Do you detect a violent preference for left or right? The kind of conservatives I can disagree with but still respect are there, as well as other honorable and reasonable Republicans like Dole and McCain in our own era. And I recognized the shortcomings of men on my own side.

But something very ugly has been happening to the GOP since the Goldwater days, and it ramped up significantly after Reagan. I respect the former, and have started to develop a grudging admiration for the latter. Bush I was not my man, but he knew what he was doing, In the 21st century, Bush II was pathetic joke.

Just look at the clowns the GOP ran for President last year. Perry, Cain, Bachmann, Paul, Gingrich, Santorum...And waiting in the wings, Huckabee, Palin, and Trump. What could you people have possibly been thinking? Only Pawlenty, Huntsman and Romney even qualified as human beings. And the only complaint I heard from the Republican side was that 'X isn't conservative enough'. No one had the nerve to speak out and yell "my party is being taken over by jackasses". It's not like there aren't reasonable intelligent Republicans, like Jindal and Christy and Jeb Bush and a host of others. But they were either considered "too moderate" by the base, or they themselves simply did not want to get tainted by even being seen climbing in the hard Right's Klown Kar.

These people are laughable. This is the party of Eisenhower, for Chrissakes. At the very least, Nixon was competent and Reagan could inspire his people.

I am a fiscal conservative. I may not agree with Republicans on strategies or priorities, or percentages, but just because I don't doesn't mean we should run the country bankrupt. Likewise, I believe in a strong national defense, but it doesn't mean we should bomb everybody who pisses us off. I believe business should be regulated and taxed, not nationalized. I suspect our differences, Rob, are a question of degree, not of kind.

Now TB, I don't know. He BELIEVES!