Thanks for your kindness. I’m glad it looks like I haven’t gone completely crazy just yet and that there are some people out there who share at least some similar views I do. Between yourself, MM, our great host Lex of course and many others who post regularly I’m very happy I stumbled upon this corner of the blogosphere.

I agree with you as well on federalism and the importance of participating in state and local elections. Wanting to read the federalist papers and de Tocqueville here as soon as I can to learn more about the historical reasoning behind federalism. I remember a good Mark Steyn post on the subject that I’ll butcher in trying to relate. Basically it was along the lines of a recent natural disaster in his neighborhood of rural new england had dropped a couple of small bridges (literally dirt covered causeways) in two different states that each connected a small grouping of a dozen or so houses to a nearby major road, vice having to use back roads to get to town. Since each bridge only served a very small number of farmers and retirees there was no way the people who most used the bridges could afford their re-construction entirely on their own, i.e. contract it out themselves, so they each went to their towns for help. In one of the affected towns they did a survey, got a design and an estimate and then decided they didn’t want to pay for it either so they referred it to the state for aid in paying for the bridge. Well, the state did it’s own survey, it’s own design, got it’s own (much higher) estimate and then decided they didn’t want to pay for it so they referred it to the federal government, who repeated the whole process. The other town just issued bonds to pay for the bridge themselves. In the end the first town’s bridge got re-built much, much later at a much higher cost than the town that paid for it by itself. Possibly an apocryphal story, but it seems plausible. The federal government needs to concern itself with the things that affect the entire nation, mainly defense and national courts, interstate commerce, etc. Leave the rest to the locals who know what’s going on and how best to fix it. It doesn’t take a team of bureacrats in Augusta, Montpellier and Washington D.C. to build a dirt bridge over a tiny creek.

Over the past eight or ten years I’ve become even more convinced of the importance of State and Local elections (non-Federal). Gerrymandering has become outrageous and made certain districts darn near bullet-proof for the incumbent- not good for the country.

Wish that even more intelligent (i.e. they agree w/me) people participated in the discussions.

Mona Charen of the National Review has a good article up on portents for 2010: http://bit.ly/3ob00z

V/R

“Most of the best minds in our country are in effect self educated.”

“The best schools and colleges teach you *how* to think”

And so on and so forth in her post. Me barely have original thought from time to time, mostly repeat what other people say.

I do believe that the States are far more responsive to its citizens than the Federal Government is though.

Not sure what the historical trend/connection is between elections of Governors and Federal Reps.

Regards,