Posted on 11/08/2002 10:59:18 AM PST by winner45
Your focus on Real Polotik only strengthens my resolve to support the libertarians because as you point out it the current popular mind set has been noted and limited government will not be in the GOP program. On a national level the limited government message, I am afraid will not work for a long time to come however I do believe that in a small state a dedicated group of right minded people could restore limited government as the Free State Project proposes. Or so I hope.
Yes.
Is that why more than half of the elligable voters in the US stay home?
Precisely. They are content with the government and see no need to change it.
Is that why more than half of those left voted for a Republican running on a smaller government campaign?
Half of half is a quarter. So a quarter of people voted for a candidate whose party is for smaller government. The debate over small or big government has been waged for over a hundred years, and the vast majority of people have said "Big Government". We need to change the public's perception of what smaller government will mean, but we must first recognize that we are in the minority view in the general population.
Forgive my french, but what a f%cking outright lie!
All those surveys of people who stay home because they feel that their vote does not count, and won't do any good, count for nothing then? I can hit six people with a rock from where I sit who I had that EXACT conversation with just last week.
The people who voted for Republicans, voted for them due to the "smaller government" promise. If the Republicans don't deliver, then they should not expect support next time around.
How goddamn hard is that to understand?
Those who say, 'My vote doesn't even count', are just using an excuse why not to vote, not a reason why they don't vote.
Let's put it this way. (I'm sorry, I work in examples.) Let's say there is a village of 100 people living on a beach at the bottom of a cliff. All they can eat are coconuts that grow on trees at the top of the cliff. The cliff is not too steep, anyone in the village could climb it, but it is an hour climb. 40 people in the village regularly make trips to the top of the cliff to gather fresh coconuts to eat and the remaining 60 eat the old coconuts that fall over the cliff.
If you ask those 60 why they don't climb the cliff, they might say "Why? I'm eating coconuts anyway?" What they don't want to say, but is the truth, is "I get my coconuts, and it's not worth an hour trip just to get better coconuts."
Voter apathy has more to do with their contentment at getting the scraps that roll down to them than philisophical disillusionment with the results.
Nonsequitur replys will not be answered.
perhaps I'm a bit masochistic
I do not want them waging a WAR ON DRUGS. If you catch someone with drugs, throw them in jail. That's all the war I need. Keep it simple. I don't want them handing out money to bums who don't work. I don't want them educating my children. I don't want them "socializing" everyone with programs. I want it all to go away. Give me my money back and I'll be doing great. I don't need Social Security, I don't need Medicare. I can actually BETTER prepare for my older age with MY MONEY. I just need the money back so I can start working.
So, idiot author, you have ill-defined what it is to be a true conservative, so every point you make is completely useless and unworthy of a carefully considered rebuttal. This is all.
END OF LINE
The Socialists edifice represented by Federal programs in all areas continues its growth. While shrinking is some areas others expand. The net effect remains the same. Federal power grows. The federal budget grows ever larger. Corporate welfare/subsidies expand.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-375es.html
Holy s**t, you finally said something wise and truthful.
So you're saying would should accept the downfall of our country and accept the fact that true freedom will not be seen by our children?
If the pubbies fail to curtail federal spending and power grabing, then perhaps the Libertarians will be a more desirable choice assuming some decent candidates are recruited.
ditto/bump
Alexander Tyler, an eighteenth-century Scottish historian, concluded from a study of Athenian democracy that democracies cannot long survive. He wrote,
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship."
And further, he postulated:
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again to bondage."
Check Cato's Fact and Figure page and post #12
http://www.cato.org/fiscal/2002/factsfigs.html
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