Probably John Galt brought up these things to convince the business leaders to "shrug" and come to the gulch.

That is the way of things isn't it?

Makes me want to hide somewhere and live in a gulch far removed from all this...

remember the sheeple effect. The herd mentality will not change until the bulk of the herd is in danger, and they do not recognize the danger before the teeth are chewing their collective butts. Not there yet, unfortunately....

So what does it take to accomplish that? Galt hastened the collapse for sure Was it the degree of the collapse that made people receptive to his speech? Did the people really understand his message or were they blindly following someone who seemed to be able to lead them to survive.
Venezuela has collapsed in AS fashion,the ideas of individualism are certainly available to them, but the people stick to socialism so far. One wonders how much farther the economy must fall there to open peoples' eyes. Do they have to be actually starving in the streets. Or Does it just take a strong leader reading a speech as in AS to change a culture such as theirs. interesting questions

Seeing failure and misery all around them is not enough to cure ignorance and bad ethics. It didn't in AS either. They had to completely collapse and be replaced.

You do have a point there. Get it over with quickly. The problem that I would raise with that is this process of education on principles goes VERY slowly, and if the government collapsed today as in the TV series JERICHO (on netflix by the way), it would just be re-created in a similar fashion by the same people that keep it in place today. The intellectual revolution doesnt have enough steam to start over the right way.

Secondly, the length of time a socialist regime can stay going is dependent on the amount of wealth there is for it to survive on. The US is still very rich with a lot of wealth to be expropriated yet. It will take awhile for that wealth to be squandered on welfare and other stupid programs.

Check out Venezuela. Socialist to the hilt, and the people are still socialist and support that idiot Maduro in spite of the incredible collapse of the economy. They were rich with oil, but cant even get it out of the ground because of the results of socialism !!
You and I are only going to live for so long. Do you want to spend the rest of your life in a country in a death spiral with more and more government controls on you? I sure dont.

Things will eventually crash for sure no matter who gets into the white house or congress. The die is cast. But it will be easier to live and spread the word while the country is still functioning.

So I say it does matter if we drive slowly towards a cliff or fast. Especially if the driving slowly might give a chance to figure some way to stop the car before it goes over.

What does it matter if we drive slowly towards a cliff or fast? Either way the end is the same.

I want to turn around, or go over fast. The worst case is meandering around and slowing the advance a little.

Don't agree with you at all. Cruz Believes in the Constitution. He is no Hillary Clinton and never agrees with her. Trump is a rally bad choice. He will make deals with anyone and everyone.

Still my favorite. The only one that will take power away from the government, which is why pseudo-conservatives like McConnell don't like him.

All I could expect from Trump is that he stands in the way, at least a little, of the advancing socialist tide. What I could expect from Hillary is even faster advances of socialism- following in Obama's footsteps (which she even admits).

I do think that as the brainwashed young people make up more and more of the electorate that we will become officially a socialist nation and follow the path of Venezuela. Here we have an avowed socialist (Sanders) actually doing pretty well in the election- its scary.
Trump stands in the way of the establishment, which is why they hate him. That doesnt sound like the use of tyrant powers actually. The Congress is the body that is really pushing us towards socialism- they voted for Obamacare after all. Obama just signed it. Hillary would have signed it. Trump would not have.

Actually, Hillary is the one who gets the media time. Trump gets some because he makes outlandish comments that get attention. This is a real media circus that doesnt have a lot to do with reality. Hillary is promising anything to everyone (stealing Sanders' thunder in the process) and Cruz is just laying out the (unfortunately) tired old constitutional arguments appealing to fewer and fewer voters as each day goes on. He will never win against the giveaways of the "first woman president" unfortunately.

Term2,

Lets say trump does everything that you and I would both like to see happen. What does that reinforce for the next guy to do?

A part of why Obama had so much power was becuase Reagan did many of the same things for the right reasons. Now the president has even more power. Lets say Trump is wonderful and does good things. How much more power does the president now have for the next Obama?

If trump exercises the tyrant powers we are worse off no matter what he chooses to do.

I do not want anyone that will further expand the powers of the executive branch, for stuff I believe in or stuff I do not.

I can agree with we do not really know.

The only indicator we have are polls.

IMHO, I think trump has a chance to win Hillary and that scares the crap out of me. Trump is the worst candidate to run in my life time.

The thing I hate most about Obama is that he is a tyrant. If he cannot get what he wants he will do it by executive order. He has an agenda to do what he wants, and seeks to achieve something. I disagree with him, but he has something he works for.

Trump has said he will be a tyrant
"Apple and all of these companies will be making their products in the united states." - Donald Trump earlier this week. Sounds very Thomson to me. Very totalitarian, and not what I want. I want someone that will move in the direction of getting the government out of the way, not promise even more tyranny. I do not want a tyrant, even one I agree with.

Trump is a tyrant any way you slice it. His history says it, his own words say it. It about as nonobjective as could be to support this guy if you believe in the mind and the individual.

I gave you a +1 as its a legitimate argument.

Polls are all over the place.

In Iowa, all the polls had Trump winning from between 4% and 15%. Trump came in 2nd.
The Trump-bots will come and scream that Ted stole that caucus; if Trump had anything concrete, he'd be more than happy to sue for voter fraud, I'm sure.

"Cruz with his return back to constitutional values is just not a message a majority wants to hear now."

The problem is, Cruz hardly gets ANY air time compared to Trump. Its very hard to hear anything Cruz has to say. One must resort to social media to hear / see Cruz's message.

Yes, I've thought about it. Thank you.

Cruz would be crushed by Hillary. I don't think the polls are right. If cruz can't beat trump for the nomination and the same polls say Hillary would beat trump, it's just not logical to think Cruz can beat Hillary

Unfortunately, statism is advancing quickly and isn't going to be reversed anytime soon without massive re-education first. Cruz with his return back to constitutional values is just not a message a majority wants to hear now. In my politically incorrect view, only trumps widespread appeal to the voters who are angry at washington for various reasons has enough support to topple the support of Hillary. I wish it wasn't so pivotal an election, but I think it's the last one before the statists are in complete control of the majority of voters. As time goes on, the younger socialist leaning voters will overcome the older conservative voters ( who are slowly dying off). Think about it

Yes, DT is a crony capitalist from the capitalist side, but not (yet?) from the political side, where the rules / laws are made. I don't blame a capitalist who is able to use all available rules/laws/resources to the fullest. Blame goes to the politicians who are corruptible, or sway-able. I am just hoping that he is telling the truth when he says he wants to make America great again.

"Reprieve from socialism for a few years" ?

How about reversing course and gaining on Conservative values & goals? There's only one candidate that can get us there. His initials T.C. You'll find him listed as one of the remaining nominees vying for the Republican party's blessings this June.

Trump's about as conservative as Mitt Romney was.. maybe less-so, in my opinion. I held my nose to vote Romney last time around, I can probably do it again for Trump, but Trump is far from where Cruz is on the conservative scale. And he, like John Galt, IS getting a good portion of the nomination votes thus far.

I found one; and it wasn't very hard either. His name is Ted Cruz. You'll find his name on the Republican nomination ballots. 👍

Although he is not the only one who loves it, I have found no politician is not in love with the idea of taking our property any time they feel like it, or a special group wants it. Just like taxes...

I was referring to getting rid of the anti-terror and anti_dRug asset seizures.

Eminent domain has been blessed by SCOTUS already unfortunately and won't be gotten rid of at this point.

As far as who would get us farther into the never to be repealed socialist programs- it's Hillary. If trump doesn't win, we get Hillary. If trump isn't the nominee, we get Hillary. If trump wins, we get a little reprieve from increasing socialism for a few years.

None of the candidates are John galt nor could John galt be elected before massive education of the populace was achieved

I would still like to know: what did Cruz ever accomplish in the Senate that makes him so special? What changes did he make?

DT is the poster boy for crony capitalism.

That was Lindsey Graham from SC not McConnell. If you ever watch any youtube clips of Cruz taking on those old gun grabber fossils in the Senate, you'd know why they hate him. People hate being defeated with logic.

"3) Gets rid of asset seizures" -- you know your idol Trump loves Eminent Domain, even for private (non-public) projects. When asked about it, Trump has affirmed that he is a fan of it, several times. I hope you understand the ramifications of Eminent Domain.