I vote for Jaime as Texan of the Year!

In politics, you must play defense first to prevent the worst of 2 evils. THEN you play offense. If you don't play prevent defense in politics, you won't prevent what needs preventing, such as electing Obama with Pelosi and Reid chaser.

It's always going to be a 2 sided race. Yes the teams can change, but until they do and a new 2nd party or a rejuvenated 2nd party, the 3rd party offering simply help the worst side. Unless of course you prefer the worst side, then that would make them the vest side.

Whatever party is brought to bear against the Dems must be well organized, well funded and have an even chance of winning. If not it is the Dems passive  secret weapon.

The GOP can and must change. Replacing the GOP will be too hard and take too long. The country can't afford not to change it.

My favorite topic by the way!!  ;-)

I caucused for Ron Paul. I was the only person to do so in my precinct here in Iowa. He doesn't fit the fox news mold of conservatism though. He was repeatedly mocked by them even to his face during the presidential debates. Some day people will wake up and see that economic liberalism (free trade and capitalism) does not mesh well with social conservatism. You can't say that the government should stay out of our lives and then demand that the government regulate things like sexuality meanwhile racking up huge debts in wars that don't benefit us and only make us weaker and less secure.

I defend of the idea that people should have a good reason for what they believe.

I've never ever even mentioned or even indirectly referred to Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid so I'm not sure what you're talking about.

Our democracy requires that both sides be good and have quality well-reasoned policies and if one side is weaker it makes both sides weak and it makes the entire process weaker. For example, putting Sarah Palin on a ticket for VP was just downright absurd and a mockery of the system.  I mean, I want two good quality choices--I want the best that America has to offer. Right now if I were to measure which side is not pulling its weight intellectually it is the Republicans. They rally around a few ideologues who base everything on a twisted black-and-white concept of socialism vs capitalism that has no bearing on reality. There are a lot of really GOOD challenging questions that a proper opposition party needs to be asking right now to keep the democrats in check but the Republicans are in a lala land of fear-mongering irrational behavior in an attempt to capture the interest and activism of some of Americas most ignorant populations (keeping in mind that both sides work to activate their own ignorant and uneducated populations but the Republicans do a much better job of unifing theirs under a few overly-simplified axioms). Policy-wise though my preference is toward small government Libertarianism. But pragmatically speaking I would rather have a reasonable big-governmenmt policy over a small-government policy rooted in ignorance and pseudoreasoning.

My impression of your posts, Logismos is that you side primarily with the Democrat arguments. Which to me are inherently opposed to any position Ron Paul ever had. Ron Paul IS the anti-Democrat of the modern era.

Yes there are a lot of things slung around from the Republican side that I wish wasn't. but stupidity is far from being only a right wing malady. As to socialism, we are heading there fast and I am not happy about it.

Also, I disagree that the Republicans do a better job of unifying their ignorant and uninformed populations. Democrats have perfected that for generations. Members of my own family are in that category. They would vote Democrat no matter what, but when we are talking issues, they agree totally with me. They vote the way they do because their grand daddy told them never to vote for a Republican. If they would open their minds, they would realize the Democrat party is not the Democrat party of their grand daddy. their grand daddy would be turning over in his grave over some of the stuff the Democrat party is pushing now.

As to Hispanic immigrants in my part of the world, they are primarily indoctrinated to vote Democrat and I never understood why. Most are Catholic and abhor abortion even more so than Anglo Americans. There is a mechanism of indoctrination of these folks that is mind blowing in effeciency.

A little aside on the healthcare debate, and to tie in to you last statement: To me, and millions like me in both parties, what we have now is big governnment policies rooted in ignorance and pseudoreasoning, not the opposite.

I suspect you don't agree at all with Ron Paul, other than his war on terror stance. I agree with everything he stands for EXCEPT his war on terror stance. We can't stand at our borders and repel this enemy. We must aggressively and pre-emptively go after them as Bush did and Obama has continued in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have no choice. Ron Paul's stance woulda been a good one 80  to 100 years ago, but not today. We can't re-pack Pandora's box and go back to before the British drew the borders of the Middle East.

Why do you consider socialism a meaningless word? Substitute "Statism" if you like. Defined as the principle or policy of concentrating extensive economic, political, and related controls in the state at the cost of individual liberty or the notion that the state can and should do everything for us, which IS where we are heading.

I don't regret not having voted for Paul.  Sometimes he is a man of brilliance and reason, and other times he crosses that fine line into absolute lunacy.