The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending - with the exception of the money spent on them.

Democracy doesn't require a whole lot of work of its citizens, but it requires some: It requires taking a good look outside once in a while, and considering the bad news and what it might mean, and making the occasional tough choice, and soberly taking stock of what your real interests are.

Since the end of the Cold War, America has been grasping left and right for an identity.

In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.

You know what an effective deterrent to crime is? Jail! And do you know what kind of criminal penalty actually makes people think twice about committing crimes the next time? The kind that actually comes out of some individual's pocket, not fines that come out of the corporate kitty.

You can have somebody living next door to you and you can live in a completely different world from that person, which is definitely something we've never experienced before. So I think just because of the media landscape and the way we get our information now, we're more atomized and isolated from each other than ever before.

Like wars, forest fires and bad marriages, really stupid laws are much easier to begin than they are to end.