Remember, the "Republican" Party USED to be the radicals when the old conservatives collapsed, the old liberals got their way and then became complacent in their empire. So you got new liberals with REALLY out there ideas like "slavery is immoral" "base the economy on industrial production, not cotton prices. " Jefferson, the father of American liberalism, said we should have a "revolution" every four years. We're supposed to have an activist government by having an activist PEOPLE.

In the days of purchased influence and lawyers hanging around the Senate cloakroom that doesn't really work. It's the kind of thing that made me hold my nose and accept what McCain-Feingold did to unions because it did it to all the corporate and PAC groups, too. But they get away with it because we aren't watching, because we aren't eying every vote and sending them letters saying, "You better vote x 'cos there's an election coming" and taking an active role in directing our own government. We don't have the time and money to go to DC and plead our case directly, but we let the power brokers and money lenders we USED to call "special interests" (before that meant single moms, blacks and unions. )

It's also the thing that pisses me off at liberals though, and why I get stuck VOTING Democratic even though I'm not a Democrat: We get stuck with this crap because we aren't using our voice in government by even voting. When you stay home the other side wins, whatever that is, and so, yes, you have to go vote for the lesser evil, because it is still LESSER! It's always been an axiom of political science that the US electorate is Democratic but turnout is Republican. But many Republicans will vote for the Party if they don't get the man they want; many Democrats vote for the man, and stay home if he loses. It's also why I'm pissed Obama ran as a proud liberal and then tried to suck up to the right. I mean, really, you GAVE BANKS MONEY, which is like the GOP raison d'etre (hence they did it themselves the previous year) and they BITCHED because it was your idea; how did you think you were going to "reach across the aisle" into that alligator swamp?