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05/26/09

I have no love of the current republican party either though I recognize that it has SOME good qualities. The republican party seems to have been taken over by rather radicalized ideas of what the party stands for much like Islam seems to be represented by factions like Al Quaeda and the Taliban. TRUE REPUBLICANS need to work hard/harder to push those out to the fringe that would 'hijack' the principles of the party and radicalize them. We are a nation set upon two somewhat opposing ideas. Democracy and Republic. I'd hate to lose the input of either party. It is the chafing of their ideas that is SUPPOSED to bring out the best of the both of them and makes us greater than we would be with just one or the other. In my opinion.

The pendulum swings both ways and in time, hopefully a short space of time, all those that seek to usurp the power in control will be rightfully put in their places and the orderly flow of events will once again transpire without this demanding to do it someone elses way at every new event.

While I am in no way learned enough to argue the points of the past with you or agree, I prefer to stay on the events of the present and deal with them as they arise. I can not see this nation returning to 'past ways' at least not for long. We need better education about ourselves as a nation in schools. Americans are terribly ignorant about the workings of their government and how important it is for them to be INVOLVED in the process. That we don't just hire these guys to get our tax money back into our districts by hook or by crook for any stupid 'project'. Sound government happens by consensus of the population applying pressure IN THE RIGHT WAYS FOR THE RIGHT REASONS. In my opinion.

There will always be those that are considered evil working in society, in government, in the world. Evil is merely the 'tails' of the coin of life and without it we would have nothing to compare righteousness to. It helps to try us in life. We either improve or we succumb. Keep up the good fight none-the-less In my opinion.

Sincerely,

Melissa
Original comment »

05/27/09

Reply from Squarknees:

>I have no love of the current republican party either though I recognize that it has SOME good qualities.

Like what for example? The only area in which Republicans now consistently lead in the opinion of the American people right now is protecting our nation from attack. Otherwise, she loses in every other form of measurement.

Edit: The single worst military blunder that Americans made was to ever go to war with Vietnam during the Cold war. We failed to understand the reasons why even the well trained and well paid French Foreign Legion lost at Dien Bien Phu in a set-piece battle in 1954. American tax monies were paying for this force at that time of course. We did not have anyone high enough in rank to explain to LBJ and to William Westmoreland that the way were were going to be fought was based upon the principles written down by the Chinese military genius Sun Tzu. He took a small be extremely well trained military and attacked the next region in China with had become belligerent to the leader of his group of Chinese. Even though he was vastly outnumbered, he would only attack the most vulnerable assets of his enemy because he knew that if he fought a pitched battle against his opponent his military would be overwhelmed and defeated. So instead, he attacked them first and he kept on cutting them apart until he finally won the war with his once superior opponent. All that's really changed in warfare since then is the fact that Air power simply cannot be underestimated as it once was. However, one cannot use Air Power all of the time either or one will kill so many civilians that one will end up making more enemies than friends. Why I remember being called a Communist and almost every other name for protesting that war. I knew were going to lose it, because we completely failed to conquer our enemies territory and hold onto it. Besides, my brother ended up in the thick of things so that when he was shot fighting in the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam of all places, he surely would have died had it been either the Korean War or World War II; Only a helicopter that dumped him in a swamp for a while saved his life, but it took years of rehabilitation and seven operations before he got at least some innervation back in his right arm and fingers. He can only make a pinching motion with this thumb and his index finger, and this after seven operations at Scott Air Force Base in Bellville, Illinois. He simply could not stand to have another operation an so after seven of them he finally said "Uncle!"

But I well remember having to give his arm massages in order to counteract the feeling of the loss of a limb that sometimes occurs even when that limb is not lost at all, but merely mangled. I would have to get one of those vibrating rascals and put that on my right and hand and massage the poor guy. He was very lucky to have survived that were and he knew he was going to Vietnam, Indeed, when he was inducted he went through Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood in MO. Then he had to attend Advanced Infantry training in Northern California at Fort Ord. He decided that he did not want to remain an enlisted man, and so he took the test to see if he qualified to become an officer, Well, he passed that very nicely because he's exceeding intelligent and he's really tough too. So he attended OCS at Ft. Benning Ga., and he graduated as a second lieutenant. Then, since he still expected to be send to Vietnam, he decided to become a Ranger. Now, when you enter Ranger school, everyone drops their rank and everyone is treated exactly the same way. They went all over the United States practicing many skills like rappelling down a cliff with a wounded soldier and they learned how to fight extremely well too. He was in the field in Vietnam for exactly three weeks before he was in combat and needed to get in touch with his Radioman. Now, instead of ordering his Radioman to crawl on up to him, he made a really stupid mistake. He got up (he's pretty tall now), and ran bent over back to his Radioman, but while he was exposed a single AK-47 round hit him in the biceps of his right arm. Then, because he was carrying an ammo belt, that bullet, after blowing his biceps right out of his arm, went through that ammo belt and drew all sort of metal shrapnel into his right lung, where some of it fell on his diaphragm too. Then that bullet keep right on going expanding as it went, until it passed through he entire right lung so he his lung started filling up with blood. It kept on going and stopped at the out lining of his heart. Had he not been wearing that ammo band, he would have been killed in the Mekong Delta in 1967, when I was a sophomore in High School. We are six years apart in age. I have found it exceeding difficult to forgive President Johnson for not only getting us in a war we could not really win, as well as his policies that put so many African Americans in our Inner Cities in those horrible Projects. Furthermore, I cannot forgive his Civilian Advisers either all of whom failed to recognize the tactics that the Vietnamese were using against us, because it was well known by people like Mao Tse Tung and most of the Communist leaders of Asian nation-states. Why didn't we recognized the kind of warfare that was being used against us? Ignorance is the only answer I come up here, Melissa.

Edit: Their might have been one way to win that war, but it would have been ghastly in the process. We could have taken our B-52s most of which were stationed on Guam and flown not stop bombing runs over every single city in Vietnam where the enemy was sure to be found. We would have had to start bombing in the center of each city and continue to bomb in concentric circles until we had cleared enough territory so that we could put some ground troops down to see if we were actually killing the enemy not just civilians of course. Now we would have killed I cannot honestly tell you how many innocent civilians so that there might well have been very little difference if we had done things this way or actually used Nuclear Weapons again -- something I do not want America to ever have to use again. I honestly don't know if the rest of the world would have tolerated this approach, but it's just about the only way that we could have "won" that war. Well, I could not do that Melissa. I just couldn't. My conclusion is that we never should have allowed ourselves to be drawn into the Vietnam war at all. Some wars a nation has to know not to fight and that should really be determined by the very best military minds that we have got, not all of these Western trained military generals. I know that they are supposed to study Sun Tzu at West Point, so how come everyone seems to have forgotten all about him when we were faced with almost exactly the same situation? I do not understand why nobody except a now deceased Colonel knew what we really were facing, but he got nowhere telling others.

>The republican party seems to have been taken over by rather radicalized ideas of what the party stands for much like Islam seems to be represented by factions like Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Agreed, and that includes my former best friend too. He and I disagree politically speaking these days even though he's a really intelligent human being. I honestly do not understand how he could have become such a radical conservative, but he's most definitely one of them now and so is his wife. They were not this way when I still lived in St, Louis,.however, so

I was unable to see this change of his coming. When it did our friendship was sorely tried so that now we no longer discuss politics at all.

> TRUE REPUBLICANS need to work hard/harder to push those out to the fringe that would 'hijack' the principles of the party and radicalize them.

Good luck. With people like Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin grabbing the headlines I see this only happening if wiser heads prevail on the part of the more reasonable Republicans that remain still. Actually, I'm certain that Limbaugh, Cheney and Palin will be put out of commission long before the 2012 election. Republicans simply cannot afford to lose as badly as they have lately again. Otherwise their base id not large enough for them to win in most elections right now, that is. So there's some hope that the most egregiously obnoxious individuals will be taken out by other Republicans -- if they know what's really good for them.

>We are a nation set upon two somewhat opposing ideas. Democracy and Republic. I'd hate to lose the input of either party.

I'll only support a reformed Republic in which our Representatives once again, and perhaps for the first time in American history, put the needs of the people ahead of the needs of Wall Street. Wall Street and Main Street are two completely different places. Also, I want America to once again become a manufacturing society -- not this horrible consumer and service society that we are now. In this respect I am a Protectionist, something that we used to practice and that China is practicing as well or better than we ever did.

> It is the chafing of their ideas that is SUPPOSED to bring out the best of the both of them and makes us greater than we would be with just one or the other. In my opinion.

Whoever thought this service society would be good for most Americans, had their heads up their hind quarters in my estimation. I would reverse all such policies immediately, in fact, troglodyte that I am.

>The pendulum swings both ways and in time, hopefully a short space of time, all those that seek to usurp the power in control will be rightfully put in their places and the orderly flow of events will once again transpire without this demanding to do it someone else's way at every new event.

I really do worry about America now more than I ever have in my entire life before. Perhaps becoming older and infirmed has made me too soft, but I cannot stand what I see passing for the America I grew up in. That America is now long gone. Indeed, Kevin Phillips wrote the book "The Coming Republican Majority" in 1969, when I had just graduated from High School and was entering Westminster College in Fulton, MO. That's the place where Winston Churchill gave his famous "Iron Curtain Speech." I got into a bit of trouble there, but for the most part I was an extremely studious individual. Indeed, I did not really know how to have any fun back then, because I began concentrating upon my studies when I hit the 9th grade. That meant a radical change in my behavior which boosted my grades into the Stratosphere and put me in competition with the most intelligent students in every single class I took by the time I was a Senior in High School, that is. I never gave a tinker's damn about the ACTs or the SATs. I knew that my grades in High School were the best measurement of my likely success in College.

>While I am in no way learned enough to argue the points of the past with you or agree, I prefer to stay on the events of the present and deal with them as they arise. I can not see this nation returning to 'past ways' at least not for long.

We had better not, because it was the single most brutal time I've read about except in antiquity when the Romans practices Crucifixion on their slaves. Just think if Hannibal Barca had had the ability and the foresight to bring along enough troops to actually besiege Rome in the Second Carthaginian War -- a World War at that time -- he would have prevented the Roman Empire from every forming. But he failed to heed the lessons that Alexander the Great knew and so he failed in the end. As you can tell warfare occupies my mind, because I so detest having to be at war all of the time -- which is exactly what America has been doing for my entire life and virtually the entire life of my now truly ancient parents. I do not want to see America continue as we have, and Sun Tzu warns against this path as well. I think we should listen to him this time. Do you?

> We need better education about ourselves as a nation in schools (Agreed).Americans are terribly ignorant about the workings of their government and how important it is for them to be INVOLVED in the process. (Agreed completely!) That we don't just hire these guys to get our tax money back into our districts by hook or by crook for any stupid 'project'.

Whoa there Melissa. We don't do any such thing. Lobbyists run this nation state in reality. This is why both political parties are so totally corrupt. The people of the United States do not get to make these important decisions any longer. Lobbyists do for the most part I am sorry to report. Notice how Max Baucus did not even bring the Single Payer Health Care Plan up, and he's a Democrat? Guess who bought him off? The Pharmaceutical and Insurance Industries of the World really, not even those of America, because now every corporation is a multi-national entity. The American people come last on our Represenative's lists, I suspect. I am not the least bit pleased by this. We need a fellow with the intelligence of Theodore Roosevelt to be President next -- I swear it. This entire system needs to be changed and pretty radically too, which very likely means that it will now change very much at all. Only if we had descended into a true Depression would we have finally had to climb out in the correct way for a change. But that's not happened to America and the world since the late 1920s through the 1930s and even into the 1940s in fact. Right now we just happen to have the worst job market since World War II in fact. Now think about that for a while. Where would you get your next job? Could you get one?

>Sound government happens by consensus of the population applying pressure IN THE RIGHT WAYS FOR THE RIGHT REASONS. In my opinion.

I have not ever witnessed this from happening in the America I know before, and I'm getting older now too. Hence, I worry about such statements. We do not practice sound government any longer in my estimation. Others actually run this place, certainly not the people for example.

>There will always be those that are considered evil working in society, in government, in the world.

Agreed.

>Evil is merely the 'tails' of the coin of life and without it we would have nothing to compare righteousness to. It helps to try us in life. We either improve or we succumb.

I happen to agree, and I fear that we have already succumbed or so it seems to me. Greed and selfishness are the two worse evils I can see in most human beings. No, I am not above being either, but I am trying to change and give a lot more back to this nation that I love so very much. This era is breaking my heart though. I will not say this had not been a terrible time for me since about 1981 too.

>Keep up the good fight none-the-less In my opinion.

Please consider supporting the notion that Americans should once again manufacture our own products, sell them to Americans so that we have some really decent jobs for this generation but especially for the next one. Otherwise, the end of American Exceptionalism really has taken this nation over at long last and we are in decline, and very probably will never pull ourselves out of this massive debt that we have run up since 1981 to be precise. Going from a $0.54 trillion dollar Structural Debt to the real Debt we have today is just crushing innovation and what I consider to really be America right out of the very nation-state that once had it. I realize that I am asking a lot from all Americans. I see no other way to turn this nation around, however.

With respect,

Dave

Comments about me

MYMALWAYS

101 Kudos

05/27/09

My dislike of the current republican party revolves around my almost total opposition to the last administration and the loudest advocates for the party are insisting on continuing in the ways of the last administration. In my opinion

Administration has changed hands and a different party is in power. The reason they are there is because the majority didn't like what the last administration was doing.

It may be that war is their lead issue but there are other things that go along with it which includes dictating morals from a very conservative right point of view. Among other things which involves taxes, corporate favoritism to the exclusion of the rights of workers and such. I guess I'm just no lover of republican ideology. imo

Personally, I think anyone that may aspire to the office of president should have at the very least, basic training under their belt. Perhaps YEARLY MILITARY DUTY of some nature to keep fresh in their minds the rigors our men and women go through JUST BEING THERE and hopefully a very high respect for life and limb so as not to engage in wars for political ideological reasons. I think war for any reason save for assisting allies or self defense should be considered mass murder.

We lose in these battles because we want to LOOK like nice guys and we 'pull our punches' so to speak. If our commanders in chiefs insist on such wars then they should conduct them as WAR. Not in a way to appease public opinion. Just get in there and do it and be done with it. Trying to look like YOU'RE NOT OCCUPYING the region after 8 years, a dozen or more military bases and a small walled off city to rival the Vatican kind of tells people more about how long you're going to be somewhere than all the press conference lies.

Our wars are fought by volunteers these days and it sounds like your brother made his decisions to be a warrior as well so with all due respect to your love for your brother, he made his decisions for himself. It's just easier to feel better about their deaths/injuries when we see the conflicts as being justified. imo

I would imagine any war can be won. The real question, to me, is should this war be engaged in at all, right now, ever?

The "Think Tank" message board is back up. I've just gotten through a spate of posting about Cheney and his dictating the ways of the former administration and his constant scare tactics of a less safe America under Obama. Then they had James Caravelle and of all people Ann Coulter discussing the latest Supreme Court nomination. ANN COULTER? RUSH LIMBAUGH? This is the republicans idea of good spokes people? AND PEOPLE LISTEN TO THEM AND AGREE!!!! I can't think of less credible people to listen to.

The needs of the people are important. Yes. It's a symbiotic relationship though. One doesn't exist well without the other and it must be balanced. We need Wall Street to keep the wheels of business going for the masses. It must be balanced though. Either side taking too much throws things out of whack. Not just here, everywhere. imo

I think the jury is still out on how good this 'new service society' is for America. We are in transition. I'm holding out for more factory and less cheap/tainted Chinese imports....

Aside from Canada I've not been outside the continental US. Don't really aim to either. I'm a homebody to the max. I am a GED educated person. I went to the tenth grade in school but was just biding my time til I was old enough to drop out. I spent as little time in school as I possibly could from grade 8 to 10 so I wasn't doing a lot of studying or rubbing elbows with high IQ types.

I do not worry about America as much as I did when the last administration was in power. I truly feel they went beyond their legal rights in their positions and introduced dangerous and decidedly UNAMERICAN goals and objectives into the mainstream. It was rather frightening to me to see how many were so willing to fall into step and protect it as though it were sacred. That still disturbs me to no end.

Yes, that's what I said. We don't hire these guys to get the most pork money for our districts. That is how they are judged however, by the masses. In my opinion. They keep a guy in office because they feel they are represented because they are good at getting pork money for local causes.

One large disappointment in Obama is how he has backed away from his anti-lobbyist promises. Business/corporations should be wining and dining the citizens for their support. It should be against the law for them to approach OUR representatives in office but should have to convince US the people that they deserve the breaks they want. in my opinion

I don' t think the ENTIRE system needs to be changed but there are some areas that need to be written in stone and lots and lots of things that need to be clarified and some things that just NEED TO BE OUTLAWED. in my opinion.

I never strayed from the idea that America should always be able to provide for themselves what they need. This effort to go global is a nightmare to my way of thinking. Goods filled with some manner of harmful substance, jobs lost for inferior quality products that no one would buy if they had the money. I strongly believe we are in a nation in flux. Retooling for a different future and hopefully one that has learned from the past and made a plan 'b' just in case...imo

As ever,

Melissa

Original comment »
MYMALWAYS

101 Kudos

05/26/09

I have no love of the current republican party either though I recognize that it has SOME good qualities. The republican party seems to have been taken over by rather radicalized ideas of what the party stands for much like Islam seems to be represented by factions like Al Quaeda and the Taliban. TRUE REPUBLICANS need to work hard/harder to push those out to the fringe that would 'hijack' the principles of the party and radicalize them. We are a nation set upon two somewhat opposing ideas. Democracy and Republic. I'd hate to lose the input of either party. It is the chafing of their ideas that is SUPPOSED to bring out the best of the both of them and makes us greater than we would be with just one or the other. In my opinion.

The pendulum swings both ways and in time, hopefully a short space of time, all those that seek to usurp the power in control will be rightfully put in their places and the orderly flow of events will once again transpire without this demanding to do it someone elses way at every new event.

While I am in no way learned enough to argue the points of the past with you or agree, I prefer to stay on the events of the present and deal with them as they arise. I can not see this nation returning to 'past ways' at least not for long. We need better education about ourselves as a nation in schools. Americans are terribly ignorant about the workings of their government and how important it is for them to be INVOLVED in the process. That we don't just hire these guys to get our tax money back into our districts by hook or by crook for any stupid 'project'. Sound government happens by consensus of the population applying pressure IN THE RIGHT WAYS FOR THE RIGHT REASONS. In my opinion.

There will always be those that are considered evil working in society, in government, in the world. Evil is merely the 'tails' of the coin of life and without it we would have nothing to compare righteousness to. It helps to try us in life. We either improve or we succumb. Keep up the good fight none-the-less In my opinion.

Sincerely,

Melissa
Original comment »

05/27/09

Reply from Squarknees:

>I have no love of the current republican party either though I recognize that it has SOME good qualities.

Like what for example? The only area in which Republicans now consistently lead in the opinion of the American people right now is protecting our nation from attack. Otherwise, she loses in every other form of measurement.

Edit: The single worst military blunder that Americans made was to ever go to war with Vietnam during the Cold war. We failed to understand the reasons why even the well trained and well paid French Foreign Legion lost at Dien Bien Phu in a set-piece battle in 1954. American tax monies were paying for this force at that time of course. We did not have anyone high enough in rank to explain to LBJ and to William Westmoreland that the way were were going to be fought was based upon the principles written down by the Chinese military genius Sun Tzu. He took a small be extremely well trained military and attacked the next region in China with had become belligerent to the leader of his group of Chinese. Even though he was vastly outnumbered, he would only attack the most vulnerable assets of his enemy because he knew that if he fought a pitched battle against his opponent his military would be overwhelmed and defeated. So instead, he attacked them first and he kept on cutting them apart until he finally won the war with his once superior opponent. All that's really changed in warfare since then is the fact that Air power simply cannot be underestimated as it once was. However, one cannot use Air Power all of the time either or one will kill so many civilians that one will end up making more enemies than friends. Why I remember being called a Communist and almost every other name for protesting that war. I knew were going to lose it, because we completely failed to conquer our enemies territory and hold onto it. Besides, my brother ended up in the thick of things so that when he was shot fighting in the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam of all places, he surely would have died had it been either the Korean War or World War II; Only a helicopter that dumped him in a swamp for a while saved his life, but it took years of rehabilitation and seven operations before he got at least some innervation back in his right arm and fingers. He can only make a pinching motion with this thumb and his index finger, and this after seven operations at Scott Air Force Base in Bellville, Illinois. He simply could not stand to have another operation an so after seven of them he finally said "Uncle!"

But I well remember having to give his arm massages in order to counteract the feeling of the loss of a limb that sometimes occurs even when that limb is not lost at all, but merely mangled. I would have to get one of those vibrating rascals and put that on my right and hand and massage the poor guy. He was very lucky to have survived that were and he knew he was going to Vietnam, Indeed, when he was inducted he went through Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood in MO. Then he had to attend Advanced Infantry training in Northern California at Fort Ord. He decided that he did not want to remain an enlisted man, and so he took the test to see if he qualified to become an officer, Well, he passed that very nicely because he's exceeding intelligent and he's really tough too. So he attended OCS at Ft. Benning Ga., and he graduated as a second lieutenant. Then, since he still expected to be send to Vietnam, he decided to become a Ranger. Now, when you enter Ranger school, everyone drops their rank and everyone is treated exactly the same way. They went all over the United States practicing many skills like rappelling down a cliff with a wounded soldier and they learned how to fight extremely well too. He was in the field in Vietnam for exactly three weeks before he was in combat and needed to get in touch with his Radioman. Now, instead of ordering his Radioman to crawl on up to him, he made a really stupid mistake. He got up (he's pretty tall now), and ran bent over back to his Radioman, but while he was exposed a single AK-47 round hit him in the biceps of his right arm. Then, because he was carrying an ammo belt, that bullet, after blowing his biceps right out of his arm, went through that ammo belt and drew all sort of metal shrapnel into his right lung, where some of it fell on his diaphragm too. Then that bullet keep right on going expanding as it went, until it passed through he entire right lung so he his lung started filling up with blood. It kept on going and stopped at the out lining of his heart. Had he not been wearing that ammo band, he would have been killed in the Mekong Delta in 1967, when I was a sophomore in High School. We are six years apart in age. I have found it exceeding difficult to forgive President Johnson for not only getting us in a war we could not really win, as well as his policies that put so many African Americans in our Inner Cities in those horrible Projects. Furthermore, I cannot forgive his Civilian Advisers either all of whom failed to recognize the tactics that the Vietnamese were using against us, because it was well known by people like Mao Tse Tung and most of the Communist leaders of Asian nation-states. Why didn't we recognized the kind of warfare that was being used against us? Ignorance is the only answer I come up here, Melissa.

Edit: Their might have been one way to win that war, but it would have been ghastly in the process. We could have taken our B-52s most of which were stationed on Guam and flown not stop bombing runs over every single city in Vietnam where the enemy was sure to be found. We would have had to start bombing in the center of each city and continue to bomb in concentric circles until we had cleared enough territory so that we could put some ground troops down to see if we were actually killing the enemy not just civilians of course. Now we would have killed I cannot honestly tell you how many innocent civilians so that there might well have been very little difference if we had done things this way or actually used Nuclear Weapons again -- something I do not want America to ever have to use again. I honestly don't know if the rest of the world would have tolerated this approach, but it's just about the only way that we could have "won" that war. Well, I could not do that Melissa. I just couldn't. My conclusion is that we never should have allowed ourselves to be drawn into the Vietnam war at all. Some wars a nation has to know not to fight and that should really be determined by the very best military minds that we have got, not all of these Western trained military generals. I know that they are supposed to study Sun Tzu at West Point, so how come everyone seems to have forgotten all about him when we were faced with almost exactly the same situation? I do not understand why nobody except a now deceased Colonel knew what we really were facing, but he got nowhere telling others.

>The republican party seems to have been taken over by rather radicalized ideas of what the party stands for much like Islam seems to be represented by factions like Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Agreed, and that includes my former best friend too. He and I disagree politically speaking these days even though he's a really intelligent human being. I honestly do not understand how he could have become such a radical conservative, but he's most definitely one of them now and so is his wife. They were not this way when I still lived in St, Louis,.however, so

I was unable to see this change of his coming. When it did our friendship was sorely tried so that now we no longer discuss politics at all.

> TRUE REPUBLICANS need to work hard/harder to push those out to the fringe that would 'hijack' the principles of the party and radicalize them.

Good luck. With people like Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin grabbing the headlines I see this only happening if wiser heads prevail on the part of the more reasonable Republicans that remain still. Actually, I'm certain that Limbaugh, Cheney and Palin will be put out of commission long before the 2012 election. Republicans simply cannot afford to lose as badly as they have lately again. Otherwise their base id not large enough for them to win in most elections right now, that is. So there's some hope that the most egregiously obnoxious individuals will be taken out by other Republicans -- if they know what's really good for them.

>We are a nation set upon two somewhat opposing ideas. Democracy and Republic. I'd hate to lose the input of either party.

I'll only support a reformed Republic in which our Representatives once again, and perhaps for the first time in American history, put the needs of the people ahead of the needs of Wall Street. Wall Street and Main Street are two completely different places. Also, I want America to once again become a manufacturing society -- not this horrible consumer and service society that we are now. In this respect I am a Protectionist, something that we used to practice and that China is practicing as well or better than we ever did.

> It is the chafing of their ideas that is SUPPOSED to bring out the best of the both of them and makes us greater than we would be with just one or the other. In my opinion.

Whoever thought this service society would be good for most Americans, had their heads up their hind quarters in my estimation. I would reverse all such policies immediately, in fact, troglodyte that I am.

>The pendulum swings both ways and in time, hopefully a short space of time, all those that seek to usurp the power in control will be rightfully put in their places and the orderly flow of events will once again transpire without this demanding to do it someone else's way at every new event.

I really do worry about America now more than I ever have in my entire life before. Perhaps becoming older and infirmed has made me too soft, but I cannot stand what I see passing for the America I grew up in. That America is now long gone. Indeed, Kevin Phillips wrote the book "The Coming Republican Majority" in 1969, when I had just graduated from High School and was entering Westminster College in Fulton, MO. That's the place where Winston Churchill gave his famous "Iron Curtain Speech." I got into a bit of trouble there, but for the most part I was an extremely studious individual. Indeed, I did not really know how to have any fun back then, because I began concentrating upon my studies when I hit the 9th grade. That meant a radical change in my behavior which boosted my grades into the Stratosphere and put me in competition with the most intelligent students in every single class I took by the time I was a Senior in High School, that is. I never gave a tinker's damn about the ACTs or the SATs. I knew that my grades in High School were the best measurement of my likely success in College.

>While I am in no way learned enough to argue the points of the past with you or agree, I prefer to stay on the events of the present and deal with them as they arise. I can not see this nation returning to 'past ways' at least not for long.

We had better not, because it was the single most brutal time I've read about except in antiquity when the Romans practices Crucifixion on their slaves. Just think if Hannibal Barca had had the ability and the foresight to bring along enough troops to actually besiege Rome in the Second Carthaginian War -- a World War at that time -- he would have prevented the Roman Empire from every forming. But he failed to heed the lessons that Alexander the Great knew and so he failed in the end. As you can tell warfare occupies my mind, because I so detest having to be at war all of the time -- which is exactly what America has been doing for my entire life and virtually the entire life of my now truly ancient parents. I do not want to see America continue as we have, and Sun Tzu warns against this path as well. I think we should listen to him this time. Do you?

> We need better education about ourselves as a nation in schools (Agreed).Americans are terribly ignorant about the workings of their government and how important it is for them to be INVOLVED in the process. (Agreed completely!) That we don't just hire these guys to get our tax money back into our districts by hook or by crook for any stupid 'project'.

Whoa there Melissa. We don't do any such thing. Lobbyists run this nation state in reality. This is why both political parties are so totally corrupt. The people of the United States do not get to make these important decisions any longer. Lobbyists do for the most part I am sorry to report. Notice how Max Baucus did not even bring the Single Payer Health Care Plan up, and he's a Democrat? Guess who bought him off? The Pharmaceutical and Insurance Industries of the World really, not even those of America, because now every corporation is a multi-national entity. The American people come last on our Represenative's lists, I suspect. I am not the least bit pleased by this. We need a fellow with the intelligence of Theodore Roosevelt to be President next -- I swear it. This entire system needs to be changed and pretty radically too, which very likely means that it will now change very much at all. Only if we had descended into a true Depression would we have finally had to climb out in the correct way for a change. But that's not happened to America and the world since the late 1920s through the 1930s and even into the 1940s in fact. Right now we just happen to have the worst job market since World War II in fact. Now think about that for a while. Where would you get your next job? Could you get one?

>Sound government happens by consensus of the population applying pressure IN THE RIGHT WAYS FOR THE RIGHT REASONS. In my opinion.

I have not ever witnessed this from happening in the America I know before, and I'm getting older now too. Hence, I worry about such statements. We do not practice sound government any longer in my estimation. Others actually run this place, certainly not the people for example.

>There will always be those that are considered evil working in society, in government, in the world.

Agreed.

>Evil is merely the 'tails' of the coin of life and without it we would have nothing to compare righteousness to. It helps to try us in life. We either improve or we succumb.

I happen to agree, and I fear that we have already succumbed or so it seems to me. Greed and selfishness are the two worse evils I can see in most human beings. No, I am not above being either, but I am trying to change and give a lot more back to this nation that I love so very much. This era is breaking my heart though. I will not say this had not been a terrible time for me since about 1981 too.

>Keep up the good fight none-the-less In my opinion.

Please consider supporting the notion that Americans should once again manufacture our own products, sell them to Americans so that we have some really decent jobs for this generation but especially for the next one. Otherwise, the end of American Exceptionalism really has taken this nation over at long last and we are in decline, and very probably will never pull ourselves out of this massive debt that we have run up since 1981 to be precise. Going from a $0.54 trillion dollar Structural Debt to the real Debt we have today is just crushing innovation and what I consider to really be America right out of the very nation-state that once had it. I realize that I am asking a lot from all Americans. I see no other way to turn this nation around, however.

With respect,

Dave

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