[Amelia]

Jihad is not going to end America or our freedoms. Socialism will; and soon. Sometime within the next two decades the United States will be economically and financially bankrupt thanks to socialism.

I agree, the problem is the majority of the American people have bought into this socialism thing to one degree or another.

They may not want it all, but they want some of it...whether it's education, health care, retirement, disability insurance....they think the Federal government ought to do it, and if the GOP tries to cut the funds they are seen as "mean-spirited".

Granted, the government should be moving away from, not towards, socialism, but the problem (IMO) is not convincing the GOP leadership of that, it's convincing the American people of it.

How are we going to do that? What do you suggest?

[Twodees]

The segment of American people who "want some of it" do so because because they realize that applying for whatever's being doled out is the only way they'll ever get any value for being robbed of the means to provide for themselves. The majority show me no signs at all of being in favor of socialism. The majority of Americans I know will still do without before begging any level of government for anything. What you're saying, stripped to its essence is that the majority of people are imbeciles who embrace what you oppose because they lack your superior discernment. Malarkey, ma'am. It's wrong to blame all this on the American people. Saying that we've done this to ourselves and that we get the government we deserve is Hassayampa. This has been done to Americans by a bunch of amoral politicians who won't follow the rules laid out for them. Your argument and that of tex, who claims that there is no conservative base are as far off as one can be, IMO. Remove the insane level of taxation and regulation and people will begin to handle things on their own again. Robbing everyone of a quarter of what they make, and leeching away a third of the economy with regulatory controls then triumphantly pointing out how the impoverished public will ask for the pittances offered by the welfare state is disingenuous to put it mildly.

[B. A. Conservative]

"I agree, the problem is the majority of the American people have bought into this socialism thing to one degree or another.

They may not want it all, but they want some of it...whether it's education, health care, retirement, disability insurance....they think the Federal government ought to do it, and if the GOP tries to cut the funds they are seen as "mean-spirited"."

Americans have not bought into socialism. Most continue to despise socialism in any form. The problem is economic. The socialists have grown government so much that government confiscates so much of a family's resources that they are struggling to cope with their own financial needs. Government steals their time and their money. Time theft is accomplished through the many forms to be filled out, and through the myriad rules and regulations that make it impossible to get anything done.

The reason it takes two earner families is because the burdens of government confiscates the wages of the second to pay the taxes declared on the earnings of the first. It is obscene to think that government is entitled to part of a family's income. And politicians then buy the votes of their constituents by promising to give part of their wages back to them for this or that purpose. The Income Tax constitutes involuntary servitude. By any name, it is still slavery.

Those who do not think TERM LIMITS are essential, simply do not understand the problem.