Good grief, dddooo, this statement almost eradicates the poignant and rational arguments you've been making the last week about Israel and Hezbollah. I invite you to go to the link I posted - you will find more than "one gloating moonbat" and it's apparent that they are Americans.... You're like a Jekyll and Hyde - rational one moment, nutso the next...
I think your 15% number is too high. There are fringe elements both left and right, extremists who give the reasonable right and reasonable left a bad name. Seriously, do you find anyone in Congress, House or Senate, who would express the types of things the extreme right or extreme left would say? (they might think them privately, but they won't get elected by expressing them publicly) The technique of marginalization of course, which is played by both right and left, is to suggest that this fringe element is somehow representative of the party as a whole. I do think the democratic party probably has greater diversity of opinion though, as they preach diversity and freedom of opinion to a greater extent than the republican party, which tends to preach conformity and traditionalism.
Hapaboy I think the left reached its peak a few years ago and is slowly fading. I grew up in the days of Vietnam when being on the left wasn"t a mark of PC, it was the right place to be. Now the wise thinkers are all on the right and what the left has is cases like ZZZ, or ratboy.
Oh yeah, those "wise" thinkers that got us into Iraq and a floundering nation building effort, who failed to find Bin Laden when he was cornered, who began what is now a failing nation building effort in Afghanistan... Lots and lots of wisdom....
Right has wise thinkers, rofl.. Are the chinese still going to laugh at the new Treasury secretary when he brings up the issue of currency and trade policies... And when americans see higher medical costs, wages lag inflation for the past 5 years, poverty on the rise, etc... flag burning and gay marriage are deemed the most important concern in America today. Iraq is a raging success. Are they still in their last throes? Are the dead american troops still considered just a number by Tony Snow? Wasn't Zarqawi suppose to end the violence in Iraq? Osama still walks and Moussaoui who wasn't even involved with 9/11 and now lives on taxpayer money in jail. Senate Republicans Kill Second Bill on Corrupt Defense Contractors - We wouldn't want to ask for taxpayer money back for work not done. When a republican is president, go long oil and defense contractors, short humanity and common sense.
Wise thinkers are all on right? I have been trying real hard to think of one and have been left completely blank. Exactly who would you be referring to? W? Rummy? Clarabelle Thomas? The last wise republican I can conjure up might be Dwight Eisenhower. Didn't he warn us about letting the military industrial complex get us by the balls? It is ironic that it is his own party that analyzed his foresight and decided that indeed the military industrial complex was a great thing to exploit. Wise since Eisenhower? Well we have Johnson battling for peoples human rights to vote and work, thats pretty wise, but shit he was a democrat. K, well we have Detente and the subsequent giving away of US technology to communists as incentive to behave and the kissing of Mao's ass with Nixon. But shit that wasn't wise. Gerald Ford? Wise? Let's move on. We could see the Camp David Accords as wise, or the attempts to ramp up alternative feul programs as wise, and surely see the foresight to kill the B-1 Bomber and save a trillion dollars as wise. Those were all Jimmy Carter tho, and shit he was a democrat. Maybe killing the alt feuls program, wasting a Trillion dollars on the B-1 Bomber and Sgt York, S&L Deregulation, and selling arms to terrorists was wise. No those things Reagan did were not wise. 41? Was 41 wise? Lets not bother. Eight Years of Peace and Prosperity takes wisdom. We had that under Clinton didn't we? Oh, but crap he was a Democrat wasn't he. 43 wise? Well maybe in some Orwellian double speak sense. Since the world seems to be W's Pig Farm I guess maybe you have convinced me. All the wise thinkers are on the right.
The domestic and foreign policies of Lyndon Johnson make Bush look like Albert Einstein. Under LBJ we were suffering through troop casualties per month greater than the sacrifice of American lives in Iraq that's taken three years. We had a top tax rate of 70%. Even with high taxes the Treasury was so strapped that for 15 years we had had inflation spiraling out of control. Helped people? LMFAO. That's why we had the deadly Watts riots and virtually every city in America burning after Dr. King's assassination. Did you live through 1968? Political assassinations, riots, a Democratic Convention that was an embarrassment to the world. Bleak time. LBJ was corrupt, a liar, and 100 times worse than Bush. I'm not a huge Nixon fan but he got us out of Viet Nam within two years, the SALT treaty and detente is one reason we don't have nuclear war heads whipping around and compared to LBJ he was George Washington. Carter. Incompetent but not nearly as bad as portrayed. Reagan. The greatest U.S. President of this century. Killed inflation, cut taxes spurring growth, brought the Soviet's to their knees, negotiated when possible with Islam, and had the balls i.e. bombing Libya, to take it in the other direction if talking it out didn't work. He's the only "normal" guy to be President since Truman.
Johnson had his faults but had moments of "great thinking" Nixon was a complete farce that screwed up thi country so bad it is ridiculous to even comtemplate great thinking coming out of this man. Detente EXTENDED Soviet Communism more than anything else. Carter foresaw sveral of the major problems we had today and made steps toward correcting them which were subsequently eliminated by the Reagan Administration. He had his faults for sure but forward thinking about energy crisis and wasteful defense spending were not his faults. In these regards he was a great thinker. Reagan EXTENDED Soviet Communism. Carters embargoes nearly had them on their knees only for Reagan to let them off the hook and ramp up an arms race and proxy wars which bolstered the only profitable portion of the Soviet economy, arms sales. Reagan pulled out of Lebanon after the Marine Barracks was wiped out and passed on the best opportunity we had yet to eliminate an actual hotbed of terrorists. This is clearly coming back to haunt us now. Reagan dint kill inflation. As a matter of fact he had one of the most inflationary Fiscal policies of any modern preident. Jimmy Carters appointment to Fed Chairman, Paul Volker would have to be the one credited with killing inflation if anyone. Bombing Libya took balls? Ha! I think it had more to do with the fact that David Stockman's( his former Budget Director) book was released on the same day was a primary decision factor there. Mr. Reagan and Roger Ailes are not regarded as Great Communicators for nothing. Knocking the buzz over Stockmans book, which detailed the sell out of Reaganomics, to page 3 instead of Front Page was a master stroke. And you are right Reagan was at best a "normal guy". Definitely no great thinker. Im still curious about who on the right you reagard as "Great Thinkers".
Robert Taft, Buchanan, Buckley, Greenspan, Goldwater, Keyes........ No I don't rate Presidents who start unnecessary wars as "great thinkers" i.e. Wilson, FDR, LBJ, GWB nor do I think those who want to vent their little man's Messiah complex by redistributing wealth by means of the populist pulpit as being deep either. I really don't know where people got the notion that governments role is to induce serfdom from her subjects. Carter's embargo? Yea great idea unless you happen to be a small family farmer who saw grains trade limit down for three days. That embargo set the stage for the farm crisis in the mid-80's. And WHY the embargo? Because Carter was pissed that the Soviets were fighting a war in Afghanistan against the Taliban! Yet that same POS favors lifting the Cuban embargo. As far as your bullshit about Reagan and Lebanon: Clinton had the same shit happen to American personnel in the MidEast. Not every attack against American interests need be met by an appropriate response......
What unnecessary war did Wilson and FDR start? They didn't start wars, they participated in ending them.... LBJ didn't start the Vietnam War. Ike didn't start a the Korean War, he finished what Truman started.