires, and destroying vehicles, resulting in 11 arrests and 12 injuries. Same result occurred when the Lakers beat the Boston Celtics in the 2010 NBA finals. And after the Red Sox won the 2007 World Series, there were at least 37 arrests made as fans burned cars and threw bottles at police – and this was the winning team.
Ridiculous, right? But this isn’t much different than the modern-day Democrat Party. Their “team” won in 2008 and their “team captain” is in White House. Yet all they have done is complain since then. In fact, only 44% of these Democrats say that the U.S. is heading down the right track, and 69% of voters, who are not affiliated with either major political party, believe that the U.S. is heading down the wrong track.
Just this past March, for example, Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin said Obama had “failed to lead.” Just last week, former Vice President Al Gore sharply criticized Obama as lacking leadership on climate change. Hispanics too are unhappy with the President, as summarized by a Miami immigration activist who said, “Obama has the guts to deport our mothers, deport our fathers, deport our people and then come to us and say `I want your vote’? Please.”
Democrat Sen. Kent Conrad recently described Obama’s consideration of tax cuts, to stimulate our economy, as “just misdirected.” Last week, Democrat Sen. Frank Lautenberg, wrote a letter to the President, saying his administration “has not shown the leadership to combat gun violence.” Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi led Congressional Democrats last week, arguing that Obama’s timeline for bringing 33,000 U.S. troops home by next summer isn’t fast enough.
Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. And as if that wasn’t enough, Congressional Democrats in April called Obama’s budget compromise “irresponsible,” “dangerous” and “immoral.” When one’s morality offends liberals, you know you have crossed the proverbial “line in the sand”.
But for all of the criticism, remember that Democrats, and liberals alike, chose these policies and yet they appear miserable. There was the $787 billion government stimulus plan to start things off, followed-up by nationalized healthcare. There were opportunities to lower income taxes and reduce government regulations, as well as union controls, so that small businesses, in particular, would begin investing and hiring again. Instead, more Americans than forecast filed applications for first-time jobless benefits last week and new-home sales fell in May, as the jobless rate rose to 9.1 percent, which is the highest since December, up from 9 percent.
And instead of choosing policies that promoted energy independence, they chose moratoriums on offshore drilling in the U.S., which was predicted to reduce long-term U.S. oil production by 27%, while increasing long-term U.S. foreign oil imports by 19 percent, not to mention the thousands of jobs lost to Louisiana alone.
They chose redistribution of wealth policies that advertised “shovel ready” jobs, a term that the President now chuckles and grins about; as if my 5 year old just answered the question of “Did you eat all the cookies before dinner?” Still, Democrats got what they wanted, yet seem unhappy. What gives?
There is a school of thought that liberals are generally unhappy. And unhappy is not good. According to hundreds of surveys, happy people increase our prosperity and strengthen our communities.
According to a study by the Pew Institute, conservative Republicans are happier than conservative Democrats, and moderate/liberal Republicans are happier than liberal Democrats. In fact, there are several predictable conditions that are present in happier Americans: Faith, work, family, charity, and freedom, with the level of happiness being proportionate to the extent, which these conditions exist within us all.
But surprisingly, political elections have little effect on our happiness, which might partly explain why the Democrats can be so unhappy. Apparently, Democrat victories in elections do not translate into happiness for Democrats.
In fact, according to the Pew Institute study, going, as far back to 1972, conservatives are happier than liberals, even under Democrat Party control. The data indicates this to be overwhelmingly true during both the Clinton and Carter administrations. And not only that, but it turns out the age old wisdom of “money cannot buy happiness” is true here also. As it turns out, poor Republicans are happier than poor Democrats. And despite conventional wisdom that it is easier to be happier when you are wealthier, you should know that this happier Republican condition is shown to remain consistent throughout all income groups.
Of course, unhappiness may not cause Democrats to riot in the streets, or turn over cars, or shatter the storefronts of businesses along American main streets. But Democrat policies have wreaked havoc on our nation, turning the direction of our country away from those traditional, conservative values upon which we were founded, while shattering the lives of millions who are still unemployed because of small businesses who are crushed under the weight of higher taxes, increased government regulations, and the uncertainty of them both.
Maybe it’s just like Abraham Lincoln said: “People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.” But then again, he was a Republican.