Once again, now that the significantly lesser statists, Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson, have failed to impress the ignorant masses, we are guaranteed a more statist president yet again. The only difference I can discern amongst all those left standing that have a chance of winning their parties' nominations, is one of degree.

There isn't one of them who demonstrates any understanding of fundamental economics, which is not surprising given the abysmal level of economic literacy to be found even in our university economics departments, where Marxism is still taught with, not just a straight face, but with reverence. While it is foolishness to expect Democrats to exhibit any comprehension of basic economic principles, I think it was at least defensible to hope for more from Republicans.

While Paul, who has no chance of nomination, understands economic fundamentals, due to his embrace of personal liberty, he has no appreciation of the fact that in order to have a nation dedicated to liberty, you must first have a viable nation. Economic parity between the formerly free market classical liberal nations of the west and the increasingly competitive despotic cultures, due to our failure to protect private property and free markets that were the source of our primacy and prosperity, have left us vulnerable to existential threats that a more vigorous commitment to liberty and capitalism (BTW, the only moral economic system, and consistent with personal liberty) might have thwarted.

Our wanna-be annihilators, as a direct result of our shackling of the free market here in America, can now afford technology sufficient to destroy us. Not because of their cultural superiority, but because of our willful abandonment of ours. Had our economy been firing on all 8 cylinders, rather than 1 or 2, for the past several decades, we would certainly have had superior technology and resources with which to defend ourselves. Imagine, if you will, that we had developed our own coal, oil, and nuclear energy resources, bearing in mind that historically, environmental concern is a luxury only the most prosperous peoples can afford. Environmental improvement is directly proportional to national wealth. Not only would that energy have been more abundant, and therefore resulted in burgeoning development here, but would simultaneously have deprived these despotic cultures of the American dollars we've been throwing at them by the billions, enabling their nefarious intentions for America. The same holds true for our idiotic "War on Drugs". Those enemies that don't have oil with which to accumulate American dollars, have drugs! Between the 2 misguided "Wars" on poverty and drugs, we have simultaneously impoverished our innovator/entrepreneurs, bankrupted our children, and enriched our enemies. If this hadn't been foreseen by our founding fathers it would have been bad enough, but our "educators" have kept generations of Americans ignorant of their heritage, having convinced themselves that their "new", "progressive" ideas have trumped the true genius of their forebears. They are as imbeciles when compared to our founders. Their "new", "progressive" ideas are older than dirt. It's despotism in "liberal" clothing. They are classic cases of arrested development, resulting in juvenile delinquency! As Pelosi promised, the children are in charge, now.

We have been eating our seed corn. I fear it may already be too late to salvage this noble American experiment in personal liberty and self-government. The main culprit in this disgrace, in my opinion, has been the socialist school system. Not only has it failed to educate our citizens in matters of economics, but has failed to teach history, language, literature, Western culture and, in many instances, basic literacy! It has churned out the socialists who infest our public schools, universities, and media outlets, and have consequently put the very survival of America in peril. They have deliberately destroyed the traditions (please see Thomas Sowell's "Conflict of Visions" for a lucid explanation of how traditions got to be traditions, and their importance to a functioning society) that are essential to the informing of a truly liberal society, and replaced them with... what? "New" traditions? That's an oxymoron. How about, no traditions! That way lies madness.

We now find ourselves in an untenable situation. The capability to defend ourselves as a nation requires capital and innovation, precisely those resources that are in short supply in our over-regulated socialist economy. I fear for our children. WE HAVE BANKRUPTED THEM! WE HAVE EXPOSED THEM TO ANNIHILATION! And they have had no voice in their fate. It is they who will be at the mercy of our tormentors. When I meet my maker, it will be cold comfort to be able to say that I raised my voice in opposition to the arrogant, ignorant, socialists who betrayed our ancestors' sacrifice and derailed the American experiment., bringing about the end of commitment to personal liberty.

Modern "liberals" have succeeded in convincing a majority of Americans that they should be ashamed of the material and moral superiority that our commitment to personal liberty has generated, and the exponential growth in our prosperity that it has afforded us. For them, personal liberty is the enemy. Had we not succumbed to liberal/socialist BS, we might have taken advantage of the window of opportunity afforded to us, and converted the rest of the world to personal liberty, private property, and capitalist economics and, albeit inadvertently, created a prosperous, free-trading global economy with minimal international conflict. I fear that window is rapidly closing. Those who write the history of the demise of America, being the victors, will likely portray us unkindly, after the fashion of Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Edwards, Pelosi, both Clintons, Gore, Obama, et al. Perhaps several centuries afterward, some semblance of the reality of the essence of America - personal liberty, the sanctity of private property (beginning with ownership of one's own body, as argued by Frederic Douglas) and the inherent generosity of a free people - will be rediscovered. That is, if humanity avoids self-annihilation. Perhaps it is our role in human history to be yet another milepost on the road to a global, free society, rooted in personal liberty. Greece, Rome, America, ? . American constitutional federalism may yet prevail in the centuries to come.

For now, I will hold my nose and vote for Tweedle Dumb, the Republican, again.