Reply #124: "Incentivise" is another word for "negotiate"

[Cary]

I also look at compromise a little differently than you do. You're somehow splitting the individual polices--each cake so to speak.

Indeed that does happen but there is another way to compromise. For example, you can have 3/4 of this cake in exchange for allowing me to have 3/4 of the next cake.

Movement conservatives do have a different perspective. Some of them are true believers and earnestly believe that they're proposing the most beneficial policies. They are as convinced that they are correct as I am convinced that they are wrong. God Herself could appear before them and tell them that they are wrong and they would still be unmoved.

As you say, there are too many Bobs. Killing them is certainly not a viable alternative and I certainly wasn't suggesting that it was.

A conservative idea that I do espouse is Burke's disapproval of the recklessness of the French Revolution, a small re-enactment of which I did experience here after the 2004 election when I and others were repeatedly accused of being lurking Freepers. Yikes!

Bob is our neighbor and, for better or for worse, our partner.

I don't think Bob is the real problem. I think we outnumber the Bobs. Unfortunately we grew soft in many ways because our great success bred complacency. The rightists somehow became activists and radicals. It is WE, THE PEOPLE who have to do the heavy lifting here. WE, THE PEOPLE did get Bob to back off on Social Security. WE, THE PEOPLE have to build on that somehow and put Bob's agenda in check.

To me any of the Democrats will do. We don't need complete success. Ending the war is obviously huge, in and of itself. We also desperately need better representation of the middle class.

There's a lot of frustration behind this post and it's not adequately being expressed.