It may SHOCK YOU, but conservatives for the most part (myself included), want a lot of the same things you do.

Good Schools for our children
A strong economy where people can earn a good wage
Nice neighborhoods for everyone to be safe

What we disagree on is the path to get there. You see, as a conservative I realize these are problems you can not just throw money at. New York schools are a great example, where they basically spend so much per kid that they could just sent them all to private school.

You can tax all day, confiscate all year and try to redistribute and you will NEVER succeed in these. Government is just too inefficient and self serving (yes, like private companies), to be able to do this. The difference is, when a private company fails, they disappear and are gone. Governments can fail all day, and its the citizens who pay.

When I tweak you or others on the board about "doing well", it is not meant to brag, it is to make a point. The vitriol and hatred that pours out of the lefties on this board ("eat shit", "kill you", "guillotine") is so USELESS it is really pathetic. My point is to show that your hatred of the rich is not only misplaced but also a waste of effort. There has always been a class structure in every society!! The real measure of a society's greatness is not the equality of outcome, but the OPPORTUNITY for anyone to move from one class to another.

As for myself, I grew up in a mobile home, single parent, below poverty level. However, I did something that for some reason liberals do not think you can do. I worked hard, applied myself, good good grades, paid my own way though college, graduated with a MARKETABLE DEGREE (not basket weaving), got a job, went back to grad school, got another MARKETABLE DEGREE (not basket weaving) and have applied myself to get where I am. I am not a 1%, not by a long shot, but lead a very comfortable life. And after I do all this, what am I told by the liberal left, I need to take the fruits of all these efforts and give them to people who are not willing to help themselves.

So, as you can see, I am not bragging, and I do not wish bad luck or evil on anyone, just tired of others trying to ride my coattails because they are too lazy to do it for themselves.