Reader mail:

I read you article today in the Lancaster paper

I think you and many liberal Democrats do not realize that most of us on the other side…do not like these new policies….

of giving bailouts to those who OVER BOUGHT…

my husband and I are retired, earn under $40,000.00 a year…..

we have seen our 401 go down 40 percent… our cost of living is higher than before,

WE HAVE A MORTGAGE because we took a mortgage out about 4 years ago so we could still live well and pay our EXTREMELY HIGH SCHOOL TAXES in BERKS COUNTY…

I see no relief for us….and we pay our mortgage which is at 6.37 percent…

We worked all our life to have a good retirement, and we do but we PAY OUR BILLS….and we would like refinancing at 4 percent like the LOSEERS who are living in their houses for nothing or getting special deals…

First off, ma’am, I virtually guarantee you that you could refi at a rate lower than 6.37 percent.

But that isn’t what this is really about.

What this is about is resentment.

Resentment that some other person - probably lazy, foolish or both - should get something that honest working Americans like you do not believe they deserve.

They are weak; they have their hands out; they should have known better; they should be left to to fail.

Screw ‘em.

At what cost to society itself? Those living in the United States of Resentment really don’t care.

I don’t feel this resentment and I don’t understand those who do. If a government program lets my neighbor stay in his house instead of being foreclosed - and having the home sit empty for months in this economy - I don’t sit around and stew about how much of MY PERSONAL MONEY the ungrateful bugger got. I think: Good to have the stability in the neighborhood.

But let me tell you how this works, because I see where this is going.

Even as the government attempts to broaden the safety net, there will be those who don’t qualify, or those who do - but won’t take the aid available to them. Because they “don’t believe” in it.

But those “beliefs” won’t stop them from falling even further behind - and indeed, might actually hasten it. Those who don’t share that ideology are not caught in that trap. Help is available, and they take advantage of it. Those who don’t “believe” in the help don’t - and may falter. Which adds to the resentment. How unjust - that the “losers” should prosper while those with the “proper” beliefs suffer!

And of course there comes a time when they try to right this wrong.

The United States of Resentment is a dangerous place to be. Those who feel this resentment may legitimately fear that people will be made dependent upon government - that is one point of view. There are others. And in the election just held, another point of view prevailed.

I just get the sense that now - out of power entirely for the first time in a long time - it’s coming as a great shock to conservatives that they, now, should have to endure policies with which they disagree entirely. Welcome to the club; this is how America works. Unless you think it should work some other way.