Invariably, when watching the news, my wife and I will comment on the latest outrage. Her political views are considerably to the left of mine, so I often find myself saying things like

"You can't just 'pass a law', or 'make it illegal', we live in a democracy, these things have to be decided by the legislature and the courts, and ultimately by the voters."

"Unfortunately, we have a constitution, and the proposal you are advocating is going to require at least an amendment to it."

"There are constituencies and champions for the opposing view, and even if they are evil and greedy we just can't cavalierly brush them aside and put them in their place. When the other side tries that you have hysterical fits."

"If we did that there would be all sorts of consequences, both seen and unforeseen, everything is connected and sometimes we just have to move slowly. Sometimes we even have to backtrack and try something different, and that is VERY hard to do."

"That's a great idea, babe, but it's just too expensive. We simply can't afford it."

"There's more to this than meets the eye. Trust me."

"Of course they're trying everything they can to oppose this reform, that's their job."

"Yeah, but who decides who the good ones are and who the bad ones are?"

"I approve (or disapprove) of their cause, but I hate the way they are using a technicality to get their way."

"I agree with you completely, unfortunately, most Americans don't."

"I know most Americans want this, but the ones that don't are organized and funded and they have influence and power."

"We already tried that. It didn't work."

"No matter what you do, someone will figure out a way around it, especially if there's a payoff in it for them."

"Both sides fight dirty."

"That's a smokescreen, the real issue is..."

"Of course that's a blatantly illegal and immoral ripoff and a travesty of justice, but what do you expect me to do about it? I just work here like everyone else."