Dan responds to an e-mail...

Hello Dan,

I rooted for you and your kids on Extreme Makeover and it warmed my heart to see such acts of kindness going to a decent individual such as yourself. I had a Marine mentor growing up and I was raised with those ideals of self-sufficiency, commitment, tenacity and brotherhood. As such, I would advise you to not be fooled by empty phrases like: "free markets" and "socialism" and "limits to freedom."

This has already occurred, but not by the government. These limits are imposed by corporations that keep people in poverty, that through monopolistic behavior limit free enterprise and that enjoy socialism through bailouts, tax breaks, tax incentives and the general subsidy of the American worker. I think you're misinformed if you think consumers have choice now.

Walk through Wal-mart and look at the meager choice millions of Americans now are limited to because there are no more independent grocers in their town, or florists, or optometrists or barbers or pharmacies. Is this what you call "abundance?" This is limited product choice caused by corporate bullies who do not respect what America is about, who oppress suppliers and force industry to outsource and exploit workers abroad.

I don't consider one or two health care providers per state an "abundance." Do you call the Bush administration's massive bailout of banks a normal function of the "free market?" How is "too big to fail" an American ideal? How is the plundering of our nation's riches to fund Haliburton, Blackwater and all the other military contractors who owe their existence to Socialism an act of "free enterprise?"

On the matter of the Constitution: President Obama did not repeal Habeas Corpus, nor did he suspend the Posse Comitatus Act, nor did he construct such an un-Constitutional document as the Patriot Act. You did not cite any real threats to the Constitution by this administration, yet your beloved Republicans caused more harm to our standing stitution than any other administration in history.

Furthermore, you are alive today because of Socialized medicine through the military--medical care unavailable to millions of Americans like myself.

So before you launch yourself into the political realm, I'd pick up a few books if I were you and educate yourself about freedom, opportunity and the pursuit of happiness because the Republican party has made accessibility to good paying jobs, higher education, health care and choice in the marketplace as bleak as Communism was under Stalin.

Americans are not free, they are dictated to by Corporate Communists who are making it impossible for normal Americans to live a happy, healthy prosperous life. Why would you take all the good will and luck that has found its way to you and then turn around and run on such an ignorant, anti-American platform?

Republicans do not espouse Marine Corp ideals. They are greedy tyrants who would just as soon see America under their complete control than preserve the founding principles of this country which you claim to hold so dear. Do not squander your good fortune becoming another henchman for a party that coldly oppresses hardworking Americans.

from Joe

Thank you for your e-mail Joe.

It was very interesting reading as it comes from a different political view than my own. I know there are issues that you and I will never agree on. I assume from your e-mail that you are closer to the left side of political life as you assumed that I am a bedrock Republican. I am not, as I'm sure you don't find your views socialistic.

I would call myself a Constitutional Conservative who is running as a Republican to try and bring the party back to it's fiscally conservative, small government roots. It is not the business of Government to run corporations or financial institutions or to decide how big or how small they should be. It is not the business of Government to dictate what you earn or what you with buy with those earnings.

On the matter of the Constitution

Yes, Obama hasn't repealed Habeas Corpus and hasn't suspend the Posse Comitatus Act but his constitutional manipulations are real. They are hidden in legislation and regulation being put forth by unelected Czars and legislation written by the far-left Tides Foundation (The Stimulus Bill). That's why Congress had the Stimulus Bill magically appear before them, all fourteen hundred pages, as soon as Obama was inaugurated. That's why Congress didn't read it and didn't know what it contained. It laid the ground work for everything on Obama's wish list.

You talk of Corporations and how large they've become. No Corporation should ever be labeled "too big to fail". That was precisely why I was against the bailouts. Bush and Obama both share blame for that mess but wasn't it Timothy Geithner setting policy for the FED that helped get us into this predicament? Now he the Secretary of the Treasury. What's wrong with that picture?

AIG, General Motors and Chrysler would have fared far better by filing bankruptcy. They would have come out the other side leaner and meaner and this Government would not have thrown good money after bad. Whether they survived or failed would have been up to their CEO's and Board of Directors instead of being handed to the Unions and hand picked FOO's (friends of Obama) as political payback.

I was bothered by some of the things that President Bush did. The Patriot Act may be flawed but it was a necessary tool after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I feel Bush failed in his desire to out democrat, Democrats with the expansion of Medicare and ever increasing spending. I'm not opposed to lowering prescription drug costs for seniors but I am opposed to the huge new Bureaucracy it created.

Businesses rise and fall on their own merit. Choice is the driving principle of free markets. Go to the utopia of the communist world, Cuba, and see the choice offered to it's citizens. The Cuban people can't even buy their own sugar for domestic use. It is all exported to support the glorious Revolution.

Wal-mart is not the evil all consuming monster you describe. It provides cheaper products imported from other countries as well as American made products. The American consumer can decide whether or not they want to save money or spend it elsewhere. We have Targets and K-Marts and Costco and Sams to compete with Wal-mart.

We need better solutions for Heath Care. Insurance Companies should all compete across state lines. Small businesses should be allowed to form Co-Ops to get better insurance rates. Portability and pre-existing condition reform should be part of the solution. We don't need 1/6 of our economy turned into another massive government bureaucracy.

You hate the Republican Party that stopped slavery, passed the civil rights bill, was a leader in giving women the right to vote. Kansas women had that right of property and the vote before the territory was even a state and it was Republican leadership that supported that right. The Democrat Party has always talked big but come up short. Their stock-in trade is race baiting and class warfare.

Democrats must keep their voters dependent on them and jealous of everyone else. That is why this Administration is expanding as fast as it can. The bigger the Government, the less Freedom it's citizens have. I'm all for people succeeding, but from their own efforts. That gives them self esteem and pride. Money handed to them by an ever more intrusive Government is a recipe for disaster.

The things you are hinting at but not quite saying in your comments are naive at best and sound petty and jealous to someone who has given body parts for your freedom. Yes, I have Government health care and if you want it too, I suggest you join the military and serve your Country for twenty or so years, or better yet, go overseas and loose a body part and then you will be eligible for the same Government health care I have.

Perhaps you should read these books, the 5,000 Year Leap, John Adams or Common Sense. The founders believed in freedom as stated in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I don't see bigger Government listed there.

SSgt. Dan Gilyeat (USMC) Ret