Ah, yes - a free thinker, Hunter and Sudsman
Hunter, if even 10% of the tea-party was composed of people like you, I should be very content. Ten free-thinkers to 90 sheeple is a very good balance.
Alas, I fear, it is rather 1% free-thinker, 25% racist, 74% furious old white men who grew up thinking it was their world and got dumped on by the Democrats from the 1970's on...and have only just now finally figured out that they are merely patsies for the Republicans.
The Constitution, from the perspective of those of us who wish to restore civil rights is there for one purpose: To limit government rights over the people.
From the perspective of the religious conservatives (who, it can not be argued, have taken over the Republican party and who, sadly, form a large part of the tea-party intelligentisia (if one may speak in such terms of Palin and cohort) the purpose of the Constitution is to limit the rights of those people whom they dislike.
I think, by now, it's clear to everyone who can read that I'm an Eisenhower Republican, which, in today's world means either a Democrat or a teaparty-er.
My problem with libertarians is that they have too many naive concepts of personal responsibility solving problems which are endemic to the world of 2010. This is no longer an agrarian society and no amount of wishing will make the competition on the world market or dependency on energy from our enemies go away.
Telling me that they don't support gay marriage because the government should be out of the marriage business entirely...while not even entertaining a change in the laws to make civil marriage for all possible...is simply another way of saying "vote for us, but we still won't restore YOUR rights as gays...we just think you're too dumb to notice".
I don't mind saving water and it seems silly to me to waste energy. I do, very much, resent toilets which must be flushed three times to barely achieve what one yank of the handle did perfectly 30 years ago.
Ditto washers that sprinkle the clothes with a bit of phosphate-free cleaning agent (water is almost too big a word for it), swish them left, swish them right and pronounce them clean.
I don't object to using time to substitute for water in a dishwasher as long as there's enough water to rinse thoroughly. Never did understand the need for 20 minute programs in my private house...but I will not give up a sanitisation rinse.
[this post was last edited: 5/12/2010-05:25]