| | Sylvan,
I fear we are living in a conflict occupying a much larger time-frame than we would expect. It isn't something that can be changed by a politician, or by Rush Limbaugh becoming one. It is a clash between the core ideas of free enterprise (actually individual sovereignty, which really must be founded on rational self-interest) and government control (based upon any number of altruistic variations).
We are getting closer to a real battle because the real ideas and the real opponents have started to enter the ring. The progressives quietly defeated and did away with the old democrats - and the hard-core progressives are far closer to the heavy-weight, main bout of pro-government fighters.
We now hear in the media, almost daily, open denunciations of capitalism and open acceptance of socialism. This is a new thing in America to anyone of my generation.
In the other corner we are just seeing a public appearance of Libertarians, but they are struggling just to get a tiny sliver of public recognition - it a new thing and still so small as to be almost unnoticeable. For the first time there are a handful of them elected to national office. And they are solid contenders for replacement of some of the the old school conservatives. In the meantime, they are teaching a trick or two to the fiscal and constitutional conservatives.
But, in the meantime the establishment republicans (progressive-light me-too'ers) along with the religious right and big government Neo-cons still hold a lot of the ineffective, loser-style republican machinery.
So, like I said, it is still early days and the battle is between ideas, and these ideas will have to come up from the grassroots and with alacrity and force - but the people of main street are only just starting to wake up and there might not be a win in our lifetimes. And while we wait, there will be no one at the top who can save us - it really has never been that kind of war.
Sorry, but you work with what you've got. You throw sand in opponent's wheels, you ruin their little plans, expose their lies, you buy time, and you educate.
(Edited by Steve Wolfer on 7/31, 6:07pm)
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So here's the point: "There are no self-made men. The individual is subservient to the state." This is what Lakoff was trying to conceive that other Democrats could take out into the public domain. They're not talking about roads. This isn't about roads and bridges. Obama and the Democrats are engaged in what I would call 'a determined philosophical takedown of the individual,' at the expense of the total empowerment of the state. If you read a sentence of this or a whole paragraph, what Obama's saying is: There is no self-made man.
