American Fanatics

The 'conservatives' are starting to seriously scare me.

"Tea Party" people want to severely restrict the size of government, and to pay less taxes, perhaps none at all. Not willing to give up the functions of government that help them, though, even when they don't realize it IS the government doing it. ("Keep government's hands off my Medicare!") I suppose 'Have police when I need them, but don't expect me to pay for their salaries or equipment", is coming. Second Amendment freaks believe they should bring loaded weapons to political rallies, well known for being bastions of reason and cool intellect. I wonder when we're going to realize the insanity of allowing that to occur. Perhaps when the first one shoots a cop? Assassinates a candidate? Throws a firebomb through the window of a political party it doesn't like? Holds a rally where armed fanatics stampede through ethnic areas? And then there's Sarah Palin, and the type of people she attracks.

How far do we let these crackpots go?

I'm beginning to get the feeling that I'm losing my country to the intolerant fanatics, and it worries me. I think it's time, and more than time, to find ways to rein these hotheads in, to quit being so willing to let them have their way in all things. And hope that one of them -- it only takes one -- doesn't shoot me in the process. I'm not quite to the point of wanting to be armed, myself, but as I watch these people, the concept of being a liberal who's opposed to people wanting unrestrained liberties is slowly coming to seem less strange.

(On this general topic, this makes interesting reading.)