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“...getting a President elected is what matters.”

That is the main point.

What passes for “principles” generally is confusion and irrationality and has nothing to do with principles. There is nothing above beating Obama and no amount of sanctimonious breast-beating will change that.

I meant that sarcastically. The point of the whole post is that if we just keep electing establishment people for the Presidency and most of Congress, a handful of "outsiders" or "Tea Party" people will not change a thing about the course the nation is on.

As some people used to say, elections have consequences. Part of America electing Obama in 2008 is the learning process of pain that America has now gone through for 3 years.

If we had "won" with McCain, Repubs would have had all they could do to muster a disagreement with a "fellow Republican", we would have a had some kind of "obamacare lite" passed, still had bailouts but just for maybe 20% or so less in size, Christian and Jewish religion will still be under assault by the Federal government, but just a little less so, muslims would be permeating political circles just as much as they are now, the Dept. of Education would still be growing in size and power, the debt ceiling would still keep getting raised, the Goldman-Treasury revolving door would continue unabated, etc., etc.

"Principles" are all that is going to save America.

"Winning" an election appeases voters for a while. Before they get too mad, there's another election. I say "winning" with complete sarcasm - because though we think we've "won" an election we're so completely screwed anyway if we keep electing wheeling-dealing politicians.

Our political system is one which is designed to prevent radical political changes. So we can only progress through marginal changes because the People have to be convinced to go along with the change.

It was not designed under the idea that there would be political parties or machines or have universal suffrage or a media which is actively anti-American and anti-decency. These all have taken our nation away from the original design because that is what the People have wanted or allowed.

There will be no fundamental change until the ideas of the People as a whole are changed. That may well be impossible since Democrats have most of it convinced it can get something for nothing.