God bless you for writing this column.

I wish conservatives would make this column page one in the playbook The 5th point should be 1st.

Progressives will talk moderately during elections and act progressively if elected. Obama is the perfect example. For example, he actually said Bush ran up too big a deficit when he was running for office. However, one thing they do consistently is demonize the opposition. Perry is an idiot and a huckster. Michele Bachmann is extreme. And so on. But rather than run the Progressive playbook, which you can read for yourself in Rules for Radicals, we need to articulate why conservative principles work. We need to do so in the morning and continue till the end of the day.

Anyone who looks into the drivel taught in most college classrooms isn't going to spend a lot of time worrying about Rick Perry's college credentials. The biggest fools in America work as professors at the most elite universities. I offer President Obama as Exhibit A.

Lon, with regard to Napoleon, his armies conquered North Africa as an after-thought. Now, two hundred years later, the Europeans can't defeat a basket-case country like Libya? Europe produced Beethoven, Michel Angelo, Shakespeare, soaring Gothic churches, the printing press, the industrial age, global navigation, and a million other contributions to civilization. Now, kids riot in Europe if anyone suggests that they actually have to be a grownup. Don't worry. In a generation, Europeans will be scrubbing the floors of their Asian overloads.

You don't have to go to Europe to see the looming problems of socialism. Just look at California. Despite having the heart of the technology industry there, the state is going broke. California also has the richest, most productive farmland in the world. The glittering entertainment industry. Great ports in the Bay Area, LA, and San Diego to the booming pacific rim trade. Premier tourist destinations like Yosemite, Big Sur, Disneyland, San Francisco, San Diego, Carmel, Lake Tahoe, the Redwood forests, and the wine country. The state is overrun with illegals. Crony public union employees are retiring at 50 with six figure annual benefit payments. The schools are a mess. Everyone is upside down in their mortgage payments. And...

Royal Palm - You might want to read at least one book on mainstream economics before you condemn free trade. It hasn't exactly hurt Honk Kong, which has almost no resources but thrives on free trade. Free trade has done far more to help the poor than all the government programs combined. That's because poor people can buy critical things like food and clothing at places like walmart and save a ton of money.

Federal welfare spending creates immoral behavior. As federal social spending has increased so have divorce, drug abuse, gang violence, pornography, and just about any other vice you can think of. Is that increase in the destruction of the moral fabric of society just a co-incidence? Or has government damaged the very idea of personal responsibility, commitment to family, and belief in God?

Gee, Sammy. That's funny. The chinese wear Western suits. They model their economic system after that of the West. Their military sure looks very similar to the ones modeled in the West. And all those manufacturing plants? Oh, yeah, those are from the West, too. Do you want to know how many Chinese dream of living in America? A lot more than there are Americans dreaming of immigrating to China. And here's something to ponder. If America cut its federal spending and its taxes, our economy would grow faster than that of the Chinese. I do realize that Lefties like you are trying your hardest too ruin America with spending, taxation and moral emptiness, and perhaps you will succeed, but that downfall is not inevitable unless we...

Actually, one reading of Guns, Germs and Steel discredits the reader who references such silliness. The reason Western Civilization dominated the world is that it was better. We had better armies, better ships, better farming techniques, better music, better morality and values, better laws, better banking, better medicine, and better everything else. It's only somewhat recently that our universities have drifted back into a dark age and churned out nitwits like you. The good news is that you have an opportunity to enjoy an awakening by studying your betters here at Townhall. Here's one example. Cortez brought down the mighty Aztec Empire with about 140 men.