you start to sound like you have a clue, then you say something like this:

You sneer at me for wrongful voting. Guess who was on the winning side. How smart can you be when defeated by morons like me?

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What kind of a statement is that? The Nazis won too. Does that make their opponents idiots? Please.

And note that the GOP cheated in Ohio in 2004, and they definitely stole the 2000 election, so, from where I sit, I WAS on the winning side. Your side simply stole the Presidency, both times.

The Nazis did much the same, using the Reichstag Fire as a public pretext, and strong-arming key players in Hindenburg's government privately.

all that said, however, you know as well as I do that 50% of all voters, by definition, are below average. In intelligence, in awareness, in sheer, general wattage. They are easily manipulated.

Last I looked, even 70% on a college paper was reason for despair. Well over 70% of american voters are woefully ignorant about nearly everything, and easy prey for anyone smart enough to manipulate them.

I give up. Go ahead and believe yourself a genius, and believe I am a crank. Believe any damned thing you want. Just don't vote GOP next time, ok?

they're NOT all the same, pace Ralph Nader. Just think on that. They. Are. Not. All. The. Same.

Think about how different our world would be if Gore had been elected in 2000. And, yes, our world would be far better if Kerry had been elected in '04, whatever his flaws, they cannot compare to the outright lunacy of Bush and Cheney.

think on all this. Really think on it. And ask yourself if it's not true.

John Edwards needs a slap upside the head.

This site is just the thing, if only he, and every other Presidential candidate, would read it:

http://www.warsocialism.com/

I know you don't like this kind of thing Andrew, although you have slowly been moving toward Mr. Hanson, almost despite yourself.

I find the site above suitably salutary. As the motto of Jay's old site (www.dieoff.org) had it:

"If a path to the better there be, it begins with a full look at the worst."

-- Thomas Hardy

www.warsocialism.com is a full look at the worst. We should all have a look. Then start talking reality, instead of fantasy.

The laundry list of Paul's positions was very interesting. I agree with about 80% of it. It is only his most extreme libertarian positions that strike me as a bit impractical. Much of the rest seems like simple common-sense.

But he's kicking against the long, remorseless march of the plutocrats. At least someone's kicking. I have to give him credit for that.

I didn't say I'd vote for the guy for anything more important than dogcatcher...I wouldn't. But I find it interesting that many of his ideas are in harmony with my own... just as I've found it interesting the I agree with some of the positions the John Birch Society takes. That doesn't mean I think they should be running anything. They shouldn't.

A good idea is a good idea, wherever it comes from. Usually.

LWM wrote:

Or even all of the commenters here, just a few. Some of whom I'm suspect of, like the "anonymous" who claims to be a Democrat. You know my politics from Glenn Greenwald's blog, and I'm pretty familiar with yours.

I'm actually glad he's in the race. It's an opportunity to watch politics and a stark political realignment in action and to perhaps educate some people. This thread from Freep is quite educational and very entertaining:

**********

Your post got me thinking about something. It's half-baked, and surely not original. But isn't it interesting how the GOP and Democratic Party have gyrated back and forth ideologically, since WWII? Both parties have been morphing around and around in the last 50 years.

It makes me think that opportunism is an equal-opportunity sin. Both parties have leadership that turns with the winds.. the GOP getting more or less nativist/plutocratic...the Dems getting more or less socialist..although I suspect that the last time the Dems did anything truly socialist was when they passed the Social Security and Medicare legislation. And some of the more sweeping environmental legislation. A long time ago.

And socialism for big-business has always been a GOP specialty. Socialism for corporate america, and merciless capitalism for the rest of us.

some of this suggests that ideology is just a club with which to beat voters...and *right action* (as the Buddhists would have it), always looks pretty much the same, regardless of what party you happen to belong to.

So, as one example, absent ideology, Bush's invasion of Iraq was a catastrophically stupid and irresponsible thing to do, no matter who had done it, given the same set of circumstances.

In other words, tending the Commons requires the same *right-action* no matter your ideology -- At this point, I'm thinking neither the GOP nor the Democrats have much idea what *right-action* to protect the Commons is..I suspect they haven't known for a long time now, and, moreover, that this very subject would, in some essential way, be meaningless to them, in their endless search for their own personal--and group--political power.

This is why Ron Paul is very confusing to some. He inadvertently points up the root treason-to-the-commons of both parties. When you're in deep denial, someone pointing out that fact, and making you feel it, is not very welcome, are they?