Conservatives (not Republicans) believe in the indomitable American spirit while Democrats (not Liberals)believe in extinguishing the light on the shining hill. Moderates sit on the side lines waiting for whoever is the winner. Unfortunately, after the death of JFK the Left came along and viciously pounded upon all of America with its Hollywoodized images of ‘fake but accurate’ reality-based insanity so the moderates choose that victor in order to feel like champions.

Stalin’s useful idiot really swayed the moderate voter this time around.

Stumbley’s version of term limits (and term limits in general) only make sense if you have term limits on staff. Otherwise, you would have permanent staff making the decisions for figurehead elected officials.

The larger and more complex the government gets, the more it will consume of everything. The conservative values of smaller government, fiscal restraint, less regulation, support for the entrpreneur and small business people, personal freedom, personal responsibility, lower taxes, a strong national defense and the rule of law (versus legislation from the bench) are brilliant in the positive consequences brought to millions.

This is what America needs and not entitlements and dependency on government. What we need are leaders who understand, can articulate the vision and understand that they are there to serve the people and not the other way around.

That is why character, regardless of one’s politics, is the first diligence item. When voter’s look for entitlements, folks who promise the dole regardless of its value or impact are already compromised. Corruption is not far behind. So we get Abscam Jack. I just got Menendez in New Jersey, who is under federal investigation for corruption. Voter’s need to demand better.

Now, the Enviro Bureaucrats knew what to do: they hired machines, built a track into the forest, took possession of the logs, and charged the poor entrepreneur the costs of all this. Now it is in court, so no one can help the poor fellow.

As it happens, the elected representative in charge of Forestry could not prevent this from happening. Why? It was all done between Friday and Monday, by mid level zealots (govt bureaucrats) on their own steam. By Monday, the thing is in court, there to remain, and driving one of the few businesspeople into bankruptcy.

There are other stories, too. Spackler is right. Look at the Iraqi situation. Bush’s policies, OK’d by the Public Citizenry, have been effectively undermined by the bureaucrats in the CIA and State, who have found their allies in the MSM.

The citizens say that government doesnít listen and represent them. Citizens serving as elected officials agree.

We now have a system so large, so complex, and so thirsty for taxes that each day it is less and less under any elected officials control.

Letís be real here folks, why would an intelligent, normal person enter such an environment? We are riding this trend line to its conclusion.

Anyway, you can be sure that losing a group’s votes lasts for GENERATIONS. So, give Bush & etc some slack here. They don’t want the Hispanics to be lost in the far green pastures of the Democrats.

Thus that Martinez fellow, a self made guy.

And Give Politicians some credit, too. They are in a game with its own rules and standards and necessities. Believe it or not, just because we are smart doesn’t mean we know anything about that particular art form.

I once heard a political science professor at the University of Vermont expound on the beauty of the thinking of the Founding Fathers when they designed the Federal gov’t.

The Founding Fathers according to this professor, wanted a system that couldn’t become too powerful. A system that couldn’t overcome the will of the people. A system that would be slow to regulate and clumsy when it did.

They set up a system that would guarantee lots of in-fighting between the branches and a certainty of gridlock.

I laugh every time I look at the gaggle of politicans we have collected in Washington.

The real work in the world gets done by people in the “real” world–the private sector.

IMO, most people who are drawn to politics aren’t doing it for “public service” but for personal enrichment. These are the people who are otherwise lacking in almost every respect but who desire power over others.

When someone decides to enter public life, he’s opening himself to a media anal exam, especially if he’s conservative. Who in his right mind would want to put himself and his family through all that?

There are, of course, exceptions to by cynical view. Every now and then, someone who has actually lead a life outside of politics (e.g. Frist) enters the political sphere. They’re all too few and far apart, IMO.

You want a simple way to improve the average nature of a politician across the board? Ban all politicians from television–including images in news reports. TV is a shallow medium, as it concentrates the mind on appearance–style not substance. If “electable” is limited to people that come across well on TV, then the pool of people isn’t big enough to produce a better Congress. The “State of the Union” was better when it was delivered in written form.

Now of course that will never happen. As George Will once said, banning all left turns would cut car accidents by almost 40%, but we’ll never do it–even though that would have a lot less costs than things we try in the hopes that they’ll reduce accidents by less than 1%.

We try to produce men without chests, then we complain when they have no courage.