Theoretically, Republicans have a strong belief in personal responsibility, limited government, and corporate entrepreneurship.

On the face of it, you'd think most people would want to be Republicans. But this idealogy is at odds with itself because it fails to take into account some fundamental flaws in human nature.

Personal Responsibility is great. No problem there. However what do you do when an individual or Corporate Entity refuses to accept Personal Responsibility?

Well with the Limited Government piece of this puzzle - not much. If a corporation chooses to belch out tons of pollution into the atmosphere, harming the very people they're are trying to sell to, there would be no EPA to step in and tell them to stop (not that it is exactly a fearful entity right now but don't get me started on that).

So? Wouldn't market forces (i.e. the public) say 'enough is enough' and stop buying from this toxic company, thereby shutting it down and stopping the pollution?

Well no, because again, the limited government makes it easier for them to hide who they really are, and besides a decent ad campaign can spin pretty much anything the way you want it if you don't have to worry about Truth in Advertising.

The Republican idealogy is great in theory, but run by humans in practice, and humans easily become corrupt, and in the process corrupt the Republican ideology.

The Democratic ideology supports workers, labor unions, and religious and ethnic minorities. It supports the idea of progressive income taxes (Tieing Personal Responsibility to Social Responsibility.), which (theoretically) is used to support a larger government designed to ensure the least of the nation's citizens are provided with basic essentials.

This again sounds good in theory, but in practice it is also prone to difficulties, again because of the nature of people.

Although it is true that many people fall on hard times through no fault of their own, it is also true that half the population has an IQ below 100 which puts them squarely in the 'Dumber than a sack of hammers' category and they consequently are not able to cope with the bureaucratic hoops that they would need to jump through to get the support their government entitles them to. And why is there so much red tape?

Because a sizeable portion of society is unmotivated or just plain lazy and would rather spend their lives sucking at the government teat and bitching about their lives than doing any real work to fix it.

And that is the real nub of the matter. People are a problem. If you try and introduce a system of support for the needy, then the Just Plain Lazy will find every crack like water on pavement.

And if you opt for the Republican approach instead, then Personal Responsibility starts getting a bit 'subjective' and blurry as you become prosperous at the expense of other people and the idea of Social Responsibility is something you can lobby your way out of if you throw enough money at the problem.

So what is the solution? I tend to like some of the current thinking in this subject, which is come the mid tersm, throw out everyone and elect the new guy.

Then maybe push for election reform in the small window of time before they become corrupt too.

16 days to go...