[Wrencytet]

I see the word "naive" thrown about rather haphazardly. It is troubling, for a number of reasons.

You see, we can not win in Iraq and Afghanistan. Or Iran, for that matter. It is not possible. To think otherwise is naive. We're being humbled by insurgents with nothing but the shirt on their backs and a few primitive weapons, while we spend $20 billion a year on air conditioning. While we have supply lines that stretch thousands and thousands of miles and rely on foreign nations like Russia and Pakistan to allow us access. This is literally bankrupting us, and at the same time shows that our military is not so mighty as we would like to believe.

In the halls of Congress, we continue to grant increasingly dictatorial powers to the Executive branch. Any student of history will know that the Hitlers and the Julius Caesars have often come to power democratically, but were subsequently granted tyrannical power by those very people who were charged with tempering it. It's usually the same story - the only way we can stay safe and prosperous is to give one man the ultimate power to insure it. Defending the Patriot Act and the NDAA is the height of naïveté.

We have a national debt that has surpassed 100% of GDP. And yet we have a Congress that is allowing trillions more in debt to be accrued, while cutting virtually nothing, after running on a platform of balanced budgets and economic sanity. And yet, we have an intransigent Party in control of the House who refuses to make meaningful cuts, and also cannot raise taxes because of naive campaign promises, and some ill-advised oath to Grover Norquist. To think that you can avoid the imminent bankruptcy without cutting, taxing, or a combination thereof, is at least naive. In truth, it is insane.

We have a slate of Presidential candidates who have no plan for dealing with this problem. There is only one economic plan out there that balances the budget. One. 's plan, for instance, would increase the debt by $6.5 trillion through 2021, and doesn't anticipate an actual balanced budget until the middle of the century. That's 40 years from now, folks. The Ryan Plan, the best to come out of Congress, is slightly "better", envisioning a balanced budget by 2040. To think that we can continue to kick this can down the road without severe consequences is very naive.

We have an economy that has failed to create real and lasting employment for well over a decade. Investment in this nation has been centered in financial ponzi schemes, while real capital investment is neglected. Instead, our large corporations engage in capital investment in foreign emerging markets, creating jobs and increased prosperity in those nations overseas. This is trickle-down economics, but it "trickles down" elsewhere. So although we see an increase in GDP, the wealth is being concentrated in fewer and fewer American hands. We have regulatory burdens that need to be rethought, and we have higher taxes than some places, but to believe that cutting taxes and regulations and limiting union power will result in immediate prosperity for the average American is naive as hell. In order to compete with labor in foreign markets that way, we would have to engage in an all-out race to the bottom. I don't think anyone is interested in living in a nation as poverty-riddled as China, India, or even Mexico. This is our market, and we have the right and the responsibility to make it work for all of us.

We have a legal system which has flooded our prisons with non-violent offenders of victimless crimes, while at the same time enriching gangsters both inside and outside our borders. We have turned the southern border and our inner cities into all-out war zones through engaging in this nonsense. And we're not getting anywhere. So now you have a rapist or a sexual predator being released early back into society to make room for some fool who grew the wrong type of plant. To think you are getting anywhere in this war on drugs is just as naive as believing you can defeat the guerrillas in Afghanistan. Cut off one head, and two more grow in it's place, just like the mythical hydra.

We have a monetary system which uses inflation to funnel money from the poor to the rich, through outrageous inflationary measures. Since we divorced ourselves completely from hard money, the earnings and the wealth of the masses have become stagnant at best. We are running out of ways to guard our hard-earned wealth. This is chaos. It is economic suicide. And yet the vast majority of our elected leaders do not wish to rock this boat. To think they are looking out for the best interests of the people in this regard is quite naive.

We have two parties who continue to campaign and be elected based on issues like abortion and gay marriage, etc, while the roof is crashing down upon us. To believe that right now we need to focus on these issues, and push the really big things to the sidelines, is not only naive, it's just plain stupid.

So, you'll have to excuse me, but I take great offense to these claims from half-assed armchair team red Republicans that I am naive. At some point you people will be forced to realize that you've been bamboozled by the same sort of tactics as those on the left. From my perspective, you are simply the flip-side of the same coin. You're arguing over which cliff to fall off. Whichever cliff you choose, to think that the results will be different is quite naive.