The American Spectator : More Liberal Than France?

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More Liberal Than France?

By Joseph A. Harriss on 1.16.13 @ 6:11AM

Maybe a little French-style conservatism is the antidote to four more years of Obama.

France and the U.S. are both undergoing social democratic onslaughts. That only intensified after last year’s elections. The difference, mes amis, is that French conservatives are putting up some surprisingly spunky resistance. The American middle class, by contrast, appears to be rolling over and going back to sleep, passively agreeing with the ineffable Chris Matthews, who exulted shortly after last November 6, “Legalized pot and gay marriage, is this a great country or what?”

Some time back a certain Mitt Romney cautioned that, “unless we take action, we’ll end up being the France of the 21st century.” The fashionable complaint became that we were looking more like France every day. Look again. On a number of big issues from soft drugs, to taxation, to same sex marriage, we’ve already become more liberal than France. The trend is clear: trillion-dollar budget deficits, a Social Security system going broke, government spending at some 40 percent of GDP — only a few points less than in the euro zone — one in seven Americans on food stamps, and ever more dependent on big government. Only visible difference is that liberal social democracy is developing willy-nilly in the U.S., whereas in France, for better or worse, it’s systemic. The Obama administration is working on that.

Take legalizing marijuana. Since last November citizens in Washington state and Colorado can merrily light up a joint, and federal law criminalizing it be damned. While the Justice Department tries to decide what action to take, “the Berlin Wall of pot prohibition seems to be crumbling before our eyes,” as Rolling Stone happily reports. With some 58 percent of Americans favoring legal marijuana and Barack (“We’ve got bigger fish to fry”) Obama signaling flexibility, the way is open to a chaotic nationwide patchwork of legal pot. If it’s not available in one state, a short trip next door will be all that’s needed to stock up. Several other liberal Left Coast states, plus some like Minnesota and Rhode Island, appear likely to follow suit soon, while the District of Columbia is opening its first medical marijuana dispensaries.

But leave your weed at home if you’re going to France. French law strictly prohibits the possession, use, sale and purchase of cannabis and other recreational drugs. It backs that up with a maximum fine of 75,000 euros ($97,500) or up to ten years in prison. Not only is pot unequivocally illegal in the eyes of the law, but some French companies are requiring that job candidates give urine samples to determine whether they use it. And there is little visible public sentiment to go squishy on that. Even Socialist President François Hollande, who never saw a liberal cause he didn’t espouse, made no campaign promises last year about legalizing cannabis. Try explaining to a Frenchman that the U.S. has a more conservative approach to drugs.

American and French judicial institutions also differ on how they have accepted, or not, the radical, emblematic liberal campaign pledges of Obama and Hollande. The former promised sweeping health care reform and produced the Affordable Care Act of dubious constitutionality. Did Congress have the right to force citizens to purchase a product — the individual mandate — or pay a penalty? The administration claimed it was allowable under the Commerce Clause. The Supremes had to admit that this was wrong, so under the leadership of a complaisant Chief Justice John Roberts, they found a way to make Obamacare legal. The requirement to buy health insurance was simply a new tax! Or maybe both a penalty and a tax. Whatever, the highest court in the land went along with an important expansion of the welfare state.

Compare that with the judicial fate of one of François Hollande’s highest-profile pledges. He vowed to soak the rich for all they were worth, notably with a battery of new tax legislation including the infamous, confiscatory 75 percent tax on income over $1.3 million. But when the new fiscal law — a symbol of French Socialism if ever there was one — was passed last December, French conservatives immediately challenged it before France’s Conseil Constitutionnel, charged with ensuring that new laws conform to the constitution. Alas and alack for Hollande, it quickly struck down the 75 percent tax, along with tougher rules on how wealth, stock options and capital gains were to be taxed. In an embarrassing political setback for Hollande, it declared the tax package violated tax burden equality before the law. While the Supreme Court approved a big, controversial new tax, France’s watchdog drew a line in the sand explicitly limiting how far socialist taxation could go. Who’s more liberal?

In both countries the concerted homosexual effort to undermine the family as the basis of society is gaining ground. But it is in the U.S. that same-sex marriage is advancing faster, as timid conservative opposition yields to the specious “equality” arguments of activists, the issue’s appeal to politicos as a vote-getter, and the homosexual lobby’s $35 million propaganda campaign. The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (soon to be left to the tender mercies of the Roberts Supreme Court) did nothing to discourage voters in Maine, Maryland, and Washington state from becoming the first to approve same-sex marriage by popular vote in November, joining the six other states and the District of Columbia where lawmakers or court rulings already allowed it — some 14 percent of the U.S. population. That leaves only 30 states with constitutional amendments defining marriage as between a man and a woman; legislators in several of those will consider changing that this year.

The White House, of course, is all for it. So are boosters like the Illinois businessmen who came out in favor of homosexual marriage on the eminently moral grounds that it would be good for hotels and the wedding industry — even Sinclair Lewis in Babbitt wouldn’t have dared make that up. To the appreciative applause of gay rights groups, Newt Gingrich wetted his finger, checked the wind, and advised Republicans to get used to the inevitable. After all, if a majority seems to approve, it must be right! Don’t look for principled leadership from the precincts of Washington National Cathedral, either. Dean Gary Hall gaily announces he will join lesbian, bisexual, homosexual and transgenders in a gaudy travesty of holy matrimony beneath its neogothic spires. Those inside the Beltway might understand that the Cathedral, site of the consecration of an openly homosexual bishop, has long been a liberal maverick within the international Anglican communion. But in the Age of the Image, the world’s retina will record that one of America’s premier religious landmarks stands as a mockery of family values.

The battle to save the traditional family is probably lost in France, too, but French conservatives are at least determined to go down fighting. And the vigorous war they are waging against same-sex marriage and adoption is not over whether it is an inevitable, vote-getting trend, or a good money-maker for business, but over religion and values.

The political deck is stacked against them. François Hollande promised he would deliver his “marriage for all” law — overturning Napoleon’s code civil of 1804 defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman — during his first year as president. He has the Socialist Party votes in parliament to ram it through. It will be, he hopes, one of his key “progressive” social reforms, as well as a welcome diversion from the economic crisis that has sent his numbers plunging to a record low of 35 percent for a new president. Conservative opponents of the law want him to honor Candidate Hollande’s pledge to put important social issues to a referendum. His administration replies that the issue was implicitly settled when he won the election last May, end of discussion. Presidential Concubine and First Mistress Valéry Trierweiler proudly declared she would be a witness at France’s first homo-marriage as soon as the law was passed.

Traditionalist opposition has been much more intense than either Hollande or his girlfriend anticipated, starting with the retort by a conservative member of parliament that Mademoiselle Trierweiler had no official status and would do much better to shut up. Tens of thousands of protesters began taking to the streets of France’s major cities in November, waving banners saying “don’t touch civil marriage,” “all born of a union of a man and a woman,” and “Made in Maman et Papa.” They ridicule a law that would officially ban the words mère and père on birth certificates, changing official references to “parent un” and “parent deux.” Vociferous street demonstrations climaxed January 13 with a monster, miles-long Paris march of some half a million, tens of thousands having been bused in from the provinces. They may not win the good fight, but they are, literally, walking the walk.

Catholic bishops have taken up the cause, Paris Cardinal André Vingt-Trois thundering that same-sex marriage was “a sham that will smash one of the foundations of society.” The outspoken Lyon Cardinal Philippe Barbarin went further, warning that homosexual marriage would “herald a complete breakdown in society,” leading to polygamy, pedophilia, and incest. The Catholic Church has been joined in protest by French Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist spiritual leaders. More import on the ground, thousands of conservative local mayors, representing a rural France rooted in the family values of traditional Christian society, have warned that they will refuse to officiate over same-sex marriages. That ball is still in Hollande’s court.

It helps to let off steam on talk radio and negotiate endlessly over entitlement spending. But, seen from this side of the Atlantic, American conservatives seem to shy from muscular, grass roots opposition to creeping, half-baked liberalism. As the U.S. begins another four years of Obama-style social democracy, they could do worse than taking a leaf from their French counterparts’ book.

About the Author

Joseph A. Harriss is The American Spectator’s Paris correspondent. His latest book, An American Spectator in Paris, was released this fall.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (65) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

allanius | 1.16.13 @ 7:01AM

I'm very much interested in the part about the "specious 'equality' arguments" for gay marriage. I agree but don't know enough of the details to take a clear position. Any chance you can do a follow-up article explaining just why those arguments are specious? You'd be doing a favor to those of us who are not policy experts and tend to get flummoxed by talk of work benefits, tax law, etc.

C. Vernon Crisler | 1.16.13 @ 9:23AM

allanius, would you be in favor of polygamous marriages, or marriages between men and horses, or between men and children? When you can provide a reason against those types of marriages, then we can help you to understand what is specious about the "equality" argument for gay marriage.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 12:41PM

What about Sisters and Brothers, Mothers and Sons, and Fathers and Daughters?

We await your explanation.

RCV| 1.16.13 @ 2:00PM

Increased chances of genetic abnormalities.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 2:23PM

They're Consenting Adults.

What about the increased risk of AIDS, with two Homosexuals getting Married?

Show some Consistency.

RCV| 1.17.13 @ 12:18AM

Doesn't matter if they're consenting adults. We've seen the increase in genetic abnormalities that result from inbreeding, and society in general has an interest in minimizing those results.

Allowing gays to marry doesn't increase the risk of AIDS. Indeed, by encouraging stable, monogamous relationships, it decreases such risks.

allanius | 1.16.13 @ 1:28PM

You've misunderstood the question.

Jack in Wi| 1.16.13 @ 7:12AM

France, most of the rest of Europe and the USA are washed up. They are bankrupt morally, economiclly and spiritually. The Left thinks that the way to advance to some new age nirvana is to destroy the family, religion, and religious moral codes. Instead they will destroy themselves. Homosexuals and pimps need fresh meat for their lifestyles. The elderly declining, populations of these country's will not suffice for their perverted disires. Abortion and homsexual play acting are poor substitutes for Mom and Pop. In the end it's all up to God. He will not be mocked for ever. Our salvation can only come from him and not worldly excesses. In the end we must all face his final judgement.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 8:51AM

Even the Hooked Nosed Jews in Haifa?

That'll be the day, eh Jack?

C. Vernon Crisler | 1.16.13 @ 9:26AM

Finally, Jack, you say something most of us can agree on. No mention of the immorality of war, or Zionists conspiracies. Somebody open a bottle, quick, before it changes.

Jack in Wi| 1.16.13 @ 12:42PM

Chisler: You boys love war and hate peace. Why is that? Why do you chaps always bring up Israel here? I certainly don't. I do it when it is appropriate, which around here, is about 50% of the time.

Occam's Tool| 1.16.13 @ 7:54PM

Actually, we don't, much, except when you are around or the topic is Islamic Terrorism. I prefer peace. I also know how psychopaths operate; which you should know Jack, from looking in the mirror.

France is also taking a lead in fighting Islamic terrorists right now. The world gets weirder and weirder.

RCV| 1.16.13 @ 2:02PM

The US is hardly "washed up". Jack is as right about this as he is about Jews and Israel.

Von Mises Jr| 1.16.13 @ 7:18AM

The only real difference I can see right now is that France taxes its Middle Class to pay for these socialist programs while in Omerica we buy into the dictator's rationale that we can tax 2% of the population and 98% can have all the goodies they want for free. We will be like France when the Middle Class finds out that they are paying the bill.

Joellen| 1.16.13 @ 7:19AM

When the conservatives do take the street, such as the Pro Life March that occurs every year, the media and the politicks ignore them.

I attended the three major Tea Party rallies in D.C. and they were massive; again we were initially ignored. However, when it was evident we werent going away, well what did the politicks, media and imbeciles like purp do, they lied about us and did everything they could think of to diminish us and our results.

We're out there Mr. Harris, the media wont report on us because they fear us and dont want the rest of the country to know, if your a conservative your not alone. Better to keep them isolated, another Saul Alinksy rule, that the libs follow very well.

Al Adab| 1.16.13 @ 8:44AM

Morning Joellen:
When government interfers with personal morals and chooses to enforce one set against the other, as ours has since it began the state sponsored worship of the goddess Choice, the stage is set for division within the populace. That is what we are experiencing in this nation. Unless government ends this state mandated idolotry we will see worse unrest than before.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 9:07AM

The Stage is set?

Apparently you were at the Concession Stand, and missed the First Half of the Play.

Act II: With the Country irreversibley split down the Middle by their Leader, the last of the Free People, knowing full well their Plight in the face of a Despotic Ruler hell bent on crushing them under his Jackboot, hurriedly begin making Preparations of Guns, Ammunition, Food and Water, for the inevitable Final Battle between Good and Evil. Between Freedom and Bondage. Between Right and Wrong.

Now, sit down and be quiet.

And, please tell me that you at least got me a Popcorn, you cheap b*st*rd.

Al Adab| 1.16.13 @ 10:47AM

Cheap? Illegitimate? Ah well, perhaps Texas has the right idea after all. What is their immigration policy?

vtwin| 1.16.13 @ 11:25AM

"Unless government ends this state mandated idolatry," it has only been forty years since Roe v. Wad, can you give us a little more time before your “unrest?"

Woodrow| 1.16.13 @ 1:08PM

Joellen - The same happens here in the capital of NYS for pro-hydrofracturing rallies. The press cleary conspires to ignore. But a mob of frothing-at-the mouth anti-"frackers" gets a couple of days of positive coverage.

RCV| 1.16.13 @ 2:03PM

The media paid far, far more attention to the Tea Party gatherings than they deserved.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 2:30PM

Now, just change Tea Party to Occupy, and you will have, finally, said something right.

You're getting Stupider by the day.

You'd know that, if you weren't so Stupid.

Joellen| 1.16.13 @ 5:52PM

RCV - who ever said it was right - you just cant fix stupid!

RCV| 1.17.13 @ 12:20AM

And you just "cant" fix poor spelling, either!

Occam's Tool| 1.16.13 @ 7:55PM

Evening fantastic lady! I'm going off for a steak; what a way to end my blogging day! Jo, you rock!

7-08| 1.16.13 @ 7:32AM

My father due to wounds was not “fit” to for combat remained in France at the close of WWII. His favorite war story was not how he was disabled in the Battle of the Bulge, was not the landing on D Day, but French treatment of the collaborators after the liberation.
He spoke German and was detailed to handle prisoners. Outside the prison compound was a light pole. Collaborators would be taken by the French militia, and marched to the pole, one bound and riding in a hand cart. The rope through the pulley on the cross arm of the pole would be lowered and the noose would be placed around the bound traitors neck and he would be unceremoniously pulled up by the prisoners and left. They would then proceed to the cemetery with the previous body, dig the grave, and bury his remains - the freshly hung collaborator would usually have strangled by the time they got back.
The frequency of this ritual was determined by the guy they hung. Without a trap door to break the neck of the condemned it took some time to expire. Dad said that the first day or two the neck of the collaborator would not stretch much but after two or three days the elongation would become obvious. He said it usually took about a week and the head would sever and the body would drop.
The day after the ritual would be repeated. He left and returned home before they ran out of collaborators.
Viva La France.

Jack in Wi| 1.16.13 @ 7:54AM

About 100,000 people murdered by lynch mobs is something to celebrate? A lot of them were conservatives who the Communists wanted eliminated. Mob rule does not lead to justice.

c. j. acworth| 1.16.13 @ 9:13AM

The Frogs have a history of that sort of thing, though. Google "French Revolution" and "The Terror".

vtwin| 1.16.13 @ 11:52AM

So does the United States try Goggling "lynching" and the "the South."

CJW| 1.16.13 @ 12:04PM

Google Waco, where Janet Reno incinireated close to one-hundred women and children. Janet Reno killed more children at Waco than the Newton, and other schoold shootings recently.

Seek| 1.16.13 @ 5:29PM

David Koresh was the real mass murderer. And he would have been just another slacker were it not for his acquisition of idiotic religious beliefs and the fact that he and his compatriots already had murdered four ATF agents weeks earlier in the name of those beliefs. I have no sympathy for that wacko.

CJW| 1.16.13 @ 7:48PM

Not talking about Koresh, don't care about Koresh. Who sent in the tanks that burned the buildings killing the children?

Al Adab| 1.16.13 @ 12:05PM

AHH, there it is. Thanks vtwin. Because of our collective guilt for past sins, this nation does not deserve to survive in Liberty.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 9:14AM

Yeah, Jack.

These people helped your Favourite Guys destroy their Country. Kill their Fathers, Brothers, Husbands and Sons. Rape their Mothers, Daughters, Wives and Girlfriends.

I'm a firm believer that there's a time to Turn the other Cheek, and a Time to Hang the MFer till his Head Pops Off.

But then, I'm not a Douchebag, like you.

Pecos Pete| 1.16.13 @ 10:03AM

Jack: Mob Rule? What do you think is happening in the United States today?

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 10:47AM

Oh, you Noble Savage, you.

Occam's Tool| 1.16.13 @ 7:58PM

Noble Savage, yes. Is Cheesehead Jack a Douchebag Liberal Denomination Not fit for the Contest?

Tim, it is a joy to read you.

vtwin| 1.16.13 @ 11:55AM

The election doesn’t go your way so it’s "Mob Rule?" You know you can always leave.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 12:48PM

He's talking about France, at the end of the War.

Nobody said anything about this Country.

So, again, WTF are you talking about?

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 12:52PM

And, if you're talking about Pesco's post?

What do YOU call what happened with Occupy Wall Street, Madison Wisconsin, Hostess, and Michigan, if it isn't Mob Rule?

He never said anything about the Election.

Doctor Right| 1.16.13 @ 10:48AM

That's pretty sick.

Not to defend collaboration, but these people deserved a fair trial and a jury by their peers, not to be murdered by a mob looking for revenge.

Additionally, half of France collaborated FULLY with the Nazis; has anyone ever heard of the Vichy Regime?

What you describe is not justice; it's cold-blooded murder. And it was wrong.

vtwin| 1.16.13 @ 11:47AM

I agree Doc, fair trials over mob lynching and the prohibition against marijuana is a waste of money.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 12:56PM

You really are an idiot, ya know that?

Of course you do.

Then again, you're so Stupid, you probably don't.

7-08| 1.16.13 @ 11:47AM

The only way this could have been prevented was for the French to have banned rope; well not all rope but just rope more than five feet long.

Pecos Pete| 1.16.13 @ 1:32PM

They'd have gone to string and done a bit of strangling.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 12:55PM

Again: I'm a firm believer that there's a time to Turn the other Cheek, and a Time to Hang the MFer till his Head Pops Off.

If you were a Frenchman, in those Camps, at that time, you would've done the same thing.

PolishKnight| 1.16.13 @ 4:05PM

But sadly knowing the reputation of the French police to be corrupt, who knows how many accused collaborators were just guys that they were looking to get rid of (you know, capitalists, American sympathizers, etc?)

Occam's Tool| 1.16.13 @ 7:59PM

Indeed. The problem with war is that sometimes these things slip away.

Doctor Right| 1.16.13 @ 10:20AM

Regarding the legalization of marijuana, it is the one (1) instance where I'm forced to agree with Obama:

We have BIGGER fish to fry.

Don't get me wrong; I don't advocate pot-smoking. But enough is enough. The "war on drugs" is costing untold billions of dollars, and needlessly making felons out of people who want to smoke a few joints.

Alcohol kills at least 33,000 people in the US each year, including at least 10,000 who die as a result of drunk-driving accidents. 400,000 people in the USA die each year as a result of smoking-related diseases and conditions.

Unless we're ready to ban alcohol - again - or ban cigarettes altogether, I see no justifiable reason to continue the prohibition against pot smoking.

Job| 1.16.13 @ 10:46AM

agree feel the same way about alot of hot button topics; RINO shills keep stiring conservatives up with this crap diluting the strength of the vote while our country goes to hell in a hand basket.

Doctor Right| 1.16.13 @ 10:51AM

Maybe the government could mimic what's done with alcohol and tobacco by regulating the sale of marijuana and levying a heavy tax??

It wouldn't deter pot-smokers, and it would send a LOT of deficit-cutting "revenue" to DC.

(And of course, the tax $$$ are the ONLY reason no one is DC talks about banning cigarettes...)

CJW| 1.16.13 @ 12:08PM

For all practical intents and purposes, the possession of a small amount of marujuana, less than an ounce, is not really prosecuted. The penalty for first time possession is 30 day probation, non reporting. In the busy crime ridden areas, the police don't even bother with it because it is a waste of time, and charge for the more serious crimes.

Occam's Tool| 1.16.13 @ 8:07PM

CJW: in MN it is a petty misdemeanor.

Again, I'm not interested in putting these guys in jail; I'm interested in forcing treatment, as it is as effective as voluntary treatment. I would rather have treatment on their record than a crime.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 12:59PM

Or, we could mimic the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Agency, and Run Guns to the Drug Gangs, right here?

Occam's Tool| 1.16.13 @ 8:03PM

Dr. R: I think selling MJ should be openly irreversibly illegal; possession should lead to criminal record (misdemeanor) unless one successfully completes drug treatment. That will eliminate criminal records for most users, and may be something will take.

Boss, seriously: about 50-70% of my patients overall are positive for THC on their Drug Screens when they get admitted to me. Much higher for Chippewas. My fear is that full legalization will allow White guys to use and Minorities to get screwed.

Ralph Novy| 1.19.13 @ 2:02PM

Sorry, Doctor Right, but you're wrong.

Obama, unfortunately, has NOT taken the position you've attributed to him.

I wish he had.

I've wished he had.

I wish he would.

The truth is that he's just too damned "ok" with a bunch of governmental oppressive shit.

You've put the wrong guy up on the pole, pal.

You should put the likes of Cheney up there.

Clinton too!

Hardcard| 1.16.13 @ 10:53AM

It's the new world order, don't you know, it's all about power and control. We are screwed, no morality, no more self control, the only good laws are the laws our rulers want. Truth what is truth?
I'll take door #2 please monte barack. Gee I cold use a free hot shower now.

TLP| 1.16.13 @ 1:00PM

You're a "Noble Savage" Hardcard.

Figure it out.

Ralph Novy| 1.19.13 @ 1:42PM

Hardcard:

I was going along agreeing with you ... until you got to the Obama part.

How fucking old are you?

Do you not know that that shit started a LONG time before Obama came on the political scene?

Hell's bells, boy, that kind of "political dissemblance" has been going on since humans huddled together in villages -- what? -- 50,000 years ago?

My old, sage advice: Get used to it, but never tolerate it.

LOL

Keep the SOBs as honest as possible!

Job| 1.16.13 @ 12:24PM

tobacco is a brilliant anxiolitic its been in use for thousands of years it was never abused before the modern era because no one knew how to germinate the seed so it couldn't be mass produced.

cocaine, and I hate to quote Senior Chavez, aint nothin but a leaf the indigenous population have been chewing for 2 thousand years as a mild stimulant, in that form its innocuous.

we're not gonna stop this and if we do we certainly won't stop folks from finding the next toad to lick. the chances of the kids getting a hold of it are no greater than them getting at the klonpin or vicodin or xanax or whatever else is used in legal trade by the burn the witch RINO crowd and their left wing fellow conspirators that are all in bed with the PACS and lobbies that are running this country into the ground.

we need to take a look at big pharmas and big chems influence regarding everything from soup to nuts.

This commercial has been brought to you by the makers of Roundup and the makers of bayer aspirin now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Job| 1.16.13 @ 12:27PM

forgot to add marijuana, an anti emetic and analgesisic extraordinaire.

allanius | 1.16.13 @ 1:24PM

Huh? You and I are talking about two completely different things. No argument on the tack you've taken here.

Occam's Tool| 1.16.13 @ 8:13PM

By the way, folks, look up Marinol sometime. Legal THC is already available for pain and nausea.

Michele San Pietro| 1.17.13 @ 11:27AM

Generally speaking, I think the situation is sad in both the United States and France. And I'm under the impression it will get sadder if conservatives, in both countries, do not act like true conservatives again.

Ralph Novy| 1.19.13 @ 1:38PM

Let's get this clear from the get-go: Mitt Romney never "cautioned" against ANYTHING. He doesn't have the brains and or spine to do it. He might not even know what "caution" really means; he might think "caution" merely means keeping away from an IRS audit.

"muscular, grass roots opposition to creeping, half-baked liberalism"?

Nothing "grass roots" about it, past the pandering; everything to do with greedy SOBs' manipulation of the "rubes."

Remember Dick Armey?

Hmm?

There's the true character of the so-called "right wing." Principled? Not by a long shot -- unless you consider "win by any means necessary" a worthy principle.

Stop.

Rethink.

Put yourself in other people's shoes.

Be a better person.

Not that hard, really.

(wink)

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