Exactly true, the housing crisis can be laid right at the door of the Democrat from Connecticut who ran the committee and grilled both heads of them to allow people with no jobs, no SSN, nothing, to get a loan. Lots of the crap mortgages ere based on that.

People have been brainwashed to want big government to control their lives, and its only getting worse. There is a necessary component to government, but we are far beyond that scope of what government ought to be. No one thinks about the bigger problems created when we give the government authority to take over something as big as health care or education for that matter. So many forget that the housing crisis was a result of government intervention to force fanny mae and freddie mac to give everyone the right to buy houses regardless of credit or capabilities to meet those financial obligations. As I remember, democrats and republicans supported this idea, makes them part of the problem, not the solution.

If all of the choices have the same agenda in mind there is no choice. How many different ways can you say "socialism"? It simply keeps the populace occupied.

I'm with you, Doc.

In addition, here's a line from the first paragraph on their website: "Both major political parties are moving farther to the ideological extremes, leaving little incentive for leaders to find common ground." I call BS on this since both parties have been moving leftward and not to ideological extremes from each other at all. The Dems are shifting socialist/communist faster than the Reps, but the two parties, IMHO, have been morphing into two bullies fighting over who gets to control the neighborhood. Now along comes a bolt of lightning called Trump. The flash-bang seems to have woken up some Reps to a thing called reality and driven the Dems deeper into apoplectic fantasy. If we start seeing Dems more strongly clinging to "government controls the people" and the Reps move towards "People control the government", then if the Reps prevail that is an ideological extreme I can live with.

It's still a bit early to tell if the Reps have truly awoken to what America is supposed to be and what their role should be in the grand scheme of things. We'll see soon enough, I expect.

This brings to mind my first disappointment in Trump and that is his apparent desire to take the "Freedom Caucus" (FC) to the woodshed for not going along with Paul Ryan's Obamacare repeal/replace bill. It seems to me the FC took one look at it and declared "Hey, we're supposed to be doing a scorch and burn and this crap doesn't even add up to a decent backyard barbecue! We ain't putting our name on that!". IMHO, the FC are the troops that want to kick the bad guys hard and Paul Ryan just doesn't seem to have the required spine. It seems the FC could be Trump's phalanx, but he put the wrong unit up front.

Good! :)

I have not looked into it yet, this was the first I had ever heard of it, but that is entirely possible given their own fractured party.

Tillerson is reported to have said he did not want the job, but took it simply to try to help this Nation, not himself, not his "agenda", but simply his home. We only need 525 or so just like him. We get what we allow.

They could join the LP, but my unsupported suspicion is that they are just liberals trying to sew confusion. ;^)

It is as simple as a 1st year math book. Government is too big. Even if everyone in Washington were well-intentioned they would not be able to successfully handle all the problems created by a vast country of 360+ people. Add to that, it is doubtful that there are all that many well-intentioned people to be found in the seats of power and you have the nearly impossible task of turning the ship of state in the right direction and keeping it there. Reducing government size should be the first priority. Sadly, it won't happen, but if by some miracle it begins to happen I predict the biggest battle in government history.

Centrists are RINOS - just democrats that happen to live in a red district and still want to get elected.

Funny how this stuff is in response to the "extreme" position of the freedom caucus of just 'repealing' something that didn't exist a couple of years ago.

...to Libertarians?

C B J,, I don't remember his name unfortunately, but a few years ago the Secretary of Agriculture of Texas was in some debate with his politicians about being , In the middle of the road" on something. The secretary said " I don't know about your state, but in Texas all we have in the "Middle of the road" are yellow lines and dead armadillos". Tough line to top..

If you look carefully at the Centrist Project web site, it looks more like a cover for progressives to sneak out from under the now discredited Democrat party banner. As one example, climate change action is one of their goals, and their statement sounds just like the Obama policies.

None of their other statements of purpose have any real substance, and sound a lot like liberal bumper sticker phrases. This is a scam to dupe the voters into thinking the "new independents" are different, when in reality they're just Democrat wolves in sheep's clothing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Qui...

Paging Senor Quixote, Senor Don Quixote!

You're right, too, nick.
Choosing the "lesser of two evils" is still the wrong choice as long as both parties are dominated by power mad statists and looters. When the game is rigged, the answer is to play a different game that is not rigged. That is also true in other markets, e.g., banking and securities.

And they may very well be fitting into that role. After all, most of AS seems to be in place, all we need now is a grapefruit harvest equivalent and we are good to go, minus a Galt.

I am not disagreeing, freedom, you are exactly right in regards to that possibility. Although it does seem that all this still points to a "shadow government" situation, as the clowns in DC are just too incompetent to be the top of the power triangle. There is such an obvious skew going on that seems to just slide from party to party, it seems the same type of stuff that the Obama gang did is now surfacing with the Trump/Ryan gang.

I agree with most of your comment, nick, but I think it possible that the pols will control a convention of states, too. Most people are too brainwashed to regain freedom. I do not expect a peaceful resolution.

No. If they have any “basic stand” at all, it is to split the difference between Republicans and Democrats through “compromise.” How can they possibly “consider the merits of each side’s arguments” when they have no common principles by which to decide such merits? How can they “do what is best for their people” when they have no common standard of “best”? They bring to mind the compromising businessmen in Atlas Shrugged who attempted to find a “middle ground” between a free economy and one run by government dictate.

You can't get to smaller government when you have 2 parties that only seek absolute control and pandering to their patrons, can you? Government is how money is stolen from us and funneled to the "right" parties. Bigger government, more money. It is a doomed system, until people realize they have to get control. The Convention of States is the only way to do that at this point, that I see. This Centrist group is just a stopgap between the 2 looney groups.

Considering the fact that all we have now is open warfare between 2 competing forms of absolutism, it seems this is damage control in earnest. Consider it to be a validation of the fact such a need means the current system is totally uncontrolled and useless. Since there is no viable 3rd party existent today, this is seeking to fill the vacuum between hard core people who are either right or left. My impression is their basic stand is to consider the merits of each sides arguments on a topic and do what is best for their people. Bit better than doing what is best for your patrons no?

Reading the article, I don't see any fundamental principles being promoted by this group. "Forcing compromise between Republicans and Democrats" is not a principle.

Don't see anything about smaller government. To me "Centrist" is like RINO's . Maybe if they are really about less government, free markets, and individual liberty they should change their name.