and the party that took away most of our protections and fredoms is.... the GOP.
Very true. Not all conservatives are for small government. The relgious right wants to tell you how to live your life and basically use the power of the state to force you to do what they consider to be the moral thing. They seem to forget that this is what your priest should PERSUADE you to do on Sunday, and forget that the price of living in a free society is tolerating folks who do things you don't approve of. The neo-cons, like Cheney, believe in the national security state, and think that anything can be justified if a threat to public order and safety can be found as reason. (You will doubtless be shocked to learn that those reasons are plenty common on the ground). They operate from fear, and place safety over liberty, and either don't notice or don't care, that in a powerful country like ours, the greatest potential threat to our way of life isn't Al Queda (even if they did have WMDs), its our own federal government if its allowed to operate without checks and balances. No nation in history has ever covered itself in glory when it legislates out of fear. This is what happened post 911. We forgot our values. It is time we revisit torture, the "Patriot" Act and Gitmo, and return to who we are. If you want to vote GOP, fine, they're no different than the Dems as far as I am concerned, just make sure you vote for the right kind of Republican. If you prefer Democrats, than the same thing applies in reverse.
FQ13