As a six year old who reads and has logic would say to someone who is younger and who does not read with real understanding or use much logic, (you have some things almost right and many more things totally wrong).

First of all America entered the world stage reluctantly in WWI and then hid out until Hitler, Mussolinni and Tojo nearly conquored the world. Just imagine what would have happend if we had stomped on Hitler when he ravaged Poland. Not as the "world's policemen" but acting in our own best interest to keep WWII from happening. After that fiasco and after Chuchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College at Fulton, Missouri America finally grew up and realized that it had to take an active role in world politics. So we helped to start the United Nations as a place where men might be able to arbritate their way out of going to war. We entered the Korean War to try and stop the spread of authoritarian Communism which was growing very rapidly in the post WWII world. We entered Vietnam for much the same reason. The wisdom of these actions has been proven over and over again as, in case you did not notice with the exception of North Korea, Communism has morphed into a series of nearly democratic republics and the Chinese version of capitalism which unfortunately is still not democratic.

My lesson in history was about the abuses of power common to the Republican Party. After their brief moment of shining glory when they preserved the union and freed the slaves they remained in power too long and they morphed into the party of big business and in the 1960s the party of the Southern conservatives all of whom used to be Democrats. From Nixon forward the Republicans have championed removal of oversight of big business (witness the Reagan era of merging companies), and the elimination of taxes for the wealthy. Today we can see the result of all of those actions in the collapse of the financial sector not unlike the collapse that occurred in the 1930s after seventy years of almost exclusive Republican control. Now we have some of the best institutions of America threatened by the actions of Republicans and millions of older Americans are being threatened with loss of social security and over fifty million Americans have no medical insurance at all.

Yes much of that can be laid at the feet of Bush/Cheney because they continued to champion the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor and at the same time they promoted a war based on false pretenses. Now if they had promoted an aggressive policy of working with China and Russia to eliminate the nuclear capacity of North Korea and Pakistan and if they had pursued the Afghanistan War with the support of our allies with more vigor they would have been keeping in step with taking preventative measures to protect the world from dangerous idiots like Kim El Jon and the Islamic terrorists.

Yes we can not be the world's policemen but we must take a leadership role in world events in order to continue trying to bring order out of chaos or we risk another conflict that will be far more devastating than WWII.

Okay since you don't want to read it I won't try to help you understand California history but I will let any casual wanderer see some truths. Since 1989 California has had fifteen Republican Governors and four Democratic Governors. So we can see what party has had the most responsibility for administrating the budgets for the past 110 years. The legislature was dominated by Republicans until the past twelve years. The Republicans when they realized they were no longer going to be able to control the legislature managed to pass some incredibly stupid measures that enable them to retain significant control of the budget setting process. These idiotic measures like requiring more than a majority vote to pass a budget has resulted in the current economic fiasco faced by the State.

But the Republican Party is not solely responsible. We all must look in to the mirror for that information. The initiative process has crippled this State to the point of near immobility. With less than forty percent of the total population voting on various issues, conservatives have managed to push through some absolutely crazy laws. For instance the use of term limits has ensured that no one will stay in office long enough to understand the issues much less deal with them. The requirement of a two thirds vote to pass various tax initiatives also stymied projects for years thus increasing their cost exponentially when they were finally approved. Our reluctance to sacrifice really big homes and SUVs and other extravagances have made individuals more and more insular and unwilling to support schools and infrastructure projects.

Yes when we go bankrupt we must not forget to thank the Republicans and ourselves for enabling it to happen.

I feel that no one is evil... We are uninformed...

We as Americans, need to use our brains and learn the facts and do what we believe.. I don't see any improvements until we all do our homework...  Quit grumping about the political parties until we do our homework and make improvements...

One who makes a show of knowledge b: one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge.

As in the fact that you are a pedant has nothing at all to do with honesty and everything to do with being pedantic.