except that voting republican isn't (currently) illegal. I mean we could go into further differences but that's a pretty big leap of "what ifs"
> that's a pretty big leap of "what ifs"
Yeah, but it all comes back to the same principle: Giving money and power to the government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. You may truthfully claim that you didn't know what was going to happen, but if you had a lick of sense, you knew it wasn't going to be good.
Step back and view this new government power from, say, the depths of the late 80s drug hysteria. Don't have any doubt that, should such a public bout of dementia come around again that non-violent drug offenders wouldn't be sentenced to the same thing.
Remember, the first guy prosecuted under the Patriot Act wasn't named Achmed and had nothing to do with terrorism, it was just some penny ante loan shark in Vegas.
The law of unintended consequences is *always* appended to every new piece of legislation.
Imagine what the founding fathers would think if they saw how far the country had strayed from what it was intended to be in 1776.
Tracking people because they go to church or vote a certain way is not nearly as far from what we consider to be American as what America has become since it was founded.
We have come a long way baby.
John
I'm venturing off the topic, but had to add to that.
I have a liberal friend that is well educated, a good father and a respected person. He commented once (I believe only a little in jest) that he thought being a Republican ought to be against the law.