[Lexinom]

Conversely, you could make the case, as the author has, that it is in fact the decadence of the people who put them in office in the first place that has put forth the mess in which we find ourselves. Face it: We're pretty decadent and banal compared to the people who lived at the time of our nation's founding. We have no right to complain.

People create these false either/or dichotomies: Either it is man's doing or God's. I submit that it is both: the former on the micro level, the latter in the big picture. We are getting what we as a people deserve, because all said and done, everyone of those capacities you mentioned, in varying degree of directness, represents us.

I'll ask you a question: Why should the Creator bless us if we as a people spit in His eye?

[GunRunner]

We are getting what we as a people deserve, because all said and done, everyone of those capacities you mentioned, in varying degree of directness, represents us.

This sounds an awful lot like original sin, and quite collectivist.

I don't believe for a minute that I, personally, deserve a large, tyrannical, intrusive federal government.

The point you're trying to make seems to be that libertarians are at fault because they don't support heavily legislating vice and lifestyle, and that that has led to an immoral populace, which has given us an immoral government.

I don't think this argument has merit. It's like blaming people who don't support laws against adultery for the fact that people commit adultery.