Elect Jill Karovsky To Preserve Programs to Deal With Poverty and Inequity

A Danger to Our Programs to Deal With Poverty and Inequity

Elect Jill Karofsky to the Supreme Court to preserve our Wisconsin’s ability to deal with public issues of poverty and inequality. Her opponent Daniel Kelly will destroy our ability to deal with such problems because he believes that government has no useful role to play in this area. His views are clear, and they are based on his religious extremism.

Kelly Believes that State Programs are Inconsistent With God's Will

Kelly’s religious views have led him, to see all publicly funded welfare and assistance programs as illegitimate and inconsistent with God’s law. As Kelly sees it, God demands that we be compassionate, but, he says, compassion can never be forced, and any publicly funded program is based on force. In his view, a publicly funded welfare program takes money by force from hardworking citizens and determines by force who the recipients of the money should be. This is wrong because, “Compassion cannot coexist with compulsion; it is a love response, and love cannot be compelled.”

He believes that this approach is not only inconsistent with God’s law. It can never be effective because it is based on the idea that poverty is a group problem. Kelly, in contrast, starts from the proposition that, “Poverty is not a group problem, it is an individual problem.” That is, the causes of poverty are entirely individual. Social structure, economic processes and national history play no role. If a person is poor, it is his/her individual failing or misfortune. Things like racism, sexism or the quality of our educational system play no role, and government programs like food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare or Head Start can play no useful role in alleviating poverty. Kelly says,

Compassion cannot coexist with compulsion; it is a love response, and love cannot be compelled.  The Good Book has something to say about this: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”  I Cor. 13:4-7.  Is there anything there compatible with compelled wealth transfers?  I didn’t think so either. [My italics]

If God is love, and compassion a loving response, maybe God belongs at the apex of the triangle instead of the state – if we’re looking to be compassionate, of course.  Sitting right behind the commandment to love God with all your heart there is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”  Mark 12:31. What if we did?

Only Christian Charity has a Place

In place of government action, Kelly would rely on the Christian charity of individuals. He says,

It is the church’s glory to care for the poor and the widow and the helpless.  It’s not a burden.  It’s not a chore.  And it’s not something that can be satisfied by posting the 3-figure balance of the “deacon’s fund” on the back page of the church bulletin.

Jesus didn’t leave the church many mandates.  It’s not like the New Testament is an ancient version of the Code of Federal Regulations, stuffed from cover to back with endless and mind-numbing directives on what he expects of us.

It’s so simple.  Love God.  Love your neighbors.  How simple is that?  Simple enough that when a lawyer thought to excuse himself from its simplicity by quibbling over the second command, Jesus slapped him down (lovingly, to be sure) with the Good Samaritan.

The unrealism and heartlessness of this are breathtaking. Will the millions of single mothers who struggle to feed their children on minimum wage jobs be fed by individual charity if we take away their Food Stamps? Will our individual kindness support millions of American old people if we take away their Medicare?  Will our doctors care for millions of poor people out of charity if we take away their Medicaid? Of course not, but Kelly believes that Food Stamps, Medicare and Medicaid are contrary to God’s will and that the laws that established those programs are inherently illegitimate. 

Elect Jill Karofsky

We cannot allow a man who holds such cruel unrealistic views to determine what our laws should be. How can we allow such a man to rule on questions involving public welfare, healthcare, education, minimum wages or the position of women?

We must choose Jill Karofsky for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court in April.