How often do we see phrases like “left leaning” to identify a group compared to “right leaning” which I don’t remember ever seeing. Why act as though the public needs to be warned about a liberal idea when it’s the conservative ideas that are so much more dangerous?
And who would trust an “online internet panel”?

@nnmns: Go back and watch some news reel from 1980… you’ll start to get the picture after a while. Scarily enough, it once was considered derogatory to call someone a “conservative” in polite conversation. Then, we got Reagan’ed. Big time. It’s right around when our budget deficit spiraled out of control and we started shipping boatloads of arms and money to crazy Islamic militants in Pakistan. But *they’re* the fiscal disciplinarians who are stronger on defense. It’s all bumpkis.

Actually both sides have made huge blunders I trust no politician or political group.

Yes, both parties have blundered. Both have members who are something less than admirable. But one party has openly embraced hate-mongering and faux populism; one party has made cheap religiosity and demagogy its stock-in-trade; one party has dragged the nation closer to textbook fascism (fascist is not the same as nazi) than ever before in our history; one party has pandered to the same elements that tried to tear apart the nation in the Civil War.
I don’t want to see the Republican Party as an institution disappear; America is best served by a two-party system representing progressive ideals tempered by conservative pragmatism. But today’s Republican Party has degenerated into something malignant. The great crime of the Democrats is that they stood by, bleating ineffectually like a herd of clueless sheep while Dubya dug America into its present hole. And even now, the president and the Democrats in Congress still listen respectfully while the morons of the right proclaim that the way out of that hole is to continue digging ourselves in deeper with the same policies that brought us here.
As for the issue, immigration, we desperately need to rethink goals and policies. Historically, immigration has been good for America, not just in terms of enriching cultural diversity but also in terms of building the economy. Yet I reject the notion that people who are here illegally should be granted a free pass.

Sorry — previous posting was mine.

Illegal Immigration population Armageddon
They keep repeating the–SAME TIRED NUMBER–10 MILLION–but the US border Patrol in just the Tuscon sector, expressed, “Only one out of ten is caught.” The Tucson sector Border Patrol union local 2544 on the number of illegal aliens in our nation: “There are currently 15 to 20 million illegal aliens in this country by many estimates, but the real numbers could be much higher and the numbers increase every day because our borders are not secure (NO MATTER WHAT THE POLITICIANS TELL YOU-DON ‘ T BELIEVE THEM FOR ONE SECOND) Said a Spokesman for the Border Patrol. “Our illegal immigration numbers are based on an estimated twenty million illegal aliens having been present in our nation as of -JANUARY 1, 2004.”almost four million people crossed our borders illegally 2002″ end of quote.
This is a cruel trick on every honest taxpayer is this first generation of newly legalized immigrants, could escalate with thousands bring in brothers, sisters, Mothers and Fathers. By the year 2040 the population of America could be unsustainable with limited resources, water shortages, highways crammed to capacity and a infrastructure that is falling apart. THOSE INTERESTED-THE HISTORY CHANNEL IS ONCE AGAIN TELEVISING “The Crumbling of America.” This Friday observe the depreciating bridges, dams, levees and 50 year old underground system of sewage in some areas. Our Survival is in peril, but they do not enforce immigration laws. Well-documented, the 100.000 pro-amnesty protest on Sunday and the last two months of PR build-up across the country was backed by tens of millions of dollars from George Soros (Socialist-Marxist Billionaire), Carnegie Foundation, Ford Foundation and the giant SEIU unions.

H4C it looks like your Democrats and liberals are trying to bring the country into socialism or communism.

ck I don’t think Democrats or liberals are of one mind on this. Or conservatives.

cknuck,
They aren’t “my” Democrats and liberals. I do have certain views that are progressive, and others that are conservative. That’s called being an independent — a person who thinks no political party or ideology has a monopoly on truth or an immunity to hogwash.
As for “socialism” and “communism,” you are just parroting Republican talking points. Communism is non-existent; the only time anything like true communism has ever existed was in some very small insular religious communities like the Amana Society, before they turned away from their communal way of life. States like the old Soviet Union and Cuba were never communist, regardless of what they called themselves; they were just military dictatorships that made loud Marxist noises (kind of like some politicians who pretend to be Christians by making loud religious noises). Socialism is different; it exists, and it works reasonably well in some European states, as shown by the fact that the citizens there freely vote to retain their system. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is the right system for America, but it does mean that Americans who shout “Socialist!” as if that were a dirty word just sound as if they don’t really know what it means.

ck: “H4C it looks like your Democrats and liberals are trying to bring the country into socialism or communism.”
It took you this long to come to that conclusion? The Republicans and conservatives have only been parroting that line since as far back as I can remember.

H4C first of all we all parrot there is no original thoughts as proven by Mordred. Some individuals with skewed egos convince themselves of the fallacy that they generate unique thoughts.
Second there is no true democracy for that matter if you want to go that route in your rebuttal. But I do appreciate your brief history lesson.

Our economy cannot support liberal democrats follies we are already trillions of dollars in debt and it has been projected that Obama’s work so far will add to the debt to the tune of two more trillion. For those who pay their debts with credit cards the concept is perfectly logical.

Well, living on credit is indeed folly. Let’s see, where did that all start? Oh, yeah! With Republicans and their tax-cutting mania. St. Ronald of Reagan built up a huge deficit, and President Bush Senior paid the price of trying to deal with it instead of continuing the happy-talk fantasy of endless credit. St. Ronald also launched the dismantling of the regulatory and protective systems that had prevented catastrophic swings in the economy since the Depression. Under President Clinton, the deficit built up by his Republican predecessors was eliminated and reversed, although he did nothing to stop the headlong rush toward dismantling all regulatory oversight. And then we had Dubya, who launched two wars while continuing tax cutting and regulatory dismantling. The deficit we now face is the inevitable result of the credit-card mentality of Republican administrations. And the economic turmoil we face is the result of their obsession with dismantling the oversight that had prevented such catastrophes in the preceding half century.

PS to cknuck,
Absolutely correct about there being no true democracies, either. America is NOT a democracy; we are a republic. It is a republic offering considerable freedom, which we refer to casually as “democracy,” but true democracy (like true communism) can work only in extremely small and isolated communities.

It’s not uncommon for the finger pointing to be directed at parties both parties labor under this totally unproductive practice. The parties have little to do with the position we find ourselves in and Clinton’s shuffle was a temporary fix doomed to be short-lived. The facts that bring us to where we are now are our selfishness, greed, over- consumerism over-production. These is not a formula that can be sustained under Democrats or Republicans. Get smart and do something other than pointing fingers, Obama almost has it right but his party is full of idiot finger pointers and party promoters.

A republic is a state or country that is not led by a hereditary monarch, in which the people (or at least a part of its people) have an impact on its government”. So now we know what it isn’t. But can the absence of definition truly define something?

What is America Democracy-Republic or maybe just plain broken?

The definition is not negative; “without a monarch” means that people elect their government leaders and representatives.
As to whether America is broken… I don’t know. To me, it seems more broken now than it was in the Vietnam era. Then, the polarization was largely along generational lines. Now it seems much more pervasive. The two major political parties are worse than useless, and the “Tea Party” looks chillingly like the crowds that cheered Hitler as they spew their hatred and vow to “take back” their country. The media are dominated by jingoists whose rhetoric (in one case, calling for the assassination of the president) would once have been called sedition.
I hope I’m just being morose and pessimistic.

Well you’ll not going to like this; I agree.

My husband voluntarily went through the legalization process after being here illegally. He wanted to do the right thing. He had no criminal record, paid his taxes, and had health insurance through his job. HE took care of my son and our daughter with me daily. He got a 10 year ban with NO appeal because he went home 1 time and then came back. His nephew was caught and deported, and only got a 3 year ban. My son will be 18 and our daughter will be 12 before he is allowed to “Re-apply” to come back to the US legally. I understand that we need a way to regulate immigration, but I’m hoping we can start by fixing the broken appeal system.

It fits our needs perfectly the advantage of immigration reform on the country: Greater supply of unskilled workers, a younger workforce, and skilled workers in needed sectors. But there is also a disadvantage of immigration reform like Greater poverty, more educational cost, lower unskilled wage levels, and increased danger of terrorism. Thanks to the post!