Free marketeers the scariest of all

Contrary to what some folks may think here, I don't hate Republicans.

Living here in California, I have voted for the GOP candidate for Congress four times, for governor twice (two different guys) and senator once (against Barbara BoxerBarbara Boxer in 1998).

If I knew where the middle of the road was anymore, I would probably consider myself a moderate. But ever since the Reaganauts took control of the national party in 1980, I've had a hard time supporting an ideology that gives to the rich first and then hopes some of their leftovers will trickle down to the rest of us.

I took strong exception with the strategy devised in the '80s by Newt GingrichNewt Gingrich of using words like "sick," "demented" and "traitor" to describe opponents, and long before Barack ObamaBarack Obama or Dubya ever took office, Rush LimbaughRush Limbaugh was referring to Bill ClintonBill Clinton's inauguration as "day one of America held hostage."

Sure, both parties do it now, and it wasn't all on the Republican side even back then. What annoys me most about Democrats is they never seem to learn from their mistakes. I tend to agree with Ann CoulterAnn Coulter -- there's a shock -- when she calls liberals wimps.

You see, liberals look for compromises and workable solutions.

Conservatives look to ram their point of view through, whatever it takes.

Fact is, I'm pretty well fed up with both parties. I know some people on this site like to say there hasn't been a dime's worth of difference between the two parties since, well, ever, and that America has been lost since the Federal Reserve System was implemented.

I think that's overly pessimistic.

I'll tell you when I think it all fell apart, and that's when Reagan started deregulating everything in sight and Republicans became almost fetishistic about the free market.

You wnat to know about the free market. Read Thomas Frank's amazing book, "One Market Under God." It is without any question the most frightening non-fiction book I have ever read. He subtitles it "the end of economic democracy," and he is right.

His thesis is that the free marketeers believe that the fairest system is not one man one vote, but one dollar, one vote. We get what we vote for when we spend our money on it.

If I hate anything, it isn't Republicans. It's that.