I take issue with those that think that this election will flush out the moderates and "rinos" after four years of Obambi. Conservatism will come roaring back because things will be so bad the liberals will be thrown out. I think not. We will not only be slipping further down the slippery slope after four years but, over the cliff.

Mark Steyn has a great article over at Hot Air or use the link.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Nzk5MWY5YjU0MDI0ODFkYTZjMDQ2MjlhZDM0MjAwNTA=&w=MQ==

Well stated post Schippert. Sad thing is, the state of our education system makes it necessary to explain what should be as obvious as a brick to the skull. Unfortunately, capitalism and conservatism are already dirty words to millions of Americans, even many who own businesses.

It's like Rush says, "Ignorance is the most expensive commodity in the country". Never pass up a chance to preach the evangel of liberty to the lost. Remember, it's not their fault they went to public school.

Unfortunately, you are preaching to the choir on this website. The people who need to see this won't see this. Before the slaughter the sheep look up.

its the GOP that is being thrown out for a job so poorly done. obama is not a socialist. letting propagandist mouthpieces scare you about nanny states and "wealth redistribution" isnt going to help you, your party, or our country

Propagandist mouthpieces didn't scare me about "wealth redistribution."

Obama scared many about "spreading the wealth around."

No mouthpiece required.

Obambi's past associations and the things he said about himself in books, not to mention his voting record, speak volumes about what he will do with a socialistic congress. Obambi's not a socialist? That's funny.

I think the "socialist" retort would be that there may be just as many poor people in France and Britain but at the least they get good healthcare. That kind of stuff does matter.

When you've already got a government that's listening into everyone's phone calls and screening all emails, and claiming the right to imprison US citizens without trial or a lawyer, seems like you're a bit late to be worrying about "disregarding the Constitution."

after obama takes office this january, how shocked i'll be when, gosh durnit, obama actually doesnt turn the USA into the united socialist states of america, and all the neocon doomsayers turn out to be wrong. shocked indeed

The last time Democrats held the White House and both Chambers of Congress for eight years, we went to the moon.
The last time Republicans held the White House and both Chambers of Congress for eight years, we got the Great Depression.
You can look it up.

Good post Schippert.

The trolls here don't understand an important principle, to wit, that democratic capitalist countries never voluntarily sign up for a socialist form of government. That is why Friedrich Hayek titled his book on the subject The Road to Serfdom.

There is a road traveled to that place where individual liberties have been surrendered and it is paved with the good intentions of redistributionist politicians. Hayek, owing to his Austrian heritage and the poor example set by the then wholly socialist British government, saw this disaster and led the intellectual fight against it.

No actually I think it was the GREAT SOCIETY. That worked well.

If Mr 57 states wins, he'll soon do for America what Dems like Kwame, John Street, Ray Nagin, Sharpe James, Marion Berry have done for big blue cities.

giani - there are 57 'delegate states' in the democrat primary nomination process, which obama was referring to at that time. so obama made a very minor verbal slip, compared to your execrable racist slip

Well if Fred Thompson agrees, I don't know what to think. He was such a good candidate after all, and his opinions really count for a lot these days. Especially on Democrats.

He said 57 states(actually inferred 60, so explain that), but, thanks for proving once again that no matter how lying libs F up, they'll always either try to explain it as a minor slip up (Biden's a three-letter word: J-O-B-S) or, throw the race card out there.

Look at what Dims have done to states like NJ and MI, or, look at the aforementioned big blue cities where Dims have been in control for decades. One would think there'd be sufficient empirical data to prove that Dims actually do a better job at running things. I see very little.

BTW, since Dims are so great at running things, when was the last time a Dim led Congress actually gave the US a budget surplus?

haha. what part of 57 delegate states dont you understand. ah well, another neocon child left behind... as bu$h himself said: "is our children learning?"

look at what the GOP has done to this whole country. verbal gaffes do not compare

roflmfao More victims of the unionization, aka the failure, of the us educational system. Libs in here are why the dims need to buy welfare votes and with handouts since so many are incapable of hard work, coherent thoughts, or honesty.

DID he say 'delegate states? NOPE.

He said,"I've now been in 57 states, I think, one left to go. One left to go, Alaska and Hawaii I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."

So, IF he was actually referring to 57 delegate states, how come he named 60?

Maybe you can head on down to Katie's Restaurant on Union St in Wilmington to do some fact checking.(It closed over 20 yrs ago, so, was that another outright lib lie, or, a a gaffe?)

And BTW, since Dims are so great at running things, when was the last time a Dim led Congress actually gave the US a budget surplus? Care to answer?

"an administration that disregards the constitution"

Did you read that before you submitted it? You did, seriously?

I must have missed the parts of the Constitution supporting torture, the suspension of habeus corpus, wiretapping the American public with no oversight at the President's whim, and the anti-constitutional expansion of the executive branch perpetrated by the most evil and at shockingly, at the same time most idiotic person ever to grace the office of President of the United States.

Try again Schippert, your article is disingenuous at best, and an outright propagandist lie at worst.

giani - all your fringe has to carp on is verbal gaffes and exaggerated hypothetical scenarios

oh and that old chestnut about it being the republicans balancing the budget, LOL, when the GOP president and congress we just recently simultaneously had made it clear it was not a priority

we both know that obama knows exactly how many actual US states there are, so you can either pretend he doesnt, or you can start on the long long, road to seeing things as they really are

good luck with that

If anyone on this thread thinks the Italians and French get good health care they need to go there and live long enough to have a serious health problem. Care in both those countries (unless you are an influential politician) is triage. When you stop contributing you get to die.

The GOP has become `the spend and borrow party` and deficits are just taxes deferred, until eventually we will be paying such a high proportion of our budget towards just the interest on our national debt that we will have to pay higher taxes.

Of course, that we be when Bush says he will be filling up the family coffers' with speeches how 'freedumb is on the march' round the world or how he saved what he calls the free enterprise system headed by wall street tyccons-- by bailing them out with future taxes and revenue fom Americans on middle and lower income.
Bush has said many times(I know he is exagerrating but he has said it) that the very rich don`t pay taxes, but Wall Street is getting enormous government help as we socialze their losses, while they retain the privatizing of their profits. That is quite a government redistribution of wealth by government intervention which Schippert and McCain decrys except when it is necessary and when it depends which class of people are receiving government welfare.

Schippert feels it is socialism when the government helps out poor people or those on lower incomes. When the federal government intervenes by an incredible trillion dollars and counting and bails out, because of their own stupitity and incompetence another class of people, what does he call that? It surely isn't free enterprise. I call it socialism for the rich.

Glenn, you are probably correct. But I was always told the US had the best health care, standard of living, etc. If so, why do so many Americans have no health insurance at all? Why can't all Americans have the same health plan that our elected crooks have?

It's time someone, hopefully Obama will do it, but I doubt it, clean out all the damn waste our tax money goes to support policies that don't work.

McCain won't, because he voted 90% of the time for Bush's policy's, and the GOP had, for 6 years, complete control of all aspects of our gov't. Even though most people commenting on this web site will refuse to believe the truth, WHO HAD COMPLETE CONTROL OF THE GOV'T FROM 2000 to 2006? And in the same time period, did no oversight of anything! And why didn't the GOP controlled gov't fix the health care problem so every American could have health care?

Let's face it, our country has problems, and until both sides realize it, and start speaking out about those problems, everyone is playing into the elected crooks play book.

That is the truth, but some people are so scared, so mind bent that their way is the only way, etc, it's going to be very hard for whoever becomes President to get anything done.

Lies, voting caging, bad electronic voting machines are not going to swing the election this year. Hopefully people can start working together, tell the truth, instead of the BS party line, and make all of our elected crooks start working for all Americans.

But I doubt that will ever happen.

How interesting. V is for Vendetta playing on cable. Seems appropriate considering the path of this thread.

First of all, those who want to focus on the domestic policies of the Republican Congress and Bush between 2000 and 2006 are essentially right. Republicans tried to emulate Democrats and did a really bad job of it.

For the cute remark about the Republican Party and the depression, it should be noted 1) Any resemblance between the Republican Party then and now is purely coincidental and 2) Ditto the Democrats. Go take a political science course, please, preferably in a Junior College where the instructor is less likely to be on a mission.

For those who want to blame one political party over the other in the context of the current economic situation, you are full of it. BOTH parties are to blame, especially Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, plus Chuck Schumer. So was Cox and Bush and a host of other characters from both parties.

For those who want to blame Wall Street alone, you are full of it. The Mortgage mess was partially mandated by Congress and Clinton changing the rules for the CRA of 1977 which COMPELLED lenders to invest in worthless mortgages. On the other hand, nobody made Wall Street to get into direvitives, ALT-A mortgages and other unsavory and only temporarily profitable fake investments.

It took a land fill load of stupid that included both political parties, Wall Street Executives, Regulatory Agencies, THE MEDIA and average citizens with cranial recticulitus to get us where we are.

And Crickmore, you got it half right. The bailout WAS socialism for the rich, sorta. It was also socialism for the poor as well, since those are the ones who take in the shorts when the economy goes in the tank as it was about to do and may well yet. It was also CYA for Dodd, Schumer, Frank, Pelosi and a host of Republicans that can share the blame as well although not to the extent of those four. It is a matter of degree.

And finally, for those who say Obama is a socialist, there is evidence he may very well be one. For those who say he isn't, you obviously haven't done your reading and research.

See it is that Obama wants to continue the War on Poverty, a seven trillion dollar war we have clearly lost. Actually, all you have to do is a bit of reading and you will find people like Bobby Rush, Congressman from Chicago and ex-panther, who have clearly identified Obama as an oreo catering to the white "Elite" liberals.

If you track Obama's record, you will see that he does not go against the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Schumer and that ilk. He never has. And if he doesn't, we are going to see 401-K confiscation, and a host of other socialist proposals sail through a Congress made up of the same Liberals who gave us Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while loudly pointing a finger at the Republicans.

I am a big fan of DJ, who thinks that accountability is a good thing. So do I.

And for those who think that Obama will only raise the taxes on the top 5% of earners, you are forgetting:

Rolling back the Bush tax cuts will mean an effective increase in taxes of the rest of us.

And secondly, those earning a lot of money, including corporations, will in large part, pass on the cost of the extra taxes in the form of higher prices and/or less service.

The Democrats are giving us a hand job instead of the real thing.

Why can't all Americans have the same health plan that our elected crooks have?

Why can't all American's live in the same type of neighborhood that our elected crooks do ?

Brian:

Given that you are a product of our public school system, which teaches how to pass a test instead of how to think critically, I am not surprised when you say:

This is a crap argument that both sides make every four years. If in four years the country is NOT a socialist cesspool where everyone has ceded their liberty, then we'll know that we should no longer pay any attention to the likes of Fred Thompson and Steve Schippert.

True: The argument is made every four years.

False: You exaggerate by specifying "Socialist cesspool."

Here is how to think critically.

First, you take away the labels "Republican" and "Democratic." Then you look at voting records and other evidence of political slant for those who hold the power or will hold the power.

Secondly, you then attempt to make predictions based on past record of what a given set of politicians will do.

The Dems and Repubs now are a different bunch from even 20 years ago. And especially different from what they were 50 years ago.

The Democratic Party continues to go farther and farther left in both their ideological base and in their leadership. The Republican Party has tried to hold the center and failed because they went too far left and adopted the Democratic mantra of spend, which meant the continued huge tax on our children.

This is the first time since Carter that the forces of social AND economic liberalism has lined up with so much power and the power shift within the LEADERSHIP has been even more profound. The only difference between Carter and Obama is that Carter had at least some constraints on what he would spend. And frankly, Pelosi is no Tip O'Neil.

Obama has no constraints and he doesn't understand economics.

Brian, we have taxed our children to the point where those who lend are having second thoughts that they can ever expect repayment. For an assortment of reasons, our transfer of wealth has returned to the US via loans. This is beginning to show signs that it will grind to a stop as those with the money we have given them start to find news ways of investing that money.

Just paying the interest on our national debt is becoming burdensome. Now add to that the amibitions of social justice that is the mantra of the social liberals along with the lack of restraint by the economic liberals, and you have a prescription for economic AND social chaos.

I am not talking about liberty. That is a strawman.

I am talking about a society where the rich get richer and the poor get even more dependent on the government so that the rich liberal class continues to maintain power in this country.

Brian, have you ever done any studies on who has the money and how they vote and who they support? The answer might just surprise the hell out of you.

This election IS a major turning point and it sets up the context of government for the next generation unless the Dems screw it up so bad that they get kicked out in two years.

One other comment Brian:

Here is a typical example of an attempt at excessive Presidential power as proclaimed by the Liberal press and many liberal politicians:

* Expand the definition of terrorism, * Seize commercial vehicles for federal use, * Expand wiretap authority without a court's approval, * Allow the FBI to seize personal property in criminal and civil cases, * Rewrite the Posse Comitatus Act, to allow government to involve our military more in local law enforcement

I haven't been fair to you. I have expected you to know more history than you obviously do.

I guess you are reaping the reward of the education system we have that teaches history from the POV of what Presidents publically wanted to do instead of what they often did behind the scenes. And all of the unintended consequences someone warned agains gets very little press or history teaching.

Anyway, there is the Bush Doctrine, right?

If you said yes, you would be wrong. That was Bill Clinton's Justice Department in 1998.

Want the proof, google Hector Reyes and Bob Barr?

Thinking that all the Repubs are evil and all the Dems are nice guys is just plain ignorant.

Brian, I say again, have you ever done a study on who has the money and how they vote? Do you think that they all want to give up their money in taxes or is there something else going on?

Brian, just to help you out pal, we are at a junction point, a once in a hundred year deal both politically (how we got here) and economically. We no longer have the money to keep throwing cash at social experiments that have failed in every country that tried. Yet that is exactly what Obama wants to do.

The only way for the Dems to get money now is through means that are basically confiscatory, such as the 401K plan and through saving on National Defense like Frank wants to do.

Some of the moneyed, white Liberal class is going to get an unpleasant surprise next year if BHO wins. I think this is how Page 11 works, isn't it? The howls of outrage are going to be sweet music irrespective of which candidate wins because of Congress.

BTW Brian, I ignored the "mirror" because it was just a strawman.

For those who want to blame one political party over the other in the context of the current economic situation, you are full of it. BOTH parties are to blame, especially Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, plus Chuck Schumer. So was Cox and Bush and a host of other characters from both parties.

For those who want to blame Wall Street alone, you are full of it. The Mortgage mess was partially mandated by Congress and Clinton changing the rules for the CRA of 1977 which COMPELLED lenders to invest in worthless mortgages. On the other hand, nobody made Wall Street to get into direvitives, ALT-A mortgages and other unsavory and only temporarily profitable fake investments.

It took a land fill load of stupid that included both political parties, Wall Street Executives, Regulatory Agencies, THE MEDIA and average citizens with cranial recticulitus to get us where we are.

Yes!
That ought to be carved in stone.

Shorter version of #30 by Brian:

'I've just been schooled by Larry and don't know how to respond.'

Shorter version of #33 by Les:

"I got nothing."