Truer words were never said. (yes we can, yes we can - zeig heil zeig heil)

Love of Country? Love of Liberty? Love of our fellow man? Many ways to view this one. I think it's a little abstract but generally applicable.

I recall proudly singing at the top of my lungs...the land of the free and the home of the brave...somehow it just doesn't seem to be accurate anymore. But I think we can bring it back...

And Thank God for that! Too many among us are complacent sheep and would willingly march off to the "showers" if they were told it was the patriotic thing to do.

Interesting point Waffler. I'd like to take your thought a step further. Liberal view: "They have a right to be wrong" Agreed. Libertarian View: "They have a right to be wrong, for themselves, but not at everyone else's expense." Now we're back to a Republic :)

Exactly Cal, I don't trust the Republic to be left in the hands of 9 government lawyers with life time tenure.

RBE, you're making the mistake of comparing the word "Republican" to today's party. Mike is correct, especially when uses a quote in context from the days when we were supposed to be a "Republic".

Contrary to what the various Supreme Courts have done to bastardize the General Welfare clause over the decades...the best way to promote the General Welfare is to leave people the hell alone. Stop controlling everything they do and watch innovation and the economy take off like a rocket.

"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes her laws" ~ Mayer Rothschild....Guess who's family runs the Fed? Guess who has control of all of us? Economic slavery was made official in 1913 and has grown to what we see today.

Hey Waffler, try some real history instead of Hollywood Stereotypes. In the six years that Dodge City of wild wild west fame was up and running, six and only six men were shot dead. All of them by law enforcement. Now head on back to the tube for some more advanced education...

cal, RP has had a major influence already, and would have had even more if the main stream didn't fear him so much. Yes, let's hope his Amercan values continue to influence the crooks in DC. and the people who voted for them.

There's a novel thought. How about Congress and the Senate being just as accountable as everybody else?

Chains that bind come with laws of control as opposed to laws of justice. And "control" is what our present system requires to keep doing what it is doing. Selling us out...

Which is why we Libertarians advocate Personal Freedom coupled with Individual Responsibility. And before Waffler asks the same old question for the 50th time...responsible to a system of justice based upon moral law. (We haven't tried that yet)

The desire to achieve excellence was as natural as breathing...until the welfare/governmental system turned far too many of us into dependants of one kind or another. What we have (devolved?) evolved into is a nation that wants to be "secure" and are willing to give away our freedoms for this false sense. Pathetic.

Being responsible to one's "self" is great idea, but it needs to be backed up by a system of Justice rather than our present system of convoluted laws.

Unfortunately, one of the many facets of freedom is being at liberty to be stupid. Fortunately Mother Nature has a handle on this and it's called natural selection. Man can not cure stupid...Nature can and will.

Anon, I'd like to buy you a coffee someday! :)

If the animated contest of freedom and the pursuit of excellence scares you then you are poorly prepared for life and will probably do best hiding under the governments skirt tails. Just do it somewhere else please, and stop asking me for a handout.

jim k, they've all been puppets pretty much since Lincoln...maybe longer. I've researched the whole thing back to 1750's Europe.

Indeed, children are now taught to rely on government as a higher authority than their own parents. They are taught nothing of the values and priciples of freedom, but how to comply to a system of entrenched Stalinist bureacracy.

Today's aspiring Prince might be seen as Obama...but really, who is pulling his strings? The same group that has been pulling the strings of our leader's and undermining our rights since before the revolution. The international banker's / the owner's of the central banks, are the enemies of freedom.

Good Point Waffler. And that said I guess it's just best if we all ignore the CIA installed "friendly dictatorships" who's citizens are now acting in a manner the same CIA describes as "Blowback". There is a book by the same name out...you should read it.

"Oh, say can you see?" The flag that was still flying while being held up with the bodies of those who died to keep it there. Those who died for freedom. Never forget....

I agree with Mike...what past are we talking about here? It's a futuire of free people's we are trying to build, not a repeat of past tyranny's, despotism, failed democracies or socialism. In other words, evolving in a "forward" manner.