Random musings from the road.....

[Cail]

As I mentioned, I just returned from a motorcycle trip that took me from Maryland, through Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, and back to Maryland. I made a few quasi-political notes.

- I possess two nonresident CCW permits (Utah and Florida). I carried a pistol concealed the entire trip.....Other than in my home state in which it's verboten. It was never an issue. People in big and small towns certainly noticed the bulge at my hip, and no one gave it a second thought.

- Maryland has the highest taxes of any of the listed states, and has a much greater per-capita wealth than all of them. Our roads are by far the worst.

- Many people like to sneer derisively at the "racist Antebellum South". Didn't see it. I see far more of it at home than I've ever seen in the south. The group I ride with is incredibly diverse, and we never had an issue anywhere.....Not in the big cities, not in the middle of nowhere.

- In talking to the people I ride with and met along the road, one thing seems perfectly clear. Most people don't give a damn about Democrats or Republicans. They just want to live their lives and take care of their families without anyone telling them how to do it.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

- I possess two nonresident CCW permits (Utah and Florida). I carried a pistol concealed the entire trip.....Other than in my home state in which it's verboten. It was never an issue. People in big and small towns certainly noticed the bulge at my hip, and no one gave it a second thought.

This is because the vast majority of people who see someone quietly carrying a sidearm either don't care or presume that you are either off-duty police or military. "A person carrying a gun" is a problem only to mayors and city councils in large crime-ridden cities like Chicago (where all the criminals are armed, anyway) or weak-minded people who have fallen for the anti-gun rhetoric they hear on the news so often. Fools like the Chipotle Boys only exacerbate the problem.

- Maryland has the highest taxes of any of the listed states, and has a much greater per-capita wealth than all of them. Our roads are by far the worst.

This really makes you wonder where all the money goes, yes?

- Many people like to sneer derisively at the "racist Antebellum South". Didn't see it. I see far more of it at home than I've ever seen in the south. The group I ride with is incredibly diverse, and we never had an issue anywhere.....Not in the big cities, not in the middle of nowhere.

The South the many people think of when they hear "the South" hasn't existed for decades. In fact, my parent's generation was probably the last one to really hang on to that sort of attitude into their adult lives because as a young child I went to school with a variety of kids--when you grow up with kids having a different skin color you see it as normal and this is the key factor which ends racist beliefs. This is why I maintain that people who cry "racism" these days are either looking for it so thoroughly that they find it even where it doesn't exist or are bringing the problem with them wherever they go.

- In talking to the people I ride with and met along the road, one thing seems perfectly clear. Most people don't give a damn about Democrats or Republicans. They just want to live their lives and take care of their families without anyone telling them how to do it.

Most citizens of the United States are actually Libertarian in their thinking even if they don't consider themselves one or haven't joined that party. Most "real" Libertarians wouldn't join a party, anyway, because that may, under certain circumstances, limit your freedom of choice and real Libertarians don't want their freedom of choice inhibited even by a group which has personal freedom as its core tenet.

We always see the leftmost and rightmost 15% on the news and the 70% of us who don't fall into those two groups sometimes get tired of it. We also forget that we are the majority because we never see "us" in the news.

[Cail]

We always see the leftmost and rightmost 15% on the news and the 70% of us who don't fall into those two groups sometimes get tired of it. We also forget that we are the majority because we never see "us" in the news.

QFT.

Living so close to DC it's easy to lose sight of that simple fact.

[sgt.null]

Cail, if you are ever in Houston we can show you around d.

[Zarathustra]

Damn, wish I'd known you were coming through KY. We could have smoked up a hell of a meal for you.

Following up on Hashi's point, I do think that conceptually most people will admit to Libertarian positions, even if they don't think of themselves as aligning with Libertarian Party officially. The reason for the former point is because that's how our counrtry was founded; Libertarianism is merely following the Constitution. Libertarian principles are the basis of America.

But regarding the latter point ... people on either side of the partisan spectrum stray from those founding principles in favor of some social or fiscal agenda that was never in the Constitution. I think many Republicans, especially the "religious right," wouldn't mind one bit if Christianity were the official religion of the U.S., despite how this would violate the 1st amendment. And I think that many Democrats only care about the Constitution when a Republican is president, in order to use it as a tool to attack/defeat them, and then toss those principles aside when there is no longer any political use for them.

[Ananda]

This is just my opinion, so please don't take it as an offence.

On the topic of american political division, to an outsider, it looks like you have a problem (in addition to that your government seems bought and that you need money out of your politics) is that you just have two main parties. It seems there is a problem with a 'republican' trying to get votes from people who are maybe fiscally conservative but socially liberal while at the same time trying to get votes from christian extremists, tea party types and so. Equally, a 'democrat' has to get vote from the moderately liberal, but partially conservative types and the code pink, leftist extremists, and so. Don't even mention all the people who feel somewhere in the middle of that.

How can one single party try to appeal to such a broad spectrum and still show any true ideals? Look at the news about Hillary Clinton saying her favourite book is the bible... That is just obvious pandering, but in a system where you have to be so many things to so many people (not to mention the corporate 24 hours news where they just drive agendas on either side), how can a politician actually say what they think and get elected? Imagine if Hillary Clinton said her favourite book is Shades of Grey of The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant? And, how can some republican candidate say something centrist or even liberal on some issue without the extreme sides of her party attacking her? Can she say her favourite book is anything remotely interesting? Probably not. And, this is just for a favourite book.

If you had more parties like in a government that is made of a coalition like in sweden, the uk, and so, then you could have politicians saying something closer to what they actually think on positions, probably. Your people could elect many smaller parties and then the people elected have to make a majority from creating compromise and agreements.

How is it that the us just has two main parties? That is certainly not by design, is it?

So, I am not surprised that, as Cail said he observed; most people aren't engaged.

[Avatar]

Welcome back Cail.

- Many people like to sneer derisively at the "racist Antebellum South". Didn't see it. I see far more of it at home than I've ever seen in the south. The group I ride with is incredibly diverse, and we never had an issue anywhere.....Not in the big cities, not in the middle of nowhere.

If you're riding in a group (a big group?) your chances of encountering it where it does exist are probably reduced. Especially if there are a few bulges on people's hips.

(That said, it's never as bad as extremists on either side of the spectrum claim.)

--A

[Hashi Lebwohl]

How is it that the us just has two main parties? That is certainly not by design, is it?

The parties which eventually became Democrat and Republican were originally only the most popular two; this popularity attracted the most followers and the others died from lack of interest. Strangely, that which we call "Democrat" and "Republican" today are not what we would find if we went 50 years into the past and examined average Democrats and Republicans--the positions have almost flipped since then.

No, it isn't by design. Rather, we accidentally fell into this rut and we cannot seem to get out of it. It isn't like the two parties are different: despite his 2007-2008 campaign of "Hope and Change", Mr. Obama has continued--sometimes expanded--well over 85% of all programs begun under his predecessor, Mr. Bush. "Hope" could never be delivered in any event but what the heck happened to "Change"?

[Cail]

Thanks Dennis and Zar. I try not to go to Houston (because, Houston), and I was mostly just passing through Kentucky.

[SerScot]

Sounds like it was a hell of a trip.