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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Dave Sill<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [ExI] dolchstosslegende, was: RE: cost of SBSP and thorium<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 5:29 PM, Charlie Stross <<a href="mailto:charlie.stross@gmail.com" target="_blank">charlie.stross@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><div id=":ya"><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>>…</span>That's a naive, unidimensional analysis ("small government" = "right", "big government" = "left").<o:p></o:p></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>That's not what Spike said, which is:<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>>>…</span>"...the American right wing (conservatives) are very generally aligning with the libertarians such as the Tea Party, generally favoring smaller government, with the emphasis on cutting government spending. The left wing or (liberals) are proposing more government involvement in the citizens' lives, or generally favoring more and bigger government, with continued spending at current levels supported<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>by higher taxes."<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>And that's simply an observation, not an analysis.<span style='color:#1F497D'> </span>-Dave<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Ja, and a generality for sure. The right has tepidly embraced the Tea Party, whereas the left has eschewed and insulted us. The Tea Party sees both the mainstream parties as far too spendy statist big-government-ish, and doesn’t want to be embraced by either, but the right seems at least a little closer to our position, a very little. The two major parties differentiate themselves on issues that now seem to be completely irrelevant. On the issues that really matter, the two major parties became nearly indistinguishable.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>This is interesting in many ways. For about the past 30 years, we have seen what looks to me like a convergence of the two American mainstream parties since the mid-90s. This year, for the first time since I have been a voter (a tragically long time, alas) I can really tell the difference. One party wants to just drive off the debt cliff with little significant change. The other wants to drive off the debt cliff with the accelerator pedal to the floor.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>