The sad fact of the matter is that we, the American people, have allowed ourselves to become conditioned to have a Pavlovian response. As soon as we hear one of the political machine's code words we start barking "patriotism, national security, terrorist threat, etc., etc." in defense of the candidate or parties to whom we have given our allegiance. The entrenched politicians who govern our country from Washington D.C. do not have the best interests of our Nation at heart and this is a documented and verifiable fact (all one has to do is research voting records). Just ask yourself "If the federal government attempted to pass the NDAA of 2012, FISA, the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act (I will stop here because the list is far too long) en bloc in the mid 50's, what would the WWII and Korean war vets have done?"

To deny the fact that we have enemies is foolish but, to allow ourselves to be led to war by the very people who stand to gain fortunes from the weapon and munitions trade, without even questioning the veracity of the 'intelligence' is to act with careless disregard to our National well-being. The label of 'conspiracy theorist' is thrown about no differently than that of anti-Semite or racist and has been effectively used to discredit legitimate critics of government and whistle blowers of the military-industrial complex reducing their objections and warnings to the nonsense of lunacy.

After researching the past policies and practices of Gingrich, Romney and Bachman I have found nothing that encourages me to believe that a victory for any one of them will bring about any positive changes in domestic or foreign policies that are bent on bankrupting this Nation. When George W. Bush came into office we had a budgetary surplus and he went on a spending spree while drawing the curtains of the Oval Office which led to a general feeling of discontent among the American People. As a direct result of the growing unpopularity of "W" (among moderate Republicans and Independents) the Democrats took control of the Congress in the 2006 elections and subsequently the door was opened for Barack Hussein Obama to slide into the White House.

For those of us that want to play the game of partisan politics all we need to do is look at the cumulative legislation that has been enacted over the last seventy years and the path it has led us down: we have had a government that has been controlled by two political parties, while at times being solely controlled by a single party, and neither one could keep us on solid ground, period.

Dr. Paul's foreign policy has been a concern of mine but, his message is no different than that of our Founding Fathers' and I believe that as adults perhaps we should take a few moments to actually read some of their speeches and documents. Compare those with the rhetoric of the politicians of today and you will be amazed at the glaring differences in tone and nature. These historical speeches, pamphlets, and proclamations will seem to be written by 'radicals and conspiracy theorists' while the dogma of today is soothing with the sanity and safety it professes is only available through the abrogation of our rights and endless government 'protections'. These are the very radicals that gave us the documents of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.

The financial crisis that is looming on the horizon has been allowed to develop due to politicians hoping to make it through their careers in order to pass the buck on to future generations of legislators. Capitol Hill has been told by the American people that enough is enough, most recently in the Congressional elections of 2010 and prior to that with the election of Barack Hussein Obama. As American Citizens we should respect the diversity of opinions, cultures and values that make this Nation great and we all have social programs that we believe serve the greater good but, prosperity cannot be legislated. We have our individual views on the best implementation of foreign policy and the use of our armed forces but, we must also have the presence of mind to understand that if we don't begin to cut spending immediately our ability to get any funding for nonessential programs will be lost as well as deep funding cuts for essential programs due to a crisis that could have been prevented but was instead put off to deal with another day.

Another day is today and our elected officials have got to find the courage to speak honestly about painful decisions and the consequences of the policies of postponement, procrastination and delay.