Re: Obviously, Republicans are socialists.

Michael Baldwin wrote:
I'm a Libertarian Ron. I've always believed Americans _are_ the most
powerful "entity" in the land. Many of us just need to be woke up.

I lean that direction myself, but it is naive to think that the people
in a country are a powerful entity if there is no structure or
organization... and vision. If you have these things, and elect people
to deal with policies and enforce laws... then you have a government.
The problem isn't that we have government or that it is big and
powerful (as I explained before this is absolutely necessary). The
problem is that it is corrupt... and too few intelligent people care
enough to put their lives on the line to fix it.

Anyway here goes:

You could make a much longer list than that... and you could "fix" all
these issues and we'd essentially be in the same boat. People need to
wake up, yes... but I think the more fundamental problem is that
people are too easily manipulated. They don't seem capable of rational
thought, but instead respond emotionally to anyone who pushes their
buttons. Since 9/11 I've been amazed at how much worse this has
become... or at least seems to have become. I suspect that the art of
manipulation was suddenly "improved" about that time...

*Level the global economic playing field with duties and tariffs on
imported goods that equal the costs of manufacturing those same items
here.

Impossible to determine what is exactly the same cost and the same
item, and such a system is ripe for corruption since determining this
will always be highly subjective and variable. I'd prefer to allow
free trade with the few dozen countries that have living standards
similar to our own, and not import from the others at all... unless it
is something that can't be obtained here.

BTW... HD should have been allowed to fold... they were building crap,
and their bikes never competed with the Japanese models anyway. I
mean, when I bought a GS1100, a Harley wasn't on my list of viable
alternatives... and it wasn't because of the price.
.