I am going to save you $9.50

Don't go see Annie.

The kids really wanted to see it and I know why - for the music.  Although, I found that the musical numbers were sparse and left something to be desired.

I just didn't want to see it.  Something about the commercials made me think that some modern twists had been made to this depression-era classic that I wouldn't like.

I was rewarded for my intuition in the very first scene of the film.

The (spoiler alert) illiterate Annie uses the medium of song to describe the New Deal to her classmates.  As her peers beat box, she extols the virtues of "getting paid" to build roads and bridges.  She praises how this raises everyone out of poverty and finishes by explaining that the rich get richer at the same time.

It was so early in the film that I couldn't walk out - and I had that $9.50 on the line.  I didn't even lecture the kids about it.  But, you are not so lucky.

Annie's ideology, as with so many other liberal ideologies, is completely backwards.  The New Deal didn't make poor people better off and rich people richer.  One trillion dollars later, we know for sure that it has created a dependent class that, for three generations, has lived on welfare.

Taking from the rich and giving to the poor doesn't make the rich richer either.  It makes everyone poorer.  Instead of being rewarded for hard work and making as much as you can based on your ability, the great taker - government, distributes as it sees fits.

This philosophy hurts everyone.  Can't we all see this now?

We scibbled along through the movie living out the whoever-is-richest-is-the-best-parent-philosophy.  Really?  This isn't the depression.  We are the wealthiest country in the world.  Why is this particular story line relevant today?  I don't understand.

Late in the film, at a fundraiser at the Guggenheim the rich guy refers to "liberal guilt."  Then he says, "All except you, Senator, you are still trying to build that wall."

Sigh.  That went right over even my Republican kids' heads.  Liberal guilt means that liberals give to a lavish charity fundraiser, not actually, you know, like, helping poor people.

And, of course, the one person not under liberal guilt was the Republican who is against immigration (?)

Why do I even leave the house?

One last thing, in this adaptation, Annie has no endearing qualities.  In Anne of Green Gables, Pippi Longstocking, Pollyanna, the original Annie, the child is endearing.  You fall in love with her.  That plot line is missing from the story, unfortunately.

Add that to the blatant liberal agenda and you have yet another reason to stay home and watch reruns of Duck Dynasty.

Hey, with the money you saved, you can buy me a latte.

Happy New Year, everyone.