Up To 80 House Dems Are Members Of The Communist Party.

[Enki]

Of course, but what brings force to enforce property rights? The collective. Capitalism is the only form of collectivism that actually requires the entire world participate.

You are inadvertently touching on one of the strongest arguments in favor of libertarian capitalism: In such a society, if you and your friends want to get a grant or save your pennies and buy a tract of land in Oregon, and set up an off-the-grid commune, you are perfectly free to do so. In any historical socialist/communist society, attempting to set up a capitalist microcosm will get you sent to a gulag for treason. In fact, in a capitalist/libertarian society, you are free to propagandize and agitate for a full-on authoritarian communist revolution, if it floats your boat. Try passing out capitalist pamphlets in any historical socialist/communist society on the other hand...

This is true in theory except in the United States the Government cracks down and investigates these sorts of societies all the time. I've seen too much government interference to believe it.

The Cold War resulted in the Conservative factions in America becoming more like their Communist enemies than they will ever admit. They used the power of the state to attack anyone they saw as 'leftists'. You can see videos of agents of the state coming in and destroying people's farms for various reasons.

I have, the entire time any of you have known me advocated for this kind of system, I call it 'Libertarian Progressivism'. Libertarian at the Federal level Progressive at the local level. Occupy Wall Street's mode of operation is hyperlocal, and that's how we are working it.

[Enki]

And don't let it be said that I am against compromise, that isn't true.

I would just like to see compromise between say Paul Ryan and Ron Paul. I would like them to get together and meet in the middle. Just no more Tinker/Ibrahim/Obama/Ted Kennedy/HRC/Pelosi types. No more of that.

I think the compromise between Jesus and Vlad the Impaler would mean that we don't have to worry about armies of impaled corpses lining the valley, but we might have to accept everyone serving a mandatory two years hanging upside down outside the castle walls to ward off rivals.

Mr. Perfect is one of those idiots who is like, "Society would just be perfect if we could get rid of most people.", I see his brand of durian in the Democratic party all the time. When I go after Democratic incumbents they ask me why I am going after that person when there is so and so Tea Party muckety muck or whatever. That brand of durian doesn't understand demographics or the fact that compromising with that demographic isn't a matter of choice on their part. They have this idea that their side will one day have 'victory' over the other. It's a form of stupidity that comes from people who really have no genuflecting idea how politics works. At the end of the day it's simple arithmetic. But people just don't get that.

[YMix]

It's just unfortunate than in modern North American culture there is no way of discussing how these freedoms and obligations should be balanced without invoking a North Korean anthill hell-state, or the never-was purity and freedom of a classic Western movie.

This is at the core of our barbarism.

"The American Constitution was carefully rigged by the noteholders, land speculators, rum runners and slave holders who were the founding fathers so that it would be next to impossible for upstart dirt farmers and indebted masses to challenge the various forms of private property held by these well read robber barons. Through this Constitution, the over-privileged attempted to rule certain topics out of order for proper political discussion. To bring these topics up in polite company was to invite snide invectives, charges of personal instability or financial ruin." - G. William Domhoff

[Ibrahim]

I don't know that a paralyzed government is, on the whole, a bad thing. Beyond a scant few, widely agreed upon items, I want an act of Congress to be, well, literally like getting an act of Congress. Not 3k pages of legislation a day.

It means that government can't correct any existing problems, but also can't create new ones.

[Demon of Undoing]

I think the Federal government should be the last resort to correct a problem. More often than not, doing such is swatting flies with a battleship.

[Enki]

I don't know that a paralyzed government is, on the whole, a bad thing. Beyond a scant few, widely agreed upon items, I want an act of Congress to be, well, literally like getting an act of Congress. Not 3k pages of legislation a day.

It means that government can't correct any existing problems, but also can't create new ones.

Actually, it can create new ones. That's a fallacy. Big working government is better by far than big broken government.

[Juggernaut Nihilism]

I don't know that a paralyzed government is, on the whole, a bad thing. Beyond a scant few, widely agreed upon items, I want an act of Congress to be, well, literally like getting an act of Congress. Not 3k pages of legislation a day.

It means that government can't correct any existing problems, but also can't create new ones.

Actually, it can create new ones. That's a fallacy. Big working government is better by far than big broken government.

Correct. Big broken government doesn't really do less, it just means that it can be picked apart by the vultures and turned to the petty purposes of individual interests.

[Enki]

Correct. Big broken government doesn't really do less, it just means that it can be picked apart by the vultures and turned to the petty purposes of individual interests.

The tragedy of this is that our system supports the diffusion of power, if people participate in the political process.

[Mr. Perfect]

And don't let it be said that I am against compromise, that isn't true.

I would just like to see compromise between say Paul Ryan and Ron Paul. I would like them to get together and meet in the middle. Just no more Tinker/Ibrahim/Obama/Ted Kennedy/HRC/Pelosi types. No more of that.

I think the compromise between Jesus and Vlad the Impaler would mean that we don't have to worry about armies of impaled corpses lining the valley, but we might have to accept everyone serving a mandatory two years hanging upside down outside the castle walls to ward off rivals.

Mr. Perfect is one of those idiots who is like, "Society would just be perfect if we could get rid of most people.", I see his brand of durian in the Democratic party all the time. When I go after Democratic incumbents they ask me why I am going after that person when there is so and so Tea Party muckety muck or whatever. That brand of durian doesn't understand demographics or the fact that compromising with that demographic isn't a matter of choice on their part. They have this idea that their side will one day have 'victory' over the other. It's a form of stupidity that comes from people who really have no genuflecting idea how politics works. At the end of the day it's simple arithmetic. But people just don't get that.

I just want to change the votes of about 5% of people. The rest will take care of itself. It looks like I will get what I want.

You all can even stay, once you've been neutralized politically. However, I would invite you (and people who think like you) to leave simply because there are about 30 countries who are much more congruent with your beliefs and ideas. I think everybody would be happier. Win win.

[Mr. Perfect]

This is true in theory except in the United States the Government cracks down and investigates these sorts of societies all the time. I've seen too much government interference to believe it.

You are behind the times, or are not being honest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/weeki ... ity&st=cse

http://communities.ic.org/

[Parodite]

Just wonder if the USA needs that much revolutionaire changes. If the financial industry is reformed and everybody does his proper business, no more wild militairy adventures abroad, add political parties to the mold to ensure diversity and avoid 2-party stalemates, cut out the legalised bribery of politics by big-business... and in the mean time try to be as nice to one another as Jesus told-ya-so... and all things will normalise in no time. These are just minor changes easy to implement.

[Typhoon]

It's just unfortunate than in modern North American culture there is no way of discussing how these freedoms and obligations should be balanced without invoking a North Korean anthill hell-state, or the never-was purity and freedom of a classic Western movie.

This is at the core of our barbarism.

"The American Constitution was carefully rigged by the noteholders, land speculators, rum runners and slave holders who were the founding fathers so that it would be next to impossible for upstart dirt farmers and indebted masses to challenge the various forms of private property held by these well read robber barons. Through this Constitution, the over-privileged attempted to rule certain topics out of order for proper political discussion. To bring these topics up in polite company was to invite snide invectives, charges of personal instability or financial ruin." - G. William Domhoff

Interesting perspective.

Canada a 'constitutional superpower'

[US] study finds charter had big influence around world

They determined Canada has a greater claim than any other country to have displaced the U.S. as the world's "constitutional superpower."

The study, to be published in June in the New York University Law Review, recently prompted a front-page story in the New York Times -- headlined " 'We the People' loses followers" -- that lamented the waning international influence of the U.S. Constitution.

"Constitutional drafters rarely invent new forms of political organization or discover new rights from whole cloth, but instead lean heavily upon foreign examples for inspiration," the authors state in the paper.

"The fact that the U.S. Constitution no longer serves as the primary source of inspiration for constitution-making in other nations thus begs the question of what, if anything, has emerged to take its place," they write.

"One possible heir to the throne also happens to be America's closest neighbour.

"The Canadian Constitution has often been described as more consistent with, and more influential upon, prevailing global standards and practices than the U.S. Constitution."

[noddy]

Marx said quite specifically that Communism would come about when technology had advanced to such a stage that we had a system of abundance, not scarcity. We are at that stage now, and that's the source of the tensions. People understand that when there are 7 empty homes for every homeless person in America, that it's a completely artificial scarcity.

hmm, i have the opposite problem in my country, a housing shortage because the people who invested their entire lifes work in a house have the hands on the reigns when it comes to land releases and increasing the standards for housing as they renovate to maintain their investment, any politcian that tackled that would be committing instant suicide.. so i cant blame the system for it, i can only blame the middle class FIRE worshippers.

sounds like your banking bailout money would have been better spent buying social housing, stil supports the fatcats but least you get something for it.

[Juggernaut Nihilism]

It's just unfortunate than in modern North American culture there is no way of discussing how these freedoms and obligations should be balanced without invoking a North Korean anthill hell-state, or the never-was purity and freedom of a classic Western movie.

This is at the core of our barbarism.

"The American Constitution was carefully rigged by the noteholders, land speculators, rum runners and slave holders who were the founding fathers so that it would be next to impossible for upstart dirt farmers and indebted masses to challenge the various forms of private property held by these well read robber barons. Through this Constitution, the over-privileged attempted to rule certain topics out of order for proper political discussion. To bring these topics up in polite company was to invite snide invectives, charges of personal instability or financial ruin." - G. William Domhoff

"Out of order for proper political discussion"? A more accurate portrayal of their intentions is that, through the Constitution, the founders attempted to preclude even the discussion of a majority (or motivated minority) of the population from using the instrument of government to impose its dictates on the rest. The powers forbidden to the government in the Constitution had been open to "proper political discussion" since the beginning of time, and that discussion always ended up in domestic repression. Of course, our history is checkered, but at least we know it is checkered: the freedoms guaranteed in the Constitution are what allowed anti-slavery advocates to agitate for a revolution, and are what ensure, to this day, that our children learn to recognize our past mistakes from their 1st grade social studies books.

[YMix]

A more accurate portrayal of their intentions is that, through the Constitution, the founders attempted to preclude even the discussion of a majority (or motivated minority) of the population from using the instrument of government to impose its dictates on the rest.

The framers of the Constitution were, by definition, a motivated minority who imposed their will on the rest of the people. The highest expression of their will has been for more than a century the US Senate. Senators were chosen from "the rich, the well-born and the able" to rule the country in the interest of what is today known as the 1%.

[Mr. Perfect]

Explains why Romania is so much better than the US.

[Hoosiernorm]

Explains why Romania is so much better than the US.

It's due to all of the Slav labor that Romania uses as the basis of it's economy.

[Typhoon]

Explains why Romania is so much better than the US.

Aside from being a bit nasty, this presumes that a key factor of the 20th century success of the US is it's constitution.

As opposed to, say, some combination of geographic isolation, availability of land and resources, the motivation of an immigrant population, a new country unencumbered by tradition and convention, economic benefit of the rest of the planet involving itself in not one but two ruinous world wars, etc.

Would the US have done as well as a parliamentary democracy or constitutional monarchy?

[Mr. Perfect]

Absolutely. A love of liberty was written right into our DNA. Other places? Well no...

[Typhoon]

Absolutely. A love of liberty was written right into our DNA. Other places? Well no...

I think that this is mostly as much of a myth as the Old West.

Some immigrants were political refugees, but most came for the economic opportunities. Also a good thing, but different.

[Mr. Perfect]

I think that this is mostly as much of a myth as the Old West.

I don't.

Some immigrants were political refugees, but most came for the economic opportunities. Also a good thing, but different.

In the past, and not too distant past, many immigrants would only allow English in the home, which suggests something totally different.

[Typhoon]

I think that this is mostly as much of a myth as the Old West.

I don't.

Democracy Index 2011

Being ranked 19th does not indicate a great love of liberty.

Neither does the apparent willingness of the population, many armed to the teeth [supposedly in the name of liberty], to happily surrender personal liberties to the bureaucracies in the faux name of security.

Some immigrants were political refugees, but most came for the economic opportunities. Also a good thing, but different.

In the past, and not too distant past, many immigrants would only allow English in the home, which suggests something totally different.

Reference?

[NapLajoieonSteroids]

Being ranked 19th does not indicate a great love of liberty.

19th! by the august Economist Intelligence Unit! Whatever shall we do?

How does one measure the amount of demos possessed? I sure hope it's not in metric, or else we Americans are screwed.