Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
I'm afraid that kinda missed my point, actually. Goldwater and the others weren't "cured" - they were carriers. The infection did spread, and, like herpes, erupts occasionally, as it did with Reagan. Reagan was a vector, spreading the infection with false nostrums about "welfare queens" and "lifting boats", while pursuing really inhumane policies. We now know he shared the same racist beliefs Nixon did.
If you mean racism you are wrong! If you are talking about a “criminal mindset” that too is wrong. Yes, Nixon was a crook but his "criminal mindset" did not spread into the Republican Party any more than it did into entire American population. To think that “welfare queens” is racist is not true. The percentage of welfare recipients is 39.8% white and 38.8% blacks. That means the “welfare queens” are white women. The saying “A rising tide lifts all boats.” was first said by Pres. Kennedy. Was JFK a racist?
Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
Reagan-worship was not, and is not, bipartisan. Nixon also won reelection overwhelmingly... shortly before impeachment proceedings began.
Apparently you have forgotten about the REAGAN DEMOCRATS.
Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
Most of the political machines that have existed in our country were run by Democrats. [ANCIENT history. Really.]
If the Democrat’s political machines are ancient history why are 45 out of 50 wards in Chicago predominately Democrat?
Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
Now interlineations and asides will not suffice. I disagree. A thriving, growing economy will be disruptive and dynamic, but does not inevitably require turmoil. If approached intelligently, disruptions can be minimized, not exacerbated, and dynamism harnessed and directed. But, that requires consideration of "externalities" - something that definitely exists, but is assiduously ignored and denied by capitalists of a certain ilk.
A disruption of someone’s life can throw it into turmoil. To minimize, harness, and direct a thriving and growing economy means government intervention. Most, but not all, government interventions stop economic growth. While economic growth can be painful the market can and does control them better than government does.
Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
Um, no. (Actually kind of a non sequitur.) Often, and most destructively, precisely no. Laissez faire policies are born of economic theorems, and not practical intelligence. They assiduously avoid dealing with realities in favor of preferred expectations.
Laissez faire is an economic theorem. A theorem that rejects government interventions because the preferred expectations of government interventions cannot achieved in realty.

Originally Posted by NW Pondere
Now we're into rote recitation of party-line nostrums. Evidence? SUPPORT? Or is the statement intended to be a tautology? I can provide a direct contradiction to the Statement: China. China Used More Concrete In 3 Years Than The U.S. Used In The Entire 20th Century. Indeed, if we don't accept the lesson of, and adapt to, China's aggressive economic posture, China will absolutely eat our lunch.
That is a false analogy. When the US was using all of the concrete it did from 1901 – 2000 the decision of how and for what it was used was made mostly by the private sector. The decision of how and for what it the concrete is used for in China in the last three years was made by its government. Governments build large dams, like the Three Gorges Dam, the private sector doesn’t. Should China ever become a Capitalist country it probably will eat our lunch. But dictatorships rarely disappear quietly.

Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
Again, evidence? SUPPORT? What is your "theory of justice"? What is the purpose of the penal system? Do the issues of compassion, causality or reformation/rehabilitation have any bearing?
I asked a rhetorical question which I answered. I did read the Cliff Notes of Les Miserable. As for my theory of justice it is that ours can be improved and I welcome a vigorous discussion how it can be done.
Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
In an ideal, or just world, I agree. That, unfortunately, is not (as Dr. King was stressing in that quote) the world in which we currently live, but aspire to.
Thomas Jefferson’s statement all men are created equal is an ideal that we haven’t lived up to and Dr. King reminded us of that in his excellent, moving, and sadly very necessary I HAVE A DREAM speech.
Originally Posted by NW Ponderer
What utter nonsense. An epidemic of inhumanity is what we have under the current rubric of "conservatism".
It is because that is how you want to see conservatism in order to justify your being a liberal. Like the saying “There none more pious than a reformed sinner.” you see conservatism as sinful and liberalism as redemption.

The state can never straighten the crooked timber of humanity.
I'm a conservative because I question authority.
Conservative Revolutionary