>At the risk of starting a flame or political war here...

What could possibly make you think that? < g >

>The ultimate success of the USA, IMHO comes straight from the Declaration of Independence --
>
>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Beautiful words indeed, but even nicer when they are followed. This country went for a long time ignoring these words, at least if you were a slave. Even Jefferson himself owned slaves. And as far as the consent of the governed goes, well, don't try and express your opinion by voting if you were black and living in the South before the 60s.

>The key is Life, Liberty and the PURSUIT of hapiness. Nowhere do we guarantee happiness, but unfortunately our Congress and others try to legislate via Congress, the legislatures or the courts to move us incrementally toward socialism to try to guarantee that which can never be.

My view of Congress is that they try to create a level playing field. While their attempts are not perfect, I like it a lot better than doing nothing. If you are a white male in this country, life is pretty good. If you are not, well, it can still be pretty good, but look at all the hurdles you had to overcome. Is there anything wrong with overcoming hurdles? No, its part of life. Anything wrong with hurdles deliberately put in place by some in the majority based on the color of your skin? Yes, as those hurdles try and deny them their pursuit of hapiness.

>Additionally, our fundamental right to keep and acquire personal property is also paramount. Countries that are based on capitalistic principles fare much better than those based on communism or socialism. I believe we have a sufficient number of examples of this where I do not have to defend that statement -- collapse of USSR, fall of Berlin wall [re-uniting of Germany], Cuba vs places like Taiwan, USA, Japan [post-WWII] etc.

I agree, but I would like to see out country do a better job of taking care of our less fortunate. And by this I don't mean the welfare queen having 24 kids at the expense of taxpayers. I mean the physically handicapped or mentally ill who cannot work. And as far as the welfare queen goes, who suffers when she is cut off welfare? She does for sure, which doesn't bother me any, but mostly it is her children.

>Oh how much better this country would be if we reverted to the more Libertarian principles and gravitate back to the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness rights instead of our current trend toward higher taxation and socialism all via liberal incrementalism.

I am not really clear on what Libertarian principles are. And as far as the current trend toward higher taxation, I don't recall seeing a higher tax rate since the George W. "Read My Lips" Bush Sr. tax hike. < g >

>There is no better motivator than the fear of failure and the exhilaration of success through risk taking. This is my biggest problem with US tax code and other economic throttling regulations. We penalize success with higher marginal tax rates and reward failure and laziness and irresponsibility with corrupted welfare, social security and Federal health care systems. At least now our welfare system has been reformed as is functioning much better.

Praise the all-mighty dollar.