here’s something interesting about republicanism vs. liberalism…

French and Swiss Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu and later Rousseau expanded upon and altered the ideas of what an ideal republic would be: some of their new ideas were scarcely retraceable to antiquity or the Renaissance thinkers. Among other things they contributed and/or heavily elaborated notions like social contract, positive law, and mixed government. They also borrowed from and distinguished it from the ideas of liberalism that were developing at the same time. Since both liberalism and republicanism were united in their opposition to the absolute monarchies they were frequently conflated during this period. Modern scholars see them as two distinct streams that both contributed to the democratic ideals of the modern world. An important distinction is that while republicanism continued to stress the importance of civic virtue and the common good, liberalism was based on economics and individualism. It might be argued that while liberalism developed a view of liberty as pre-social and sees all institutions as limiting liberty, republicanism sees some institutions as necessary to create liberty. It is most vivid in the issue of private property which may be maintained only under protection of established positive law. On the other hand, liberalism is strongly committed to some institutions e.g. the Rule of Law.

then again, we’re not exactly deep thinkers (or gud reeders) here in america… nobody thinks about any of this high-falutin’ shit. it’s all fetuses and taxes and glory holes and blowjobs. meanwhile, greedy people make our decisions for us.

http://atomicallyliberal.blogspot.com/

But on the serious side, I am glad to see you using your site to try move the State in a direction that I know you honestly believe would be better, rather than criticizing conservatives or putting up movies:)