when our current representative finishes draining our meager middle class wealth and passes it along to his wealthy oil buddies and you long with the rest of us are begging for food will you then be satisfied? if we worked together we could guide this country back to the middle. The extremists are ruining are great country. and those who do not know any better are joining the parade. Tell us an original thought. We are tired of doom an gloom predictions. This country is still a great country and we can lift ourselves out of this quagmire if we express positive hope. And work to make it happen. Project positive results and they will manifest themselves.

Exactly. It's a morality cesspool

please point out which part of my statement says anything about Obama. All people like you do is tear this community apart. Big Business is worse than big government. At least we can vote the governemt out. what power do we have over business if we minimize the size of government and grow big business. we might as well change the nameofthis country to the Futil Estates of America....

Not that telling. The leadership endorses a candidate and the members follow.

And due to a backlash among their membership over the PAC's left leaning endorsements across the board, the entire PAC board was canned by the VFW.

this repeated accusation of being an "activist" is meant to erode the meaning of the word. (its a republican talking point). The intent of its use in meant to get people to shy away from becoming involved in community activism, and when that happens we will have given up our individual power to have an influence over our government. Being an activist is a good thing. Citizen involvement is a good thing. Besides, are you implying there are no conservative activist judges? If you acknowledge they also exist, how come you never rail against them?

Conservative Big Government has been taking the political power away from the middle class for the last thirty-two years with the support of conservative politicians and voters. They have diminished the power of union workers to have a say in how the balance of power works in the worker/employer relationship. And they blame is all on Liberals. They have diminished the value of a college degree. And they have diminished the ability of small businesses to grow into larger businesses.Conservatives want to divert the money we put into social security so that the folks on Wall Street can steel that money too. Even if it is not their intention, it will happen.
How about do something morally righteous and raise the social security cap? NO, instead they want to make people work longer at a time when companies want to jettison older workers. This will insure that more people drop dead before collecting their retirement or live in poverty because they cannot get a job. Where is the justice in any of this?
Big business money in elections skews the balance in elections. Conservatives do not want to recognize that balance works best. It seems to me that they do not want a system that works for most of us. They want to feel privileged and degrade the rest of us. The economy works best when we all have money to spread around.

Big Business has changed the mindset of Americans to “Its ‘good’ to be greedy in America.” Big Business’ goal to put everyone in a smaller place does not allow educated smart people to compete with an equal opportunity. It puts them in a position of “taking it or leaving it” when the people with all the money also have all the power. If you want to feed your family you will have to do it their way or else.
Where is the American Dream in all this? Where is the pursuit of happiness? You may disagree with this view but it will become our life when they own all the power. They are distracting you with their right hand while they have their left hand under the table doing something they don't want you to see. You and I will have no way to ask for redress. There will be no one on our side except all the other powerless people.

yes, lets see. i hope conservative voters keep moving into this election with the mindset of inevitability. It might not be as pretty as you think it will be.

Nowhere have am I asking for anything to be given to me. What I have I asked for is a fair opportunity to work for it. And I have expected myself to work for it. I'm glad your business is successful. And I agree with you, to some degree, that regulation stifles some businesses. I too have a small business. It seems that regulations are put in place to retard the growth of small businesses and big businesses benefit. If regulation were used to diminish excessive power of wealthy and increase the opportunity of smaller businesses that would create economic balance.
And no, not everybody has a college degree. Only 25 percent of Americans have a post secondary education.
Our country is broke for many reasons. Firstly, we listen to giant corporate media which encourages us to do things which line their pockets. Its true and you know it. There is a world of difference between a small business and a large business. And I do not define a small business as one with 100 employees. How on earth does a small business with less than 10 employees (many are smaller) compete with a company ten times its size in an equitable way unless we as the government regulates the abuse a larger stronger wealthier company or person has over an individual who does not have this privilege? If we deregulate everything and get rid of the government we will have anarchy and less rule of law than we have now. Try to get out of your ivory tower of privilege and look at it from a systemic point of view.

This is a question that will start an avalanche of rebuttals, by my view of "Liberal" is the person whose moral alignment and politics seeks social justice for everyone and encourage an evolution of new ideas to promote those goals. Fairness without overpowering your fellow citizen or denying another from seeking to follow his or her own path unless it harms another. (this is my personal view). I'll let someone with a positive view of conservatism define that for you. And by the way I am not a socialist, nor do i allow others to define "Liberal" that way.

"I make more money in my business when the middle class has more to spend."

This quote from Brandon exemplifies why I've always believed the Republicans economic philosophy of still sticking with "Trickle-down economics" and protecting the "job creators" (read: the top 1%) is horribly flawed.

Businesses don't create any more jobs then they need. I believed in TD economics back in the 80's. However it's proven out to be a failure (except for those writing the rules). All it's done is create a more severe dichotomy between the "haves" and the "have nots" over the past generation. It’s oppressed the middle class.

I'm not suggesting full-on socialism as the answer. I am suggesting that we implement measures in that direction that will tip the scales back in the direction of the middle class. You don’t need to cut revenue drastically to do this. You need to streamline the tax code (both personal and corporate). I’m fine with a progressive tax scale but all these ridiculous deductions have to go. Raise the tax on capital gains and investments. Believe me, investments will still be made. 15% is ridiculously low.

We don’t have to sacrifice all of the government to do all of this. People just need to accept that TD economics is a failure. It’s as clear as a summer blue sky.

I am promoting the idea that each of us as a human being has inherent value and worth. We should all have access to equal opportunity for an education and to work. I’m not clear what you mean by "promoting the general welfare." If you read that as meaning I promote the idea of a welfare state you are misreading my words. People DO NEED TO WORK until they are in some way unable to do that. And even some who are at a disadvantage to most of us are still capable of working and should do so. But we SHOULD take care of some people. Among them are veterans, disabled people and people who have become homeless though no fault of their own. This is by no means a complete list but it is not a "sign up for government assistance if you don’t want to work" program either. I am not supporting that idea. I am trying to tell you that people who want to work and are educated have been tremendously impacted by the idea of too big to fail, which in turn means take it from the little guy so we can survive. But when that Idea is reversed to bring balance back to the middle class Conservatives generally scream "SOCIALIST". Is there a term for when the wealth moves from 99 percent of the population toward the 1 percent? Is it called Feudalism???

Actually the new lines would be more favorable to Kratovil as it removes more of the annapolis based vote Harris relies on. Remember Eastern shore folks vote for others from the shore before party. Harris is toast in the primaries of an Eastern Shore republican steps up.

Trickle down economics has brought this country to the ruinous state its in today.

You have no idea what the Founders would say today. You can only put words into the mouths of people from 225 years ago. Yeah, that's reliable...

so more than half the state voted for O'Malley...thats why he won...

It's true Brandon, but in this case Otto's got a fair point. Erhlich won way more counties. I think the ratio was about 3 to 1.

On some level, that's pretty silly. However it's why Democrats have owned this state for decades.

in a one person has one vote world, the number of votes count more than the number of counties they live. It doesn't seem silly to me at all.

I'd be curious to see if the governor election would have been via electoral college instead, would O'Malley still win?

Bush spent more then 4 trillion in 8 years. That's not even counting the money Obama was FORCED to spend to continue Bush's horrific policies.

I'm not suggesting Preisdent Obama has done loads to help the economy. However, he started 5 and a half feet deep.

"too big to fail" means they have the political power to suck the resources to survive from the rest of us regargless of whether you are republican middle class or democratic middle class.This is exactly the power that needs to be reduced in order to create balance.

I realize that however the MD-1 is not very Harris friendly anymore. I suspect that is why they carved out Cockeysville and left itin the MD-1. If the GOP is smart they purge him and back another horse. Alas they wont!

Otto: First of all, we'll agree Carter was a terrible president. He was in way over his head. I'm going by historical information on this though, as Carter's term really pre-dates me (effectively speaking).
Ronald Reagan would (imho) be considered a blue dog Democrat by 2011 standards. This is mostly why I'm no longer partisan. The kooks in charge of the party have driven me out.

"Our" Republican led Congress has demonstrated over the past couple years they are no leaders either. They are inhibitors. It's no accident their approval rating has been under 20% for months and months now.

Additionally, Republican leadership is no better then President Obama at being a "leader". Look at John Boehner. History will look back at him as one of the more ineffective Speakers in the nation's history. Everytime he tries to do something even remotely moderate, he gets punched in the proverbial mouth by the Tea Party faction.

My man Marty, hats off to you and to your promoter Otto! You are George Washington, Warren Harding, Booker T. Washington and Vince Lombardi wrapped up in one brilliant policy-making package. You need to run for office. You could clean it up America.

You're sounding a bit expansive, but what's wrong with a little mania? Tell me, buddy. Woo hoo! Happy New Year!

Hahaha 1ke! who would vote for me? clearly not you. You're too diligently working on your sarcasm... I would love to discuss policy moves, but I am afraid i don't know that much. Feel free to enlighten me.