We've all heard it before. The Republicans are for the rich, the Democrats are for the poor. This, of course, ignores billionaires like George Soros, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Tim Cook, and Jeff Bezos who are all card-carrying leftist Democrat supporters. Ignore all that. Democrats are for the poor! Make it your mantra, because here's the dealio: in order for the Democrats to keep being the "party for the poor," they need people to stay poor.

Think about it, if they're are no poor people left to champion, then how can they keep their government programs afloat like the door Rose lays on while Jack freezes to death? If no one needs the government programs, the government programs are no longer needed. And when big government shrinks, so will the people who support the big government. It's a vicious cycle of dependence, and it's screwing with people's lives and happiness. Also, Rose could've shared the door.

Conservatives believe in personal responsibility. It is the core of our political and cultural positions. I'm responsible for my life, my choices, both the rewards and repercussions of my choices, and I'm also responsible for my own thoughts, feelings and well-being. There's but one captain of the Good Ship Me, and that's me. Pirate hats look great on me, by the way.

Liberalism has a different core belief, one which subverts the individual for the role of the state and collective. Liberalism believes people as a group need to take care of each other, because individuals are selfish, greedy and hateful. The arbiter of the collective is none other than government, who "equalizes" everything with wealth redistribution to people who couldn't (or wouldn't) fend for themselves.

Therefore liberalism's core belief is people are weaklings who need help. From government. The collective are a bunch of sheep, and the liberals see themselves as the watchful sheepdogs who move the collective wherever they want. Sheeple.

Democrats cannot exist without a perpetual victim class. So it's in their best interest to keep people poor and dependent. And here are some of the ways they do it:

1. The minimum wage. If you want to keep people out of the workforce, institute a minimum wage. There's no better way to punish unskilled labor than to mandate everyone be paid an arbitrary dollar amount regardless of experience or skill set. Businesses cannot afford to hire a low or no-skilled worker at an arbitrary rate, so they don't. Meanwhile, Democrats get to play their "I care more" card, because they say they want people to have more money. Problem is, minimum wage backfires on the people who need jobs: entry-level, low-skilled workers.

2. Welfare benefits and programs. I can hear the outcry already. But doesn't welfare help poor people not be destitute? Indeed they do! Have you ever been to a national park like Yosemite? There are signs posted everywhere: DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS. Why? Because if you feed the animals, they will not fend for themselves. They'll stop hunting and gathering and will instead take handouts. Sound familiar? People on welfare have their hands out to the government, who continues to provide for them. By taking from taxpayers first. Welfare rewards people who do not work and punishes people who do work. Watch Thomas Sowell explain it:

3. High business and corporate taxes, which force businesses and jobs overseas. Add minimum wage to this one, too. Democrats and even some Republicans love to malign businesses for going overseas. They never stop to ask why they go overseas, though. Notice that? The reason companies do business overseas is because it's cheaper, both in the form of taxes, minimum wage, and lower manufacturing costs. Before you get all snooty about "corporate greed," and tweet something inane, your iPhone would cost a crap ton more if it had been built in the USA. Same for your car. So while all these businesses are doing what they can to make a profit, they're employing millions of non-Americans worldwide. But hey, at least you have foodstamps, right?

4. Press one for English. By making it easier for immigrants, legal or illegal, to use their native language instead of learning English, their job selection will remain crappy. And I mean that in a janitorial way. You try going to another country and not speaking the official language and see what kind of job you have. Methinks there will be lots of toilet cleaning in your future, and last I checked, scrubbing the toilet won't make you flush...with cash.

5. The income tax. Now, to be fair, the income tax isn't so much keeping people "poor" as it is preventing them from getting rich. Democrats hate working, upper middle class types of people. There is no greater barrier to wealth than taxing income at a progressive rate. The more money you earn, the bigger cut the government takes from you (so they can give to the person who refuses to take care of themselves). Which makes it incredibly difficult to amass wealth. Watch this video on the progressive tax rate here to learn how unfair taxes are.

Those are just five ways the government keeps people down. But there are more ways than just these five. Bear this list in mind the next time you hear Clinton or Sanders, or any democrat liberal, talking about policy. They never say they want to raise people up. What they say is they want fairness, equality, they want sameness. They do not encourage people to do well, they punish top earners. Democrats want everyone to be equally poor, not equally rich.

~Written by Courtney Kirchoff