Interesting graph, as is the underlying data. It looks like a completely libertarian state would be most free, but also most polluted. States that support abortion, gay marriage, and gun ownership, and squash workers rights and state health coverage in favor of freedom for exploiting workers, probably max out the scale here.

umm... the patriot act and the department of fatherland security were creations of the right wing, and as such are responsible for the revocation of more civil liberties then any mass of left wing silliness i am aware of,

Wire taps? loss of the right to trial? profiling and security screening at the government whim? but at least i can carry a gun......

Ahh... but try carrying a gun into Massachusetts.

This chart is about STATE LEVEL liberties, not national.

If you want to talk about national level and how the Patriot Act is being abused by the present administration, then read this.

im not arguing that the left is abusing it too, as a centrist i feel that BOTH sides are basically self serving and only want to subjugate us, not make us free and protect us, but to call a spade a spade, the most overwhelming increase in government and decrease in our rights and freedoms as americans comes at the hands of those who stand on a platform of "smaller government, and more freedoms for all" kinda paradoxical if you look at it without the red colored filters over your eyes,

I am a registered Republican only so that I can vote in the primaries.

I am a Conservative. George H. W. Bush was not, and is not, a Conservative. Nor are many of the Republicans currently in office Conservatives. Republican used to be a platform for conservatism, now it, too, has become one of political self-interest and power grabs. This is why they lost so big.
If any of them were Conservatives, then the prescription drug coverage debacle would never have happened.

TARP would never have happened.

Two examples of MANY...

However, the Democrat platform has ALWAYS been one of tendency toward increased Socialism and more government control. More government control and dependency means less personal liberty. Period.


Edited at 2009-05-15 10:40 pm (UTC)

i agree with most points, you make a great point, the republican party has been grabbed by the right wing fanatics who are allowed by the center of the party to speak for them, which means that they have become a party of people who either speak from a platform of hate and intolerance toward any viewpoint other then the party line, as well as a party of the led, not leaders.

Now to save text i just say this, the democratic party can be used in substitution here and the same argument be made.

However... when used wisely and responsibly with the best interest of the governed in mind (key point there) i dont feel that social programs are bad or remove freedoms, in fact, they tend to equal the field to make everyone, not one group ( whites in the civil rights days, or the super rich corporate pricks in todays model) just as responsible for the direction of the nation. the problem is that the people have become so polarized that you cant take the best aspects of both sides and find a compromise anymore, its either demo version or repub version, and that is a failure we can no longer tolerate.
as far as tarp, good ideas implemented in a hurry, and executed poorly, not by the right, or left, but both, they both need too take responsibility, and the problem is they dont, they heap blame on the other side and scream that they and only they had it right. hate to say it but i see alot of that in your argument, no owning of the rights responsibility in any of the bad, even though there were as many signatures from that party as the demos. and if it was so bad then why didnt the president veto the bill? hell, he rushed it out as fast as he could to save some approval rating.

as to the last point, the largest per capita increases in government, from the top down, came under reagan, bush, nixon, and eisenhower. the biggest decline under carter, clinton, and teddy roosevelt (god bless that man) i dont count FDR due to the extraordinary demands of his terms in office... hard to fight a depression and a world war without expanding government... im not arguing your platform as to the nature of what the parties are after... just the facts of how it all came down in the end... look it up.. true story
(top down means increases in government spending in all categories, from defense, to social programs, to courts and infrastructure)

hows this for a theory, take ALL of the bullshit spending by BOTH parties, pork, welfare, "entitlements" and what not, and use it to 1, over fund education, and i do mean overfund thats the only really important thing other then defense and law enforcement/public safety. 2, bail out social security. 3, use the other hundreds of billions to balance the budget