In a stunning coincidence, two moving images of America were on display this weekend. It was as if Fate was giving us a choice of two paths to take. I wonder how hard the choice truly is for some?

The first glimpse was a disturbing look into what government dependence does to the pride and soul of people:

Shelves in Walmart stores in Springhill and Mansfield, LA were reportedly cleared Saturday night, when the stores allowed purchases on EBT cards even though they were not showing limits.

…

Lynd explained the cards weren’t showing limits and they called corporate Walmart, whose spokesman  said to let the people use the cards anyway. From 7 to 9 p.m., people were loading up their carts, but when the cards began showing limits again around 9, one woman was detained because she rang up a bill of $700.00 and only had .49 on her card. She was held by police until corporate Walmart said they wouldn’t press charges if she left the food.

… but Walmart shoppers Stan and Judy Garcia feel very differently. “That’s plain theft, that’s stealing that’s all I got to say about it,” said Garcia.

It was stealing, and it was made worse by the fact Walmart attempted to help these people by allowing them to use the cards – not abuse them. As Ace notes, it was one of the most disturbing stories I have seen in years:

These are the wages of the welfare state, my groovy babies: we’ve been mainlining the drug so long that we can’t go for an hour without it. DOOM isn’t foreign terrorists or enemy soldiers or dirty bombs. It’s legions of stupid people almost tearing down a Wal-Mart because their SNAP cards didn’t work for an hour or two. Now tell me what’s going to happen when the balloon really goes up and we can’t afford to keep ladling out government cheese any more. What happens if the SNAP cards stop working permanently? Do you think these hordes of angry stupid people are just going to grumble and go back home?

This to me is probably the most important DOOM-related story that I’ve seen so far this year. Why? Because it illustrates how deep our pathologies run, and how maddeningly difficult — maybe impossible — it will be to find a political solution.

Important observations – even if you don’t get the Doom analogy (lost many a night to playing that game in makeshift home networks – long before there was anything like the network gaming of today). This America is scraping the bottom, and when there is a couple of hours to mine some treasure (in this case food), the moral individual is wiped out as the Mob mentality takes over. It is sad to see someone being held for over charging their credit like that, but this is the price of government dependency.

It also represents the America envisioned by the Democrats and the left. Handouts instead of A Hand Up. Just read this nonsense to understand how government fixes are warping the morals and priorities of the American soul:

People whose 2014 income will be a little too high to get subsidized health insurance from Covered California next year should start thinking now about ways to lower it to increase their odds of getting the valuable tax subsidy.

…

Under the Affordable Care Act, if your 2014 income is between 138 and 400 percent of poverty level for your household size, you can purchase health insurance on a state-run exchange (such as Covered California) and receive a federal tax subsidy to offset all or part of your premium.

If your income falls below 138 percent of poverty, you qualify for Medicaid, which provides no-cost health care to low-income people. In California, it’s called Medi-Cal.

There you go. Instead of trying to reach for the stars and increase your wealth and lifestyle, it may be better to be a little poorer and be able to get yourself on the government dole! And once you are on the dole, you are hooked for life. That is the dream world of the left – where every citizen is financially chained to the political elite.

Now contrast these Democrat images of America’s potential future with these GOP leaning images [I use the term ‘leaning‘ here because Libertarians, Tea Party types and supporters of the Military align with GOP when they can – otherwise they are distinct and independent from the GOP Party].

In the ‘other’ America the “individual” was on parade. These people were not begging for handouts, they were pushing back at an oppressive government. They reflected a different America from the one Democrats and Leftists envision.

Which path do you think we should take?

[Follow the link above to view all the pictures from yesterday, which hopefully more fully reflect our tomorrow]