William, you make a valid point. There certainly is a thought in government that "something must be done. We must do something."

The GOP seems unwilling to even consider proposing that the government back off and let the people have some room. Now, we have this boa constrictor on the country. Exhale and it tightens. Wiggle and it tightens. It always tightens...then, the lights start going out.

I have made the realization that I cannot mindlessly foist this system on my kids. They deserve better. The world is their oyster...not just this patch, this tax farm.

Regarding your Heinlein quote; I think he (or you) are paraphrasing Mencken:

"Democracy is the theory that people know what kind of government they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

We're getting it good and hard. No doubt about it.

I don't want to sound depressing, but the problem isn't with the Presidential candidates, Congress, or Government. Its the people within the government. Everyone wants to blame the government. Thats like blaming the bridge for twisting, bending and finally collapsing when it was the trillions of drips of water rushing together down the river that caused the effect.

I think I first ran across this in one of Heinlein's books years ago; "People ultimately get the kind of Government they deserve." Maybe as a whole we just are not evolved enough for the concept of government. After all, every government throughout history has followed the same cycle. Unfortunately, we and our children are at this point in the cycle. What will happen next is anyones guess: War - external or civil, collapse, oppression by our own government leading to collapse or revolution, a coup - usually military. In other words, the usual ways governments execute their demise (yes, I missed about a dozen possibilities). Some of these may be eliminated either because this is the first technologically dependent society (and that it self may cause the failure), and others because of the proliferation of personal weapons (although I would not be surprised if people gave up their weapons under duress).

The truth is; "It is what it is." The thing to do now is put together a plan to deal with it.

I do wonder at times if I am refusing to give up or refusing to admit the obvious. As I watched the debates the other night I heard some really good ideas. Then I remembered I have heard them pretty much every election cycle.

The inherent problem is that most people are attracted to run for government office because they think that the government can "do things". It's really hard to get someone to run for office to "not do things".

We see this mindset all the time when the Democrats want to pass a program to control yet another part of the economy. When the Republicans object they are demanded to give "their plan", which means their plan to control that part of the economy. The idea that the best plan is "no plan" is anathema.