Just because you're a peaceful man doesn't mean you have to let bullies push you around.

And just because you believe in obeying traffic laws doesn't mean you can't race cars for a hobby, or even as a profession.

And who are you to dictate that other people can't conduct their personal livlihood in a way you find commendable for yourself, just because they don't agree with you? Short of outright criminal activity, or exploiting the labor of others, we are all entitled to earn our livings any way we please. No one has to get approval from you.

Your harangue against liberals who game the system is typical fascist whining, your way of covering up your own ideological position that the skills needed to succeed financially are strictly personal, and sometimes even just luck, but not necessarily the system itself. To say that liberals who can succeed at the capitalist game are hypocrites is equivalent to saying that capitalists who are concerned about the welfare of their workers and the poor are class traitors. Or perhaps it's just the reflexive rage of having to admit someone who is your ideological opponent might also be charismatic, capable, and capable of beating you at your own game by your own rules; and still capable of achieving prosperity under those rules without having to rely on the lexpropriated abor of others.

The fact that the original post was not an ideological rant but you chose it to turn it into one tells me much more about your motives and fears than it does about my cousin's. After all, the exact same post could just have easily have been written about two conservatives with somewhat different points of view as two liberals, as TAFKASE so ably pointed out.

It might be a good idea to take his advice, and the original purpose of my post, and recognize that political differences can be destructive when dragged into inappropriate situations, as I feared might happen in my own family, and as you are trying to exploit them now.

Shame on you.

;)