There is a petty little "joke" going around Facebook about taking away the Halloween candy from Democratic children and "redistributing it to the lazy kids who did not even bother to go trick or treating."
Of course this "joke" just tells us a lot about the person telling it.
All of this worry about "redistribution" began as an effort roll back tax breaks a few percentage points for the people who can afford it most. Put in that light, most children I know would enjoy giving away a percentage of their candy for a good cause. That is a lesson that most feeling people could actually get behind.
There is some irony when one realizes that many of the people telling this joke are themselves part of the 47% that does not pay federal income taxes. At the same time many of the "greedy liberals trying to take their candy" are actually fighting to see their own taxes go up.
This reminds me of another mean spirited cause that many right wingers got behind. It started on the Huckabee show, and concerned a woman who sold expensive pies at a Greenmarket. The woman was outraged that the entire market was converting to a system that could accept food stamps. She was hailed as a "hero" because she refused to sell her pies to anyone using food stamps even though she potentially stood to make a profit from them.
Actually, there is no evidence that anyone would have even wanted to use their small food stamp allotment to buy her overpriced pies. All she really knew was that there was a call for the Greenmarket itself to accept Foodstamps. Some would actually think it was a great idea to give struggling mothers an opportunity to feed their children fresh produce instead of cheap junk food.
This reminded me of an experience I had at a supermarket. I was behind a frazzled mom, and the cashier was having trouble ringing up her items. Apparently when you use an EBT card there are a lot of items that you are not allowed to buy. Sometimes items that seem like they would be acceptable are declined.
At one point, the cashier tried time and time again to get some inexpensive fresh strawberries to ring up. Eventually the Manager came over, and said the strawberries had to be taken off. The cashier automatically put the strawberries down with the items to be bagged, and the Mom started to hand the strawberries over to the Manager. The manager's response: "oh no, we just cannot ring the strawberries up on your card, but it is our pleasure."
So in my mind the pie lady is far from a hero. I would happily join my right wing friends in giving her accolades, if, instead of worrying that her taxes might go to buy overpriced pies, she had informed her fellow vendors that "if anyone is struggling to buy fresh veggies with their food stamp allotment, please give them one of my pies. It would be my pleasure."