On "Liberty"

Our Founding Fathers rode on horseback. They wrote with a quill. You could pay a doctor with a chicken, if he didn't kill you first. Rifled muzzle loaders were high tech.

They could not have even envisioned the world of today in their wildest dreams. That is why the Constituti­on has had to be amended twenty-sev­en times! A strong and competent national government is the only entity able to address the issues we need to deal with both locally and globally. Emphasis on the word "competent." Not a government bought and paid for by the one percent, but a government that truly represents and works for the people.

I have recently been hearing Republicans spewing the total nonsense that the reason the Democrats push for more social welfare programs is to further take away our "liberties." Huh? Say whut? Yep, it seems the the whole plot is to make us all dependent on the government for everything so we'll have no choice but to vote Democrat!

Does that not seem insane? If it doesn't, you're likely a Republican and a habitual viewer of Faux News. In which case, what the devil are you doing here?

"Liberty" is a great bumper sticker, but it is meaningles­s if you don't have decent healthcare­, a process for making sure that our foods and drugs are safe, and that the environmen­t will still be livable for our children's children.

Romney and his cohorts have worked hard all their lives to degrade all of the above. What good will your precious liberty do you when the only jobs available all pay starvation wages?