Yet optimism is in order, because day by day democracy is proving itself to be a not-at-all-fragile flower. From Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the regimes planted by totalitarianism have had more than 30 years to establish their legitimacy. But none - not one regime - has yet been able to risk free elections. Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

Violence has been Nicaragua's most important export to the world.

How does it feel to be the 's third choice? Humiliating? You could have thrown a dart. That's how close they were. We had so many excellent candidates.

Our whole system of government is based on "We the people," but if we the people don't pay attention to what's going on, we have no right to bellyache or squawk when things go wrong.

I've long believed one of the mainsprings of our own liberty has been the widespread ownership of property among our people and the expectation that anyone's child, even from the humblest of families, could grow up to own a business or corporation.

Coersion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.

Self-defense is not only our right; it is our duty.