Where for example was the Tea Party six months before Obama got elected. I attended a "rally" last night. A friend described them as simply the resurrected "KKK".

Thanks Carlton for your repartee. The Brits at least the Royalists thought that these poor colonies would fall into chaos without there royal and noble trappings. We have proved them wrong again and again. Americans did and continue to trust each other and our government. We have the best military, great freedom, and opportunity, life style etcertera. As some one has said our poor are rich by world standards. What is every body bitching about except about paying a little bit of taxes.

King John was a pretender sort of like the two GW terms. Clsoe to fraudulent elections. He robbed us by putting us into trillions of dollars of debt and gave the money to his rich friends. I am totally against unlawfully collected taxes, but feel the governments should get every penny that they are entitled to under the law.

You guys still love Bastiat and he is not talking about us or the US or your city or your state. It is pure poppycock. He says that he dislikes law as a principled stand. Do you all dislike law period? In know that Archer and probably Mike do, they and their ilk want government to be held accountable but as for themselves they wish to be held accountable to nothing. Go figure, sounds like spoilt children to me. It is great to hear from slobovia.

Again has anyone the intelligence and diligence to examine the quote and delve into its construction and determine or at least discuss the phrase "for good or for evil". Can anyone tell me of a government they trust or a period in their life when they trusted " The Guvernment". C'mon guys surpise me just once with some intelligent dialogue. Sadly I have to agree with Archer and with Nixon when he described treaties with the Russians, the watch words are "trust and verify". Yes govt must be held accountable just as we should be held accountable.

There is nothing more fascist than religious zealots of all religions. Beck's foray to Washington was strange indeed. Non political? but based on his opinion that American Honor needs to be restored. I don't think he is correct in that.

The quote is a failure because the guy does not know whether or not the American mistrust is for good or is it for evil. I don't think those who mistrust the most really mistrust "the state", they mistrust their fellow man. They tend towards misanthropism and that is a sad attitude to have.

True but what a stupid statement! Just don't tell this to Robin Hood.

Democracy is the only "ideology" or I guess really it is a non-ideology. With democracy ideas are as new as today, thus new people are respected and have a voice just like the old timers. Mikes dictum "consistent with eternal principles" is nothing more than like the Pigs wrote on the wall in Orwell's 1984. It is the claptrap of dictatorial minds. Democracy is the only system (non-ideology) that respects each and every man.

Only a two. To many dot, dot, dots, in this for me as in ........... Treason is saying that a duly elected President of your country is not your President. Yes he is and a citizen must live it with if he still wishes to be a citizen.

Mike Russia and China had Supreme Leaders. Like Italy and Germany had Il Deuce Mussolini and Da Fuherer. Ruussia and China also had theres, need I remind you. These regimes were all fascist based The Leader.

Jim google "billionarie brothers Koch behind Tea Party". These guys are pulling the strings of naive people to do their bidding. Thre father by the way made his fortune building oil refineries for Stalin. Is the Tea Party a social group or what that is trying as hard as it is to all believe the same thing whatever that is. The Koch brothers are trying to socialize their message which is "power to the billionaires and cake for the masses".

Most scholars Mike recognize that the systems foisted upon people in Russia, China and the so called eastern bloc was not socialism as classically defined and practiced in Europe. Socialism is a voluntary coming together and communication between people, it is classically not to be enforced from top down. That apprach is fascism sort of like the current Tea Party whose philosophy, goals and aims are being forced down on a really unwilling and naive group of people by the billionaire Koch Brothers. Read about it Mike in today's news.

Mike maybe this is what he is trying to say. We are all free to make something of ourselves. We are all free to get rich if we want to. So while we are all equally free, we may not all use our freedom in the same way or make the same thing or want the same thing out of it. Now it is a matter of perception whether or not the rich man or the more educated person are unequal with the poor man or the uneducated man , that is a value judgement. The poor and uneducated may be perfectly happy and he is still equal at the polls and he still has the opportunity to change if he desires and vice versa.

The quote hints at a truism. That when people organize, individuality is compromised. The Tea Party for example has attempted to marshall various folk with various views about political matters into one "socialized" group. The only way to stay an "individual" it would seem would be to talk with no one and live in the woods. Nietzche spent his life writing this crap, never had friends or lovers and went insane sometime in his '40's. Sometime very soon I suspect that someone will organise as "The Independent Party of America" have a convention, platform etcetera.

I give it a one because as an abstract philosophical view it is correct. It Gandhi's India it is easy to understand his position but in my state no way. Which if any of the 50 states of the Union act this way. The Federals are certainly not soulless. 534 representatives argue and discuss constanly just as we do various and diverse sides of issues and policies. They are constanly putting in earmarks to help their local states and coming to the aid in times of disaster. I see nothing soulless in my city, state, national, or even United Nations governments. They have all established local, state, national and world wide National Heritage Sites, Parks, Wild Life Areas etcetera, etcetera to protect our planet, its nature, and its antiquites from the predation of the individual. What is soulless are the individuals who poach, pillage and destroy these very same things out of personal avarice and ignorance.

The quote is worthless. "Socialists" always were against imperialism, it certainly was not a new thought of Ayers. As far as revolutions there has never been a socialist one. The Russian and Chineese versions were not really revolutions. Most "socialist" if you will policies, have been brought about peacefully. Several here are correct, the quote is a red herring just to plug in the mentor part which of course is untrue. Without the socialist boogieman some would have nothing to blog about.

Mike you are off topic. I am asking you what happened to All Men Are Created Equal in your YOUR value system. How can you accept that thesis and also accept the logic of "inequality in freedom". The Declaration's phraseology "All men are created equal is in the same sentence as "endowed with certain inalienable rights among these are .....LIBERTY" Do you not see in this wording a complete un-divideable connection between "EQUAL AND LIBERTY". If just possibly you can see a connection and admire it how can you then admire the concept of "inequality in freedom". Maybe you think that there is a difference between the idea of all men being equal and the idea of equality. Do you huh, huh, huh?

Another great quote. Liberty where have you been hiding these good ones?

Perfection, that is what this quote is! You see these tendencies in people all of the time accepting slogans to be reasoning etcetera.

Interesting, sounds what Archer is trying to do on this site.

Whatever happened to natural law and "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL" and "LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS". Mike understand little of your blather. We are all equla in our right to have an opinion, and one man one vote, ultimately determines the result of all of our individual opinions. The powerful individual has no more power at the voting booth than does the weakest individual. You and Archer's worship of the powerful I see to be the same as the "loyalists" worship of the Crown.

You are a liar J! Nuff said? You live in Canada, who cares? By being disloyal in that way you are a traitor to America, The Constitution and all that it stands for. But who cares for traitors who are liars. Now an honest and decent men would upset me if they were traitors.

The guarantee is to the States, not to the Federal Government. The goverment granted to the Feds, is what The Constitution says and no where does it say that a repbulican form is guaranteed to the Feds. What is guaranteed to the Feds is a President, Senate, House, and Supreme Court etc. The Feds do via the FBI constanly investigate, indict, and prosecute, political crimes in the States to insure that a republican form continues there. There has never been a State King or dynasty ever extablished in a state or city. Thus the republican form, that is a form "of, by, and for the people" has continued to this day. "Of, by, and for" is also the definition of democracy. The USA is a republic that is a democracy and under the Constitution its political subdivisons must tow that line. The words republic and democracy are not at all opposites.

J, de Toqueville appears to show a bias toward the powerful and a disdain towards the weak in his quote. He is concerned about the "weak" pulling the powerful down to their own level. Why does he not have an interest in the powerful pulling people up to their level. Would not that be a better philosophical position? Again I ask you dear friend what does "inequality with freedom" mean to you? If we all have freedom, or endowed with inalienable freedom, do we not all have equality with freedom? Can you respond with a direct answer J? As for Archer who seems to bow to the English Royalist line and laugh with them at the American Experiment. They too thought it a foolish thing for men to attempt to govern themselves. He also has no faith in such a thing as expressed in his statement above. This quote would tend to say that money makes right, power makes right etcetera. I thought as Americans we were all against that, that is why we fought a revolution not only against England but against the idea of nobility, songs have been written by famous American Composers "Anthems to the Common Man". etcetera espousing the nobility of the little guy (the weak) not the nobility of the big guy. Where is that you all have lost your way. Your arguments can only debilitate into name calling like socialist etcetera when you don't even know what it is you are talking about.