And Kim Jong Un is a Champion of Individual Liberty

In his rollout speech last Saturday, Ryan got all philosophical about this place called "America":

But America is more than just a place…it’s an idea. It’s the only country founded on an idea....

This idea is founded on the principles of liberty, freedom, free enterprise, self-determination and government by consent of the governed.

"Consent of the governed"? Are you fucking shitting me?

Do I even need to point out to anyone that these are the people who are doing their damnedest to make sure broad segments of the governed never get the chance to consent?

Or that in their heart of hearts they believe (though only a few are honest stupid enough to admit it) that the governed shouldn't be allowed to decide on their state's representation in Washington?

Or that in Michigan, they've put entire cities, millions of the governed, under the dictatorial rule of unelected "managers"?

Or that all of the above is just nibbling around the edges? That their entire program, their raison d'etre, is a massive shift in power from democratically accountable institutions to plutocratic interests that answer to no one--an agenda in which the consent of the governed is no more than a niggling obstacle to be brushed away wherever possible?

"Consent of the governed"? I mean, forget about Hitch and Dawkins and that whole crew; if a Republican can utter the phrase "consent of the governed" without being instantaneously reduced to smoking ash by a lightning bolt of unmistakeably celestial origin, that's proof enough for me that There Is No God.