The Cato Institute's 5 pieces of advice for "Tea Partiers"

[SteyrAUG]

See sig.

[ra2bach]

As laudable a goal as "leave social issues to the state" may appear, let's not forget that had this always been the case, we would likely still have slavery in this country.

The right thing to do is sometimes an unpopular thing to do and, for this reason (among others), many of our "founding fathers" were deeply distrustful of a pure democracy.

that's not a social issue, that's a human rights issue.

education, welfare, housing = social issues...

[ForTehNguyen]

#5 is the biggest thing we need to do

[RancidSumo]

and this is why the country is in the state that its in.

Because of compromise or because of attitudes like mine? If the former then I agree but if you meant the latter, then I'm going to have to ask where it is exactly in our government that you have seen that attitude as the prevailing one.

[montanadave]

that's not a social issue, that's a human rights issue.

education, welfare, housing = social issues...

You can choose to make that distinction. Others may not. When it comes to drawing the dividing line between social issues vs. human rights issues vs. economic issues vs ________ (select your own) issues, we have once again entered the dreaded GREY ZONE!

As for those who denigrate compromise and view it as anathema to American ideals, I would suggest they read some history, starting with the first Constitutional Convention, the Federalist Papers, etc. This nation was founded on compromise. Those who equate compromise with surrender are akin to those who confuse complexity with obfuscation.

"Don't confuse me with facts--my mind's already made up." And while we're on the subject of facts, a fact is whatever I believe in. Further, the truth of that fact is based solely on how fervently I hold those beliefs and has nothing to do with whether that fact is congruent with reality.

America's greatest threat is the rising tide of ignorance eroding the foundations of our nation.

[Belmont31R]

Tea Party has lost all its appeal to me.

[RancidSumo]

Let me clarify my position on compromise since now we have seen two comments on it. I'm not talking about a compromise between

Person 1) "I think that stealing should carry a one year sentence"

and

Person 2) "I think stealing should come with a five year punishment"

Trivial matters like that can be compromised on. Things that cannot be are issues like government intervention in the market. You cannot strike a compromise between someone like me who believes in freedom and someone who believes in complete government control over everything because then you are compromising on a moral issue and not a logistical one.

[Belmont31R]

Let me clarify my position on compromise since now we have seen two comments on it. I'm not talking about a compromise between

Person 1) "I think that stealing should carry a one year sentence"

and

Person 2) "I think stealing should come with a five year punishment"

Trivial matters like that can be compromised on. Things that cannot be are issues like government intervention in the market. You cannot strike a compromise between someone like me who believes in freedom and someone who believes in complete government control over everything because then you are compromising on a moral issue and not a logistical one.

Compromise has been a total failure.


Say our country started at 0, and todays liberals are 10's.


So we compromise over and over again with each new generation. Split down the middle we get to 5, and compromise again we get 7.5. A few compromises, and we are where we are today with a totally out of control, corrupt, and overspending government that we can never go back closer to 0. Instead we are moving closer to 10 each passing year because of compromise. Its a win win for them since it moves their cause closer to fruitition, and ours further away. Status quo becomes the baseline instead of 0.


The only thing we can hope for is to keep from compromising (like McCain was so proud of), and keep things from getting worse. I have no faith in the GOP to do this as half of them are closest socialists anyways.

[HK51Fan]

[QUOTE=SteyrAUG;639817] "It's hard to be a ACLU hating, philosophically Libertarian, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, scientifically grounded, agnostic, porn admiring gun owner who believes in self determination."



If you were to add physically/mentally healthy heterosexual without homophobic prejudices put this on a dating website I think you'd get a lot of hit's!!!!

[toasterlocker]

The only thing we can hope for is to keep from compromising (like McCain was so proud of), and keep things from getting worse. I have no faith in the GOP to do this as half of them are closest socialists anyways.

The problem is most of the population is too stupid to recognize the GOP is almost as bad as the Democrats, if not worse in some cases. Your average Republican will go just as far to expand the government as a Democrat, the only difference is they say they don't. Guess which president was number 1 for expanding the government until Obama got in - it was a Republican, and it was recent.

Until the general population recognizes that the "battle" between the 2 major parties is a charade and BOTH are more or less fronts for corporations, things will only get worse.