Andre's Executive Order

America is struggling with something deeper than budgets and individual issues. Follow me through a few points and tell me if I'm right. Republican Dichotomy The Republican party has always been an odd mix of two broad groups. No matter how you squint, libertarian conservatives and social conservatives don't have a lot in common. The fact that they live under the same basic roof is a testament more to our two party system than it is to a sense of real common purpose behind the groups. Now let me be clear, my use of the word 'libertarian' is not to be confused with the Libertarian party. The group I'm referencing is also called the 'fiscal' conservatives, the people who generally see government as an expensive interference into America's free market capitalism that should be minimized and mostly managed locally. In order to be a social conservative, however, you have to support big government. You are effectively calling for the government to legisl

What is a liberal? Do you know? To Fox News, their employees, and many conservatives, a liberal is someone who doesn't agree with them. I am a member of a few bipartisan political threads on Facebook, for instance, and it doesn't take much for me to be called a socialist or a 'typical' liberal. Strangely enough, it's not usually because I forwarded a liberal idea or solution, but rather because I questioned a conservative stance or talking point and provided evidence that the conservative position was either inaccurate or incomplete. This idea was reinforced when I went to the book store this weekend for my birthday and took a look at the literal swarm of conservative books lining the Barnes & Noble's political book section. Flipping through everything from Ann Coulter's 'Demonic' to Pinheads and Patriots by Bill O'Reilly or Broke by Glenn Beck, what struck me was two separate observations. First, that the books were mostly incoherent. It was

“Both parties suck. Both parties lie, cheat, steal, and just exploit the system. Democrats and Republicans are equally bad and too absorbed in their political careers to do a damn thing for the people of America. I'm neither. I've had enough. To hell with the Republi-Cons and the Demo-Craps. I'm an independent.” Heard this before? I hear it, or something like it, usually from 20 somethings or more increasingly from folks my own age. I can almost taste the coming diatribe provoked when someone slips on that unspoken faux pas concerning political discussions in mixed company and laments or celebrates a new law or policy or the shifting status of a current politician. If they're present, the 'independent' rushes to the forefront to explain the horrid state of our political system. Normally I just roll my eyes and get back to my beer. Sometimes I pick the fight. Sometimes I turn to them and say “Hey, really, that's interesting, what would you do differently?” or