So I'm driving down the road and looking at the back end of some liberal's nice, shiny vehicle.  You know, the ones none of us should have because they're bad for the environment and we should be giving more to the poor anyway?

Anyhoo...  Right next to the little "Darwin" fishy thing (you know, the ones with the cute little feet) there's a bumper sticker that says:

"Democrats think the glass is half full.  Republicans think the glass is theirs."

OK, let’s address this one sentence at a time. First of all, if the glass is half full it’s the conservatives (i.e., the producers) in this country who filled it up to that level to begin with. 

But let’s move on. "Democrats think the glass is half full.” Why on earth are Democrats so happy that the glass is half full? What is so great about a half-full glass? Shouldn’t we all be striving to fill the glass up to the top? Of course we should.

But the real question is this: What is the most effective possible way to get the glass filled all the way to the top? THAT’s where the problems start. Conservatives say the best way is to help people and businesses make more money so tax revenues increase, filling the glass further. At the same time, you should shrink the glass so it takes less to fill it. With a combination of the 2 you can reach your goal.

Liberals say the best way is to take a bigger share of money from some people and businesses to increase tax revenues, temporarily filling the glass further while putting a large hole in the bottom that ALWAYS results in less money for everyone involved. Including the government. Then we have to elect another Republican to pull us out of the nose dive.

On to the second sentence. “Republicans think the glass is theirs." First of all, I don’t THINK anything is mine. A thing is either mine or it isn’t. I mean after all, I don’t think the nice, shiny car this liberal was driving is mine, so why the glass? However, if it’s mine I will use it as I see fit. I may drink from it, stick it in my glass collection, sell it to someone else, give it to someone else or even throw it away if I don’t like it. If it’s NOT mine then I may ignore it, offer to buy it, etc. This is the way of a free market system. It is incredibly flexible and resilient, yet our government spends a huge amount of effort trying to pull the teeth out of it.

Liberals love bumper stickers because they feed straight into the sound byte simplicity they favor. Reality is far too complex for a liberal. 

Here’s what I take out of all this. I want a bumper sticker that says:

“A liberal could describe his entire world view on a bumper sticker like this one.”