Do capitalists “wring their wealth from the sweat of other men” or do they acquire wealth through the intelligent application of labor towards the production of something profitable?

Where the good guys were all depends on what is “good” in your eyes. Who the good guys are today is for each of us to decide for ourselves as best we can with the information available to us.

With all its attendant ills including the creation of organized crime and the criminalisation of vast numbers of reasonable people?”

Fair question.

Your description of the aftereffects of prohibition sounds like the war on drugs, doesn’t it? Nixon creates the DEA, we get the Medellin cartel, and the criminalization of horticulturalists. Do those who fear legalizing drugs today lack reason? Or do they have reasonable concerns?

What seems obviously flawed in hindsight may seem a rational response to deplorable social conditions at a given time. Do we presume the temperance women knew beforehand that the policy would fail? Was it an irrational reaction to the growing social ills caused by drunkenness? If so, why would rational male legislatures cave to an irrational women’s temperance movement?

Women don’t hold a monopoly on attempting to legislate morality. There have been blue laws since before universal suffrage.

“you make a presumption of reason”

I was unaware that presuming women had reason was inappropriate. I’m sure I have at least one rational thought a day.

Surely some day there is due to emerge a political party that recognizes that all men are endowed by their Creator with the right to life liberty and property – and that no man can be held to be another’s chattel. Both the Republican Party and the Democrat were deeply flawed in the 19th century and they each ideologically morphed into the other in the following 150 years and remain as flawed as ever.

buckets – I think there is a moderate position on abortion. I am about as pro-life as you can get but even I wouldn’t want to force a woman to have her rapist’s child. Most Americans if we believe the pols are against abortion on demand and I can’t believe any responsible parent would want their 14 year old to get an abortion without their knowledge and consent even if they do believe in principle that it is a woman’s decision. The problem is and the reason why the moderate middle barely exists except for those who are either apathetic or uninformed is because the left has made any kind of compromise impossible by taking this and so many other political questions out of the political realm and into the courts.

Gay marriage, abortion, gun ownership, affirmative action, you name it and the left wants to argue it out in the courts not at the ballot box or in the legislature. I believe the Left actually wants these to be polarizing issues and has in fact made them so they can only be polarizing issues.

If the courts minded their own business and let democracy work and allowed the states to function as the constitution intended then there would be a variety of policies with regard to abortion suitable to the moral beliefs of the vast majority of people and I doubt if anywhere we would be seeing third trimester babies getting their brains sucked, the heads crushed, and their bodies dismembered by quaks with medical licenses.

Agreed. For the better. Otherwise how would we determine which group(s) decide which POVs are the valid ones, and which ones should be ignored? As you touched on, you can’t do that w/o some sort of tyranny of one group over another.

But, Night Owl, you make a presumption of reason methinks. Wasn’t one of the 1st results of universal sufferage Prohibition?

With all its attendant ills including the creation of organized crime and the criminalisation of vast numbers of reasonable people?

The Media broadcasts only the extremes because that’s what gets people’s attention.

The vast majority of people, I think, are pretty near the middle and reasonable thinkers. But it’s just too eye-catching to portray Conservatives as Bible-thumping anti-abortion gun-toting rednecks, and Liberals as tree-hugging 0bama-is-the-messiah out-to-save-the-world Socialists. There are certainly many real examples of both of these archetypes, but they do not represent the majority in either example.

That’s reason no. 1 why I don’t read newspapers or watch TV news any more. Reason no. 2 is that I don’t think ANYBODY can be non-biased in their reporting – the MSM (including NPR) claiming to be non-biased is just plain stupid. I want to listen to people who actually think critically about the content of the media they’re consuming or communicating.

Bring on the death of the MSM – faster, please.

Sorry for the delayed response. My initial attempted response was too long-winded, so I gave up on it. Hopefully meaning is not lost in this pared down attempt.

“But I am trying to say that Universal Suffrage did change politics forever. ”

Agreed. For the better. Otherwise how would we determine which group(s) decide which POVs are the valid ones, and which ones should be ignored? As you touched on, you can’t do that w/o some sort of tyranny of one group over another.

“The people whose primary mode of thought is emotional are fertile ground as useful idiots”.

I would argue that people in general are emotional creatures. Most sane people instinctively learn, or can be taught, to not be ruled by their emotions. But, even people ruled by their emotions may one day realize, or be taught to recognize when they are being played. “Feelers” are not necessarily morons. Obama’s continued hypocrisy and broken promises may be education enough for many. I also applaud efforts like those of Mr. Linbeck.

To write off a large segment of the population because they are perceived to be a lost cause, means you lose them to those who embrace them. The would-be tyrants among us are savvy enough to know that they can play on people fears and insecurities to their advantage.

They use our past sins of slavery and disenfranchisement of half of the population to indict our country and all its traditions. Traditions that build strong individuals are destroyed as the good gets tossed out with the bad.

On the plus side, this advantage should wane as younger generations not directly affected by institutionalized racism or sexism, will be harder to play using this tool.

@ 70 dtmack: “The cure for our leftist disease is simply to shine the light on their ideas.”

I agree. Expose the lie.

Thank you both for the thought provoking responses.

82. LFMayor:

“I don’t think I’m going to be all alone in the last and worst of situations.”

I am standing next to you my brother. Oooo RAH!

There are many of us out there biding our time (and tightening our shot groups) until the tipping point. Pray for peace but prepare for war. And stay informed.

I confused John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty” with John Locke’s “Social Contract.”

Some might say they couldn’t be farther apart. My bad!

[Thanks, thoughtyoudliketoknow, for cluing me to my error!]
-Steve