In re-reading some more Robert Heinlein, I came across this passage in a post-script to Revolt in 2100. It struck me as brilliant.

"It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics. This is equally true whether the faith is Communism or Holy-Rollerism; indeed it is the bounden duty of the faithful to do so. The custodians of the True Faith cannot logically admit tolerance of heresy to be a virtue."

Indeed, I can see this at work among charismatic Christian evangelicals, who by taking their children out of public schools, hope to avoid the social mores increasingly being legislated into public education, and in the environmentalists, pushing global warming as fact rather than theory. In an age of instant idea exchange, the danger is greater than ever that some sweeping change in the way people see the world can take place without benefit of proof.

No parent has ever had control over what their children think, but, before the liberal wave of the 1960's, in the United States at least, you had more influence than anyone else. Since then, however, the nuclear family, the community church, and the spirit of national identity as mankind's last best hope, have been chipped away, and eroded to the point of confusion, especially among the young. Hell, even the Boy Scouts are considered a subversive organization now.

It strikes me how very much like religion, politics can be. There are certain tenets of faith that must be adhered to, or you are labeled a heretic and shunned, even by your friends.

Politician-speak is full of absolutes. All Republicans are bigoted homophobes that hate poor people and want to kill anyone with brown skin. All Democrats are bleeding-heart liberals that want the government to run everything and hate rich white straight people. Okay maybe that last part is true, but you get my drift.

Look what happened to Joe Liebermann after he stood up against those calling for an immediate pullout from Iraq. He didn't say it was a great idea to go, he simply said we need to stay and finish what we started. His reward was to lose support from the Democrat Party, and most Democrats of note endorsed his opponent in the party primary. The tenet is all wars are bad, and no war is ever worth fighting, especially under a Republican administration.

The Republicans are little better. When was the last time you heard of a Republican suggesting that maybe it would be a good idea if the Widget Corporation shouldn't be allowed to pump raw sewage into that river over there?

Looking back into history, there have always been vehement arguments about what particular direction the country would take next, but there was always some sort of balance. Right now, it seems as if the Republicans want us to just accept more of the same, and the Democrats want to rebuild the Soviet Union, right here on our own shores.

Liberals have succeeded in pulling the moral underpinnings out from our society at large, but what they've replaced these legs with is rotten wood. In a citizenry that has been taught moral relativism since birth, and that people are due respect regardless of how they think and comport themselves, how can the average voter be expected to make a rational decision with their franchise? Current thinking leaves little room for American Exceptionalism.

I still have yet to hear what change Barrack Obama intends to bring. I still have yet to hear how Hillary Clinton or Obama will pay for all their wonderful plans for a New America without bankrupting us or our children. And no-one is paying attention to anything John McCain is saying, so I don't know what that is.

I have a sinking feeling that maybe too many people in the United States are more interested in what a particular candidate is going to do for them personally, or to make them feel good, than in what a candidate is going to do for America and Her ability to remain the last best hope of mankind.