You can’t be for “personal freedom” and yet be against Choice and against equal marriage.

You can’t be for “limited government” and yet double its size.

You can’t be strong on defense and yet make disastrous mistakes in Iraq, in setting up the ridiculous TSA, leaving our ports unguarded, messing up our image in the world, etc.

And how does “fiscal responsibility” square with tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts?

Or energy policy with “drill baby drill”?

The Republican party from the top down has become a party of hypocrites. They have become a caricature.

Let me tell you when I’ll vote Republican: when they have sensible fiscal, energy, and security policies. When they uphold the right to marry the love of your choice, and when they recognize that in order to REDUCE abortions they have to keep them safe and legal and educate the public.

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Alex, it’s really simple: support them, starting at the local and state level. It’ll take time to build them up, but without that support, it’s not possible. And supporting those who are not speaking about these issues is not likely to bring about a change for better.

Progressives in slam-dunk states of either color (red/blue) can easily vote for these party candidates without splitting the vote during a Presidential election and help them get national 5% vote which is essential.

Progressives can start supporting initiatives to improve our democratic system and call for political reform. We’re living in one of the free-est countries in the world and not a dictatorship, so I see no reason for pessimism or cultivating a defeatist attitude. The only one obstructing us is the man in the mirror – our own laziness and apathy.

There are a lot of exciting initiatives happening like Common Cause, Fair Vote, Open Debate, National Initiative for Democracy and Nov 5 Movement (http://vimeo.com/2156858) which make me optimistic. Google them, support them and get involved – one step at a time.

I have only been eligible to vote in 2004 and 2008 and I voted Democrat both times. Being from the former USSR I have seen first hand how a big country can be bankrupted by military expenditures. My concern is that Republicans are all too happy to spend billions fighting an enemy that’s probably spending 10 bucks a day or something like that. That’s the surest way to be defeated. I do not want to have another immigration in my life. Thus, I ill not be voting Republican any time soon.

But who cares about the meaning of words when we have vague, emotional partisan rhetoric?

It’s so laughably simple. The talk is all about where the Republicam party goes from here. The answer–one can almost never go wrong with Paris.

The middle class is shrinking. Where do Republicans think the next generation of GOP voters will come from as everyday people continue to see opportunity–to say nothing of the American dream–steadily slipping away? How prophetic that the Party of Lincoln should should have as a quote from its mentor, “You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

So it’s so long, Republicans. The party’s over. Take the GOP handle with you. . .that is, if you wouldn’t mind. Unfortunately, the (G) doesn’t stand for “grand.” The (O) doesn’t stand for “old” either, at least not as far as you’re concerned. As for the (P)arties–and this is something that no one but a close family member would tell you–we grew tired of your always serving Ripple, even when you certainly could have afforded champagne.

And now. . .the plane is waiting. Please watch your step.

My question would be why the Democrats are considered as peace-loving or anti-war when there’s strong evidence of Clinton bombing the Al-Shifa factory as well as Iraq, continuing the sanctions on Iraq that resulted in thousands of innocent Iraqis killed, and the current Democrats in the Congress voting for the Iraq war.

When it comes to maintaining the US military-industrial complex, there’s little difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, yet somehow, the Democrats are perceived as “better” on this issue, or peace-loving than the Republicans. Go figure.

1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b: a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state

I think what critics are thinking of when they call Obama’s policies socialist is actually nationalization, ” 2 : to invest control or ownership of in the national government.”

Words have meanings, folks. Use them correctly.

Who tells us we do not need government? How, without laws, and without placing the police power in the hands of some accountable agency, do we guarantee that greed, sadism and deceit shall not operate in human affairs? How, without an institution that is accountable to and guided by the people, can we fairly, democratically, set the minimum standards of good citizenship, and enforce them? How, without an incarnation of the community, its institutional memory, and its sole possession of the police power, are we to negotiate the terms of life in society, except by violence and fear? There are yet places in the world without government, and these are dangerous places that armies avoid.

The Democrats, the Independents, and the apatheticists failed also, having no vision and no story to counter the narcissism of the Right. Democrats and Activists also failed when they lashed out at Republicans, in spiteful words. Hate radio has been baiting us for years and we needed to vent, but hate only feeds hate, so let us hope we cool off and apologize. Democrats, feeling repudiated by Ronald Reagan’s call for personal responsibility, and cowed by the ridicule heaped on the epithet “liberal”, have failed to reclaim the vision of an effective government, as a necessary fulfillment of the vision to “… form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…” (preamble, US Constitution), not in denial of personal responsibility, but as a complement to it. The Democrats, like the Republicans, failed to see the validity and necessity of the vision of their ideological opponents.

The deeper philosophical error was and is to believe that one political and economic philosophy and can guide a nation and its policies. The Republican dogma of personal responsibility, keeping the government out of personal business, and minimized cost of operation, is valid only if seen in contrast with and balanced against a progressive philosophy that reminds us that we cannot live alone, without sharing our streets, homes, businesses, banks, fates, and the Earth, that we have common interests, that the well being of individuals is an inherent interest of the community, and that the government is where communities make their decisions. Likewise, the Progressive dogma that government can be a force for good is only valid when countered by the conservative abhorrence of dependence and interference. The core truth, forgotten by polemicists, is that all views are needed to find the pragmatic middle, and that no one view is sufficient for a complete vision.

We need a new vision of contest in American Politics, in which the opponent is a representative of a different way of seeing the world and our common business, whom we can question and probe for deeper understanding, and which we ourselves need, to get the policy and the philosophy right.

These writings are the sole possession of Stephen Alrich Marshall and shall not be used without attribution.

Terrorist to socialist, I actually think that’s a demotion.

Well there you have it. His answer to a direct, fair question was based in “you’re-gonna-be-sorry-you-made-Tuesday’s-decision” fear tactics. Of course, he offered no direct response to the caller’s concern.

We’ve all had enough of polarizing, fear-mongering diatribes. Enough already.