Muscatine

Great Job JOS!! Very well stated.

jesusofsuburbia said: "Sorry IMC/lawdog/bigbrother/other conservative whiners..."

I find it most amusing that you jump right to the insults after I simply say I'm curious to hear your answers as well... 

The irony is, the term "conservative" has been diluted with respect to the term "Republican."  I assure you, a conservative is not necessarily a Republican these days as the Republican party has grown more liberal than ever.  Therefore if you're going to insult someone, it'd be more accurate to say "Republican whiner."  That way, at least you'd be more correct.  But I doubt you care about the difference seeing as you're so eager to point fingers...

For the record, I happen to agree with almost everything you've said.  You are absolutely correct in saying that both parties are guilty as Hell.  But the problem is increasing Socialism on both sides of the aisle; the Dems are moving way left and the Republicans are moving center, if not a bit left of center, like that joke McCain.

Many of the points you mention jesusofsuburbia, are in fact genuine conservative values (again mind you, not today's so-called "conservatives").  True conservatives believe in balanced budgets, limited spending, smaller government, non-interventionism, the protection of ALL ten Constitutional amendments, and so forth, pretty much just like you were talking about.  So really, the solution isn't to elect a Socialist like Hillary and Obama (particularly Hillary) or a wannabe like McCain, but rather vote all those retards out of office and simply vote for the guy who has not only read the Constitution, but actually believes in it and wont be inclined to violate it on a daily basis.  Do that, and it wont matter if there's a "(D)" or an "(R)" after their name.

Really, if you do that, the D's and R's after names will disappear...

Political parties are just a good way to get us bitching at each other, just like y'all have been successful in doing in this entire thread.  Many of the Founding Fathers warned us against them, and boy if they weren't about psychic on that issue too.  Really, we just need to compare political candidates' actions or platforms to the Constitution, see if they line up or cross the line, then vote them in or out accordingly.  If we did that, we wouldn't even be debating Obama at all.  Problem solved, and we'd have a better nation for it.

Decent reply jesusofsuburbia, but I'd prefer it if you didn't lump me in with folks in the future when you don't know me from Adam, not to mention make blanket generalizations based on your personal stereotypes. 

lawdog

I included you in the list because you, along with the others, had expressed an interest in my answers to the questions posed by IMC. If you don't like the way I answer things, feel free to avoid asking me questions in the future. I'm not into sugar coating things.

Certainly the term conservative has come to be equated with Republican much the same way that liberal has come to be equated with Democrat. It's just a reality of our times. Maybe it's because all of the Republicans keep touting their conservative credentials and claiming to be the "true conservative" in whatever race their participating in all the while labeling their opponent as a liberal. If anyone has bastardized the term conservative, it would be the Republican party. But to claim that the points I make are "genuine conservative values" is rather disingenuous. They aren't conservative or liberal, they're simply common sense. However, the Republican party has adopted them as their own ideas and co-opted them into their conservative mantra despite the fact that they haven't lived up to those principles in decades. So the fact that you claim them to be conservative values means you're either of an age rivaling dirt and can remember when conservative meant something different (which would predate at least the Reagan era of nearly thirty years ago) or you too have drunk the kool-aid. I'll leave that up to you to explain, but most of today's voters view conservative and Republican as one in the same.

One of my biggest complaints with the Republican party, and thereby the conservative approach to modern politics, is the hypocrisy contained in their rhetoric. They run for government on a platform that basically states that government is ineffective and can't do anything to solve America's problems. (Then they go out and prove just how ineffective government can be.) I know, it's not quite that simple, but when you distill the message, that's pretty much the essence of it. You know, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, small enough to drown in a bathtub, it's your money, blah, blah, blah. It's an every-man-for-himself approach to what should be a shared burden - the health and wel-being of our nation. And it's all done under the label of "conservativism." Now maybe that's not what conservative originally meant, but that's the taint it now carries thanks to the Republican party.

Now this doesn't mean that I believe Democrats are perfect. They certainly aren't, but I don't believe that the answer to the problem is to elect Republicans to balance them out. That's like balancing poor with awful and saying "Oh well, at least it's balanced." In my opinion, the solution is to simply elect better officials which brings me to the allusions you made to non-Democrats and non-Republicans - third parties.

Under the current system, we will never have a third party president. Why? Because of money. The third parties simply do not have the fundraising capabilities, whether it be through lobbyists, corporations, or the internet, that the two major parties do. And in this day and age, money talks, and.. well, third parties walk. So while a third party may be the idealistic answer, it's simply not realistic. Thus, I have chosen to cast my lot with the Democratic party as I believe they are the closest to what I believe is the answer to our problems. It's not socialism, but a shared sense of responsibility for making our country great. I believe the Bible makes reference to the concept in Matthew 25:40. "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." There's another great conservative/Republican scam - quote the Bible but make no attempt to actually live it. (I think mobaydave made reference to George Carlin in another recent post. One of my favorite George Carlin rants has to do with the phrase "What would Jesus do." As Carlin states it's not so they can live like Jesus but so they can tell you what you should be doing.)

And as far as the whole constitution issue, I know that's a reference to Ron Paul. (At least that's the refrain of his supporters.) I would remind you that before joining the US Senate, Barack Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago. So I think he probably understands the constitution pretty well.

In the end, lawdog, you're going to vote for the candidate that you think is best to lead our country and I'm going to do the same. Is my candidate perfect? Certainly not. None of them are. But if we're not going to try and defend them or make a case for our own candidate of choice than what's the point of getting involved in the first place?

AGAIN!!

Great Job JOS!! Very well stated.