Caney,

I think I gave you my first thumbs up ever for what you just wrote. Not so much because of the direction you and the left want to take us; but because of the way you came across. You're absolutely right, we'll never get anywhere if we can't have a civil discourse. I think as part of a civil discourse that everyone has to be first and foremost honest with themselves, before they can be honest with those around them. I think another fundamental thing everyone has to do is get on the same page with our definitions of the issues. I think one of the things I see is that how far apart we all are in our understanding of our values and how we percieve things.

A point; I believe the the Tea Party is fundamentally correct in getting our fiscal house in order, first and foremost. Does it really matter how all of us feel on various contentious social issues if our entire economy collapses? When we are borrowing 40 cents on every dollar we spend, we can not sustain that. That's just a fact. Doesn't matter what any of our ideological beliefs are. You see my point? If we can all agree on that fundamental fact, then we have a basis to move forward on how to resolve that. I know you disagree with how the right wants to resolve that. But can you honestly say that increasing spending, (called investing by the left); which increases our deficit and our debt is the answer? If we agree on our fundamental financials then it should be obvious that increasing spending is not the answer; in fact, it is the exact opposite of what we should be doing. And if any spending should be going on, then it should be in the private sector. Capitalism is about investing.

As we are all investors here, then we understand that investing is putting money into something that you not only hope to get your money back on, but you actually hope to make a profit. Government spending is all just one way spending. You never get your money back, and you never make a profit. (I'm using the never get your money back in the cumulative. I'm sure there are rare exceptions where the government can actually show that they got their money back; possibly even made a profit). And it is always on the backs of the taxpayers. Again, if we can all fundamentally agree on the definition of investing, than it is a no brainer that what the goverment does is not invest.

I think I'll stop here. My objective is not to make others wrong. I would just like to make sure that we are all starting from the same place; that we are understanding and using the same definitions for the subjects that we are discussing. And that we are being honest with ourselves and those around us. And speaking for myself I would just like for the left to see that we on the right are not a bunch of greedy, baby eating monsters. That we want a free and sound country. That we want all of our freedoms guaranteed by the constituation. That we're not trying to take away from others. That we believe in personal choice and self-responsiblity. That we want to leave a better country for our kids than we enheritied from our parents.

- 67GTO