A friend sent me one of those circular emails asking whether I was a Democrat, Republican, or Southerner. The script was this:

"You are walking down a quiet street in your neighborhood with your wife and two small children, no other people around. Suddenly, an angry Islamic man with a huge knife appears, rushing towards you, screaming obscenities, praising Allah, raising the knife towards you as he charges at you and your family. You are carrying a Glock 40-caliber and are an expert shot. You have mere seconds before he reaches you and your loved ones. What do you do?"

THE DEMOCRAT'S ANSWER WAS:

"Well, that's not enough information to answer the question. Does the man look poor or oppressed?"

"Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?"

"Could we run away?"

"What does my wife think?"

"What about the kids?"

"Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?"

"What does the law say about this situation?"

"What do the European courts say about this situation?"

"Does the Glock have appropriate safety built into it?"

"Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society and to my children?"

"Is it possible this guy coming toward us would be happy just killing us?"

"Does he definitely want to kill or hurt me and my family, or does he just want to make a religious diversity point?"

"Would he be content just to insult and wound us, because we are an evil country, evil people, who have taken advantage and despoiled the world, and he is understandably unhappy?"

"If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my family get away while he was stabbing me?"

"Should I call 911?"

"Why is this street so empty?"

"We need to raise taxes, have a paint and weed day and make this a happier, healthier street that would discourage such behavior."

"This is all so confusing. I need to discuss this with some friends for few a days and try to come to a consensus."

THE REPUBLICAN'S ANSWER WAS:

Bang.

THE SOUTHERNER'S ANSWER WAS:

Bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... click ...

(Reloads)

Bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... bang ... click ...

After dropping the bad guy, the man's daughter says, "Nice grouping, daddy. Were those the Winchester silver tips or hollow points?"

The man's son says, "Can I shoot the next one?" (A reminder of the scene in Mel Gibson's "The Patriot," when the colonial father (Mel Gibson) told his two young sons, "Aim small," as they dropped an entire brigade of British redcoats to save the captured son/brother.)

After the shooting in this circular email scenario, the man's wife steps in to tell him about the corpse lying in the street, "You ain't taking that to the taxidermist."

We might chuckle. But, really, where are we five years after 9/11?

Earl Tilford, a retired Air Force terrorism expert and history professor at Grove City College in Pennsylvania, talks of "Apocolyptic Visions" in a recent posting on the college's always interesting and on-point Vision & Values Center Website.

Professor Tilford says we are in World War IV - WWIII having been the decades-long Cold War ultimately won when Ronald Reagan faced down the Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev - and quotes St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians regarding the long haul sure to follow: "If the trumpet does not sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?"

"Like the Cold War and the Second World War, this is a total war ... If they get nukes, they will use them. It also is a global war. And like the Cold War, it will be a long war, if our will does not break early," Tilford elaborated in an email.

"I will be very disheartened if next month the American people opt for an easy out from Iraq," he said. "Our enemies will be emboldened and they will come after us like wolves after a wounded prey. We can win this war, but I'm worried about our national will. We need leaders who clearly understand the nature of this war and can communicate that to the American people."

But there is another view within the conservative mainstream of the Republican Party that worries about a threat to our own basic liberties and commitment to limited government since 9/11.

Many conservatives worry that their commitment to lean, limited government, especially at the federal level, limited-to-necessary spending and taxation at all government levels, and protection of our basic human liberties have been eviscerated by the present administration of President George W. Bush. There is the additional impact of people's strong concerns throughout the country on the immigration issue that will play out in tight House and Senate races in the impending congressional elections.

The elections will inevitably turn on people's concerns on national security and immigration issues, plus concerns of the conservative base of the president's own party as the faithful right now realizes the full sweep of federal government actions the administration has implemented, the huge costs down the line and impact on our personal freedoms and the economy as things have unfolded to date.

I personally feel a wipeout of Republicans in Congress is about to happen.

Thomas G. Moore, a key defense official in the Reagan-George H.W. Bush administrations and retired Army reserve officer -- one of the best minds and most honest, principled men I have been privileged to know, states the case this way:

"The idea that we can transform Islamic societies into stable, peaceable, democratic mirror images of our own is the most irresponsible delusion of all the many delusions of our foolish governing elites and the many follies of our time. Societies built on the Christian gospel (even a decayed one like ours) will have some idea of liberty. It is inherent in the Christian faith-and-belief-system.

"Societies built on Islam, with its coerced submission to an inscrutable, unknowable, impersonal Allah, are totally incompatible with the idea of liberty. And the peace of Islam is only the 'peace' of submission, of the sword, of the grave. Thus it is a religion made for, and fit only for, slaves."

This administration and Republicans in Congress, after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, have spent us and our grandchildren into oblivion with the war in Iraq and so-called "homeland security" legislation that has started obliterating our civil liberties, even repealed the Constitution's habeus corpus guarantees.

Not just partisan anti-Bush administration Democrats, but many loyal Republican conservatives as well believe this administration lied us into the current war in Iraq and co-opted our country into an endless military morasse there.

Regarding the evisceration of our civil liberties by a mindless robot Congress, just read the fine print of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, passed by members of the U.S. House and Senate who surely had not read the fine print of this very dangerous piece of legislation that repeals habeus corpus.

We are told the enemy is Islamic fascism on the world stage. Perhaps. But I wonder whether the more dangerous enemy is not idiots in Congress blindly following a national administration that lied us -- as their opponents charge -- into an interminable military presence in Iraq and the entire Middle East, and who used arguments about a global terrorist menace to suspend our own basic liberties here in the United States?

Republicans have implemented these policies, with the help of centrist and conservative Democratic fellow-travelers. It is ultra-left Democrats and now far-right conservatives who have resisted. There appears to be confluence under way of left and right in our national politics. Are they all wrong? I hear voters throughout the country asking, "Who is for 'We the people' and who is agin us?"

Which leaves me ambivalent about the impending elections.

So what if the Democrats win the House or Senate, or both? Then they will have to get us out of this mess. The Democrats don't have a cohesive message or agenda, but by God they will have to come up with one after November 9 if they win a majority in one or both houses of Congress.

That outcome in tight House and Senate races across the heartland would effectively end the Bush administration, as well as Republican control of Congress.

If Republicans win a congressional majority again, if only the Senate, the mess will get bigger as federal government spending continues to spiral and Congress continues, mindlessly, to pass legislation in the name of national security that steadily eviscerates our basic civil liberties.

I'd almost rather have a screaming Islamic lunatic running down the street towards me with a big knife. The real enemy would then be clearly in my sight, and I'd know what to do to defend myself and my family.

But with runaway government, controlled by mindless leaders and followers, who lack a moral strategy of warfare and decision-making, what does one do as a patriot except go with the flow?

No. This individualist does not go with the flow. I'll vote my conscience on November 9 - and it may be a vote against members of Congress I admire, because they have shown no true moral vision to support the basic liberties I cherish most, and have therefore lost my trust.

Change is not necessarily bad, and a person given leadership by the electorate must step up to the plate and govern. Bad governors and legislators should be removed to make room for fresh leadership devoid of the ever-present political power plays, lying and deception.

There will be other elections down the road, and I have continuing faith in our American system that things will work out best in the long run, so long as we stay true to our commitments to basic individual human liberties and ultimate belief in lean, efficient governance at all levels.

This piece originally appeared on George Archibald's blog.