In today's world the Democrats should be renamed the National Socialist Party!

Socialists believe in Democracy only as long as they control it.

At least socialists believe in democracy. The current crop of Dems are more akin to Fascists as someone alluded to in another posting.

All too true, but what a shame that out of 300 million people the best that we could find was an uneducated father, an even less educated son, and now an almost illiterate ghost of the first two... What a shame.

There is not a single Democrat today worth voting for, including Jim Webb. They all voted for Obama's agenda, despite their protestations of being moderates. The last Democrat I could have voted for was JFK, and he was dead before I was born. Andrew Jackson was a good Democrat. Today's Democrats have more in common with the USSR than the USA.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few . . . or the one."
In the next film Kirk said the reverse.

I never saw it as a philosphical assertion of utilitarianism. I took it as him saying he chose he preferred to sacrifice is life to save the ship.

I agree. And I think Bush was hopelessly naive on the matter. He (and his advisers) made several crucial errors regarding "nation-building", among which I believe are the following:

1. Believing that someone brought up under a theocratic government would embrace sectarian government - especially those who used to hold power.
2. Believing that citizens of Middle Eastern nations would be able to separate religion from government.
3. Believing that simply installing a democracy or republic by fiat would placate or gloss over the centuries of hostility and repression among the various Islamic sects and ethnic groups.
4. That ANY nation who didn't have to fight for their own liberty had the will to change the way they think about government and ruling.

True change will only come to these nations when they are forced to confront and do away with their their ideology, which is based on coercion. And that's not going to happen easily, and certainly not by imposition by a third party.

I don't remember any specific statements to that effect. I do remember feeling disappointment at various writers' interpretations of the Vulcan culture. They didn't all have the same vision as the show's creator.

Spock, as he died in lethal radiation to save the Enterprise and her crew.

I think that definition is equally applicable to Republicans.
Democrats try to use government to "fix" domestic "problems" and Republicans try to use government to "fix" international "problems".
Neither side can understand the fact that they create more problems than they solve...and spend US producers to death in the process, hence killing the goose that lays the golden egg of freedom.

Ayn Rand said: "Change the meaning of words and you change the culture."

(Second: “Democrats lack a ‘cohesive narrative’ )
They have a VERY cohesive narrative, and it resonates with the People. Here is another quote from 200+ years ago.

""A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship...."

The Democrats have a very cohesive narrative. Entitlement and FREE stuff from the public treasury. The looters push this narrative, the moochers who now outnumber the producers, keep voting this.

Excellent point! And we have failed to keep it because they have figured out how to lie cheat and steal and the majority of the voters just respond to emotional stimulus. Common Core is the next step to the toala reduction of the voting public so they can continue to consolidate their ill gotten gains.

Nice, kind of reminds me of Robert Heinlein's definition of value in Starship Troopers, where he compares how a highly skilled chef can take a pile of apples and dough, already of value, and turn it into a confection of great value, and an incompetent boob can take the same material and make an inedible mess, value 0. What one politician wants to take and give to someone else and has "value" and is "fair" is rarely constant. I absolutely agree that our current system is systemically "unfair" in that it steals from those who work, and gives to those who do not. Social Security is a great example, they took a huge sum over the last 45 years of my life, and then promptly stole it to do what they wanted, and gave me a bunch of worthless IOUs. If I did it, it would be "theft", I just waded through taxes, and the damn Obama Care thing is finding it's way into everything, funny though, they just ask if you had healthcare, and if you are stupid enough to say "no" they take a bunch more money. Obviously, the correct answer is always "yes". Morons, I tell you, they are all Morons.

Do not lump them all together jb. There are democrats who did very good things for the country, mainly in acting as the go between between far left and far right. Jim Webb appears to be in the old Southern Democrat position, for one. Also they enable Ronald Regan to make a lot of the changes he was able to get through. Your statement is very true of the majority of today's Pelosi criminal types, Obamanation sycophants and special interest grubbing "hate speeching" button pushers. I would also say that the Gulch is not amenable to most republicans of today either, they are just as likely to do violence and steal and loot to support their own special interests as well. The Gulch is most amenable to an independent and some libertarians of today I think. The problem with most political parties today is they try to morph to be all to all comers, and will promise the moon to all of them and never deliver, then try to suck them back in with "but next time". And most voters fall for it. That is probably why we do not have a strong 3rd party.

Well, Bush decided to export "Democracy" to Afghanistan and Iraq and sent delegations of lawyers to both countries to write their constitutions. They did; they both now have US written Sharia constitutions. Clearly, the Elites do not view "Democracy" in the same light as they sell it to us.

The Democrats have been co-oped by Progressives. The last true Democrat that I remember would have been JFK! However, that is not to lay favor to the Republicans!

Still going to point out that Iran is not a democracy, however. The chief executive's powers are subject to veto by the Ayatollah, who is not an elected officer, but rather a religious leader. The CIA generously lists it as a "theocratic republic" (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications...).

"HOA's are run by the rules established by the majority."

Not mine. It's run by the builders - all the terms were right there in the mortgage paperwork. My sister is employed by the very same HOA's to verify that the homeowners are abiding by the HOA rules and works with dozens in the area. All are the same - the homeowners have little or no power to alter policy. My brother in Texas is in the same boat: he pays thousands in HOA dues and fees, but has no say whatsoever in altering policy. If you have a say in yours, congrats.

Further, I would argue that any kind of republic or democracy can only be based on the principle of freedom of speech or it is a faux democracy. If one is not free to vote one's mind, can it really be called a democracy or republic? Is a coerced vote a vote at all?

"Political correctness and other forms of speech and freedom limitations are an attack at the republican constitution by the democracy."

I agree 100%. True democracy must abide differences of opinion. While the majority may rule, the right of the minority to disagree must be protected.

great comment!

But we all enjoyed it until you did, rainman.

Jan

A Utopian that believes in majority rule and government solutions, devoid of sufficient understanding of human nature and divergent interests. They have never comprehended the fact that we were founded as a Republic and why. They have no compunctions about mob rule so long as they belong to the mob. They don't usually even understand the relationship between being a Democrat and its support of democracy, let alone the history of the tyranny of democracies (tyranny of the majority as a concept is beyond them or their concern). They will only awaken when it is their ox that is being gored; if even then. They are mostly blind followers looking for what someone can do for them. They are not usually good leaders since they seem incapable of deep thought and concern for unintended consequences and discard out of hand facts contrary to their aspirations.
"Hence it is that democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths... A republic, by which I mean a government in which a scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking." James Madison, Federalist Papers No. 10 (1787).
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" Ben Franklin
We have lost the Republic. The question is: Can we find it again?

I wish more democrats would have run on Obama's record last election. We might have gotten rid of several more dummies than we did.

"the rank and file republicans/conservatives " continue to pretend that voting for Republicans will change things for the better against all evidence to the contrary. Their irrational loyalty is the cause of the very problem they wish to solve.

I am a retailer so I work with many different people. It amazes me what my democratic clients say and the irrational reasons for them. At times the delusion is so great that I am floored. I just stop and remember that a lot of babies must have been dropped on their heads early in life. I vote for more strict safety standard for the young. Like each family is supplied with a hard hats for all members all the time. Well off my soapbox.

They (modern Democrats) have hijacked the language. They take the terms they feel will cast them in the best lights and disregard the ones that don't. Liberal used to mean the freedom to do what you wanted without government interference. This has been subsumed by progressive big government control socialists who claim the title democrat. Until we regain control of the language we will always be behind the times because whoever controls the language controls the debate.