I'll take another stab at this Republican/Democrat/Third party business. I'm feeling sassy.
The GOP and the Dems have shared power for the entire 20th Century. They have owned our government. What has this got us? One great depression, two massive world wars which killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, two long expensive forays into the jungles of Southeast Asia, a desert romp for cheap oil and weapons testing, and numerous interventions into countries few of us had ever heard of before the bombs started landing on civilians there.
Now, we are seeing our rights, our natural rights as guaranteed by the BoR, stripped away by these same two parties. We all agree that members of both parties are voting for more governmental control and less individual freedom. Who cares if the Democrats are the ones to propose most gun control legislation, they still need the Republicans to pass it. In fact, since '94 the GOP has had control of Congress; no gun control bill need even have come to the floor for a vote, had they not wanted them to. Would that it were so.
GOPs are just as interested in power as the Democrats are, they simply differ in their PR campaigns. The Dems appeal to the folks who like big government, who want the nanny state, mainly because they're curled up in nanny's arms sucking at the bottle full of my tax dollars. The Republicans appeal to the guys who like to quote the words of the founders, but still want governmental control over those godless homos over there, and aren't real fans of the idea that people own their own bodies. Sure, they want government a wee bit smaller than the Dems; they don't want to actually decrease the size of government, just to increase it at a slower pace. Yes, they know just enough about economics to give us more intrusive government less expensively than the Democrats, which is akin to saying, "Sure this used car is a piece of crap, but it costs less than that other piece of crap over there."
Stop using circular reasoning to talk yourself into voting Republican. Of course the third party candidate can't win if you don't vote for him. Stop listening to Clinton, Daschle, Schumer, Lott, Bush, Rather, Jennings and Brokaw when they assure you that third parties are not "viable". They are as fine a pack of liars and whores as you will ever see hop into bed together. Show me a true pro-gun, pro-freedom Republican, and I'll show you a Libertarian in wolf's clothing. And yes, I mean wolf, 'cause we're the sheep.
If you are actually serious about stopping the train of abuses by our government, then you cannot vote for either the Republicans or Democrats. It's just that simple. I'll continue to stretch the dog analogy: when your dog bites you, do you:
A. Reward the dog by giving him a treat and asking meekly, "Please, will you stop biting me?"
B. Punish the dog with stern voice and possibly a swat on the fanny, and tell him not to bite you anymore, and you mean it, this time.
C. Take him out for a last hunt, because no dog of mine bites me or my family. A beast with no loyalty is a danger to all.
It's your dog,you decide.
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"...the probability of the people in power being individuals who would dislike the possession and exercise of power is on a level with the probability that an extremely tender-hearted person would get the job of whipping-master in a slave plantation."
Prof. Frank H. Knight
[This message has been edited by Ipecac (edited October 18, 1999).]