“Compassionate conservative” is an oxymoron.

So, B Nuckols, I take it you don’t like taxes, fees, guns, or jails.

So how do you propose we finance these wars our government wants to fight? How do we maintain our military forces without taxes? By donations only? Yeah, that’ll work.

When was the last time you drove across a bridge? Do you realize bridges are maintained by taxes? Would you prefer the bridge you drive across every day not be maintained? Or is it just the bridges you DON’T use that you’d like to see unrepaired?

Do you realize police and fire departments are maintained by taxes? Would you prefer police and fire departments not exist and we all be left to our own devices? I guess you’d prefer a personal bodyguard as your army rather than a national military force. And I suppose the nearest fire hydrant would be your fire department. Good luck.

Do you realize public schools and public libraries are maintained by taxes? Would you prefer a society where schools are privatized so that only the wealthiest can afford to educate their children? Sounds like the feudal system to me. (And we ALL know how “Christian” feudal societies are, don’t we?) For the wealthiest, yes, I can understand where that kind of society would be appealing. They get everything, and the rest get nothing.

Taxes maintain our national parks and national forests. Would you rather see them all cut down, destroyed, and turned into resorts and theme parks and shopping malls? It’s true wealth and jobs would be created in doing that. But is our country so small that such businesses can’t be created anywhere else? What is wrong with setting aside God’s bounty for ALL to enjoy and in its natural state? When I was growing up, my parents took us on road trips every summer to camp in and enjoy the national parks. They instilled in us a love for nature and the wilderness and how richly we Americans have been blessed to have a country with such beauty and how lucky we are that people with foresight set this area aside to be preserved forever.

I agree there are hidden fees and surcharges in every transaction we do that are maddening and cost each of us hundreds – maybe thousands – of dollars per year. But you can’t blame that on Democrats. Both parties have been party to the implementation of that infrastructure, probably because they have benefitted from them. To blame one party for that is just plain dishonest and not factual.

And you don’t like guns? That’s a new one to me coming from a Republican! Democrats didn’t invent guns, and neither did Republicans. Guns were around long before those two parties were ever started. Before there were even American colonies. I’m flabbergasted that even a Republican wouldn’t know this.

And you don’t like jails? What do you propose we do with criminals to keep them separated from us? Do you propose we hang all of them? Burn them? Or maybe stoning is your preference? Yes, maybe you’re invoking the Biblical law to stone one’s unruly child. Well, my dear, fortunately, we have evolved beyond that time just as we no longer have slavery in our country in the way it was an integral part of Biblical society.

It’s not even clear how many unruly kids were actually stoned since the law also required both parents or guardians be unanimous in the decision to stone their child, and the child had to be stoned in the presence of the entire community. The stoning could not take place in secret. So we don’t know of many cases where the stoning actually occurred.

You zealots sure have funny ways of showing your love.

Your “duty to Jesus” is used to justify a lot of despicable behavior. Keep your mythology out of my life.

Government is not a good steward for my duty to Jesus to love my neighbor. Coercion and force (taxes, fees, guns or jails) can’t compel, much less express, love.

How fascinating the GOP is the party of Ayn Rand laissez-faire “government-is-not-the-solution-government-is-the-problem” capitalism that has largely brought us the economic mess we’re in today yet claims to be the party of fiscal responsibility.

Republicans also advance a me-first-screw-you/every man(woman)-for-him/herself mentality, yet claim to be model Christians (GOP meaning (G)od’s (O)wn (P)arty).

And let’s remember: over the past 30 years the assets of the wealthiest Americans have surged ahead (thanks to Corporateamerican control of the government under both D and R administrations but mostly R) while the wages of we the middle class have not only stagnated but fallen behind. I suppose I’m supposed to thank “the producers” for my falling standard of living.

And y’all do understand there are warnings against the Far Right too, don’t you?

BTW, Charles, while HPD displays some pretty bad misinformation about Republicans, your sexist chauvinism is showing – I’m a *woman.*

Rather than having a narrow source of information, I read “Texas Freedom Network.”

I don’t know if we can include Richard Nixon on the list either. In some ways, today’s GOP would love him. In other ways, they would hate him. He started the EPA (didn’t he? My memory is foggy). He also wanted universal healthcare which today’s Republicans abhor. Today’s Republicans would much prefer uninsured people and denied-coverage people die rather than be helped by gov’ment insurance. (Unless, of course, they were eligible for Medicare!) I’m sure they give out a cheer for every one of those 45,000 deaths and 700,000 bankruptcies. They’d say the dead people probably deserved to die because they didn’t diet or exercise enough. (Never mind that even the slimmest and fittest can succumb to cancer, heart disease, ALS, and a host of fatal diseases; to get hung up on facts would just be so boring).

B. Nuckols’ party is also the party that would eliminate contraception which prevents unwanted pregnancies.

And what’s this about choice at the end of life? Everytime a patient enters a hospital, they are to set down instructions as to what they want done should a complication arise. This is just plain common sense; only a GOP wingnut would call this a “death panel.” How would they prefer things to be? That the hospital should have to guess? That the hospital staff should be required to put the patient on life support for eternity? And at whose expense? They are, after all, SOOOOO worried about spending.

And if and when I am ever on Medicare, the Republicans don’t think my physician should be paid to discuss end of life issues with me. Apparently, the Republicans don’t want me to have any choice about these things. I am no longer an individual in charge of my own life anymore; I am at the mercy of the gov’ment and whatever the gov’ment wants for me. The GOP would have Gov. Perry force me to be hooked up indefinitely on life support. Since the Republicans are so darned worried about expenditures, how, pray tell, do they expect me to pay for my indefinite care? Where do they think the money for all this fancy state-of-the-art care and equipment is going to come from? If they think I have an endless supply of savings sitting in the bank, I’m afraid they are going to be sadly mistaken. And BY GOD, the money had better not come from taxes!! To raise taxes to keep ole Cytocop breathing would be the end of the world as the GOP knows it. So where does the money come from? These GOP wingnuts are like children: they think money grows on trees.

As for the tea parties, they consist of easily-scared people who fall prey to insurance company propaganda.

As for the DOMA, I really don’t give a crap if two same-sex adults want to marry. What has that got to do with me? How does it interfere with my rights and privileges as a citizen? I have yet to get a satisfactory answer to these questions. There are many issues that keep me awake at night. Many issues. The thought that gay people might be getting married isn’t one of them. Stupid stuff like what if I lose my job? What if I get sick or injured? What if I get sick or injured and UnitedHealth refuses to cover me? You know, stupid stuff like that….