Hello Ron,

Very well put. 

I am an Independent who has migrated to the right of the center line (after a fairly far-left past) precisely for the reasons you have enunciated so well here.  Given the usual limit of four or five ideological labels I will select "libertarian" inasmuch as it embodies the belief that every individual is capable of owning personal responsibility and capability.

A life half-lived in Canada (in separated chunks) and evolving interactions with supporters and politicians on both sides of the ideological divide has created in me a specific distaste for what I have - for lack of a better term - often referred to as "modern liberalism".

After a frustrating call to a Canadian radio show the word I have been seeking to sum up my dissatisfaction with what I have come to see as the wholesale abduction of the beliefs that I have held all my life (namely that mankind is a wonderful species, the world a wonderful place and Americans a wonderful people) flashed in my mind.

Condescension.

It is the condescension of those who believe they hold the simple answers to complex issues that I myself - no complete intellectual slouch, at least by some measure - have wrestled with for thousands of hours.

It is the condescension of those who attempt to reach down from the lofty heights they inhabit to offer inclusion and protection to those who neither ask for nor appreciate nor require their intervention.

It is the condescension of a twenty-year-old Kerry volunteer honestly stating to a camera that she "got better SAT scores than George Bush" as a means to convey her belief that this somehow makes her vastly superior to a person who despite failings has more pragmatic experience in life than she - or most of us - is ever likely to approach.

The same condescension I, regrettably, see in the eyes of Sen. Clinton as she impatiently tolerates the words of other speakers while waiting to interject the statements of wisdom she seems so aware they are not competent to grasp.  The same condescension that I read in the downward hand-gestures she uses to shush her own followers as she stands at a podium ready to grace them with her words.

This condescending attitude leads to the "Nanny state" approach that I find stifling in Canada, Singapore and much of Europe, as examples.  It leads to the aspects of modern American liberalism that divide both the population of this country and indeed the membership in the Democratic party. 

And it is the condescension that will lead myself and millions of others to switch our current support from the Democratic party and elect John McCain president of the United States, if it is presented as the only alternative.

I have watched with growing interest now-Senator-Obama for quite a few years.  It has been increasingly plain to me that this is a person who shares my own long-unpopular goal of advancing the social welfare of the national and global population while - and *by* - emancipating those same individuals, not by dictating to them.  That I am not alone in the belief that the principles that evolved to create the conditions and constitution of the country are *intrisically* *correct* - that "All Men are Created Equal", that Freedom of Thought and Freedom of Speech are not just ideals to be pursued but actionable *absolutes* that enable the achievement of the goal of advancing human achievement.  That the answers to solving the challenges of the world and of the individuals who inhabit it do not lie in *imposing* solutions crafted on some rarified intellectual high ground but rather in engaging each one of us in using the incredibly talents inherent in us all.

Until reading your thesis the exact words to describe my support for Sen. Obama have been elusive.  You have provided a very useful set of memes for me to digest and integrate towards that end, and for this I am grateful.

-cheers!

-chris