Jack, are you telling me that you know better what I am thinking inside my own mind and you know better what I mean than I do? ;-)

I would make no such claims in regard to you.

I will attempt to clarify what I said (in that quote) further if you really want to know what I mean, but I don't think you do. I think you just want to score some points on me. So why should I bother?

Why do people here care so damn much about what other people here think about some political matter anyway? Why???? Because you want to "win", that's why. You want to be "right" and you want the other guy to be "wrong". Well, it's a vain pursuit. There is nothing to win here. And it doesn't matter anyway. It's just a bunch of people idly talking in order to strengthen their sense of their own identity, and it doesn't mean squat, frankly. I just talk here because I enjoy it. Period. I do say what I mean as best I can, but I don't expect others to agree with it, and I don't care particularly if they don't agree with it. So what? How could it matter?

I am under no illusions that anything I say will convert anyone else here, persuade them of anything, or make a damn bit of difference to the political situation either. I wish the rest of you had the humility to realize the same thing about yourselves and not keep hectoring people you disagree with endlessly....just because they don't see it your way. It won't change them. It won't change you. It's just a bunch of hot air, it's ephemeral competitive bla-bla, and the only excuse for indulging in it is...it satisfies some momentary need you have to express yourself. And that's perfectly okay. We all have the need to express ourselves.

Don - I am not suggesting that you be defeatist. If you believe in the existing political order and want to work within it, that's fine with me. I don't believe in it. I think it's a sad joke, and I expect little or nothing to come from it (except more of the same). I have powerful hopes and dreams in life, Don, but they have almost nothing at all to do with the political systems we live under. They lie in other areas of life entirely. I talk about politics merely because I find it interesting, not because I have any faith in it. (And I am not talking exclusively about the American political system...I feel much the same way about politics in Canada or for that matter, in the UK.)