The Blame Game

I've been a game player for more decades than I care to think about. I've played several different card games, a couple dozen different board games including checkers, Monopoly and chess. I've played games with marbles and became relatively good at them. In various boxes and cabinets in my house I have games that can be played by the little ones and others I can play with their parents. And in spite of my age I can also play games on a computer . . . mostly war games with other guys and gals on the net.

These days the most widely played game is the Blame Game. More and more frequently the blame is being shifted from person to person with fewer and fewer people courageous and honest enough to take the blame for what they did or didn't do.

When caught cheating on their spouse the culprit, be it the husband or the wife, will respond with some excuse like this: "If you had treated me better I wouldn't have done what I did."

The burglar who breaks into a home at night while the family is out celebrating the wife's birthday would tell the police that he (or she, or it . . . I can be politically correct once in a while) just needed to get out of the cold. Or, a segment of society will put the blame on the owners of the house for having more income and property than the thief.

I could go on and on with example after example to illustrate what individuals and groups of people will do to explain away their short comings and/or guilt. It all boils down to this: "It isn't my fault. Its society's fault because I never got what I should have been given." From my childhood to today I've heard this excuse in several different variations. Each variation being nothing more than an attempt to put the blame on someone else.

Unfortunately, it seems that certain segments of our nation's political groups have latched onto the "it ain't my fault . . . it's _______ fault" (fill in the blank with a current culprit depending on the group). They are using this as a means of gaining power over you by making you feel guilty for having something that someone else doesn't have.

Their solution to this "problem of unequal outcome (or income)" is simple. "Elect me and I will take from those who have and give it to those who do not have." Never mind that you and I worked our tails off to get to where we are. At one point my wife and I went bankrupt and lost just about everything but the clothes on our backs. But we didn't blame anyone – we went to work and we worked hard for decades to get to where we are now.

What is really galling is that the majority of those in our political mainstream who are using this kind of Blame Game strategy are richer than 90% of the rest of us!

I'd like to switch the blame from you and I, the normal hard working average American, and put it where it really belongs: power hungry politicians. Lower the tax rates and reduce the costly regulations that are making life harder for small businesses. Let us keep more of what we earn. Then there is a good chance that we who have will be able to help those who don't have. And we can do it better than any government agency!

Stop the Blame Game.

P.S. NO! I'm not including people with physical and/or mental, emotional problems. They need to receive the help they need. Period.