The simple fact is that both present-day orthodox liberals and present-day orthodox conservatives are terrified of individual liberty - and of its inevitable concommitant, individual responsibility (but I deny responsibility for spelling of "concommitant).

I need a political party that will defend my right to walk down the street with a gun in one hand and a really terrible pornographic novel in the other (I don't want to do that, I just want to have the option), provided only that I don't shoot anyone, or threaten to, with the gun, or give the novel to a little kid or shove it in the face of someone who doesn't want to read it.

I need a political party that either says "human life is sacred," and therefore opposes both abortion and capital punishment; or says "human life is only sacred sometimes," and therefore considers both acceptable, if a majority wants them.

I need a political party that lets small businesses operate almost totally free of government interference, provided only that they are completely honest in their dealings with customers and others; but considers large corporate businesses to be governments in their own right, for all practical purposes, and is as suspicious of them, and as anxious to restrict their power as much as possible, as it is of any other government.

I need a political party that says every citizen has the same freedoms, the same right to access to government services, and the same responsibilities and the same freedom to fail, without regard to race, sex (not "gender." Words have gender. People have sex. Live with it.)

I need a political party that defends the right to property, while asking, as a serious question that deserves discussion, whether one person can really "own" more real estate than he/she and his/her family needs for a homestead - and if he can, what are the limits on his right to destroy it, in light of the fact that they aren't making any more?

I think adding a few knee-jerk conservatives to the swarm of knee-jerk liberals on this forum will improve the level of interest of the discussion - but it won't produce any better answers until there is really some effort made to meet in the middle.

But maybe it doesn't matter what I need or think, as much as it appears to from my viewpoint....

Peter.