OK, let's go into discussion mode.
Purple Tang wrote:
[Ron Paul] has been very explicit about his goal of closing the Dept of Education, the Federal Reserve, the IRS and many other government agencies.
Yeah, I've heard the same statements. My reservation, though, is what will really happen to all that money once it's freed up.
Purple Tang wrote:
For the past 30 years, the bigger the government the less freedom we have. "If you value your freedom, keep the government poor." Ronald Reagan.
I agree that a large, centralized government is an open invitation to corruption and incompetency, but Reagan didn't mind keeping the arms race as rich as possible at the same time as he wanted "government" to be poor. That's the code language I've always heard for the past 30 years, which I'm sure you've recognized as well. Keeping the government poor -- as a campaign promise -- translates into keeping certain
parts of the government poor once in office.
That's why I still have a doubt about Ron Paul. I agree with dismantling the Fed and the IRS, but what's going to happen to all that money once it's freed up? That issue right there is where I see a huge potential problem.
Purple Tang wrote:
Today I am madly in love with Kucinich for his attempts to oust Cheney .. . whom I suspect to be evil incarnate.
Yeah, as far as politicians' words on the campaign trail have any worth at all, Kucinich seems to be the only Democrat willing to risk controversy to do what he feels is right for his country.
Purple Tang wrote:
I want big, big change.
You and me both. That's why I see politics as we know it becoming obsolete in our lifetimes. Big change means just that -- big change. The big change will be when this whole system peels away -- when the character of individual human beings is strong enough to carry a civilization through functional families. Maybe not unlike the old systems of southeast Asia, before our predecessors ordered the razing of that way of life in favor of an unsustainable flood of 18-wheelers and burning oil.