[RockyMtnMan]

I get pissed when I here someone claim to be conservative and tow the Republican line regardless of how liberal the particular issue may be.

Curtailing a state's power is far easier than trying to limit the fed's power. This is the fundamental reason the founders gave us a constitutional republic. Representation at the federal level is a fairy tale but state officials quake in their boots come election time if they've screwed up.

[lugsoul]

Unfortunately, the blind support of the WoD is both the Republican and Democratic party line. Because of people who live in sound bites and who can't participate in intelligent discussion and assesment of the issues. Politicians are scared to death that if they take a reasonable stance on the expansion of goverment power or the massive expenditure of resources driven by the drug war, all anyone will hear is that they are "pro-drug." It is the exact same kind of thing reflected in presidio's posts - and it is a damn shame that politics are driven down to that level by those who refuse to acknowledge reality. So they'll get their drug war, and it won't succeed any more than it already has, and it will cost a fortune, and we'll jail an increasing number of our citizens who have never raised a hand to anyone or stolen anything or violating a single one of God's commandments, and soon there will be all kinds of new surveillance techniques we will all have to put up with - we'll probably all have to submit samples, like Gattaca - and these people won't care any more about liberty then than they do now.