All the Democrat in Congress . . .

seem to be dutifully lined up to repeat their talking points, "Rumsfeld must go." This could be the death throes of a major political party. I think that liberals have lost it, and don't have anything new to offer. I expect that a new and paradoxical group is rising, not liberal, but a return to the root of that term, more freedom. I can see a libertarian consensus arising from liberals who believe in ever expanding civil liberties, including legalized pornography, gay rights and legalized drugs coming together with those on the right concerned about free markets and trade, gun rights and states' rights.

As odd as this might seem, I see it happening as young people become more and more disillusioned with the society handed to them with all the debts of the New Deal and its progeny and the decay in government services such as education, welfare and public safety. Oddly enough, as I was typing this, I saw Michael Barone on Brit Hume's program discussing his new book, Hard America, Soft America, which sounds as though he's seeing something similar.

I've felt for a long time that it was unfair to saddle our children with our retirement. I hate the idea that they should be taxed because we didn't provide for ourselves because we were paying for the Great Society. Now we're complaining about the high costs of pills and want them to pay that, too. If I can't work, let me die, don't charge it to my kids. But my generation is expecting to to retire with another twenty years of life expectancy, and I think that when we retire, often mandatorily, and the next generations feel the pinch and realize that they can't afford the lifestyle their parents had, there will be hell to pay and the socialistic programs of the past 70 years will catch the flak.