Do you want a different choice?
Posted by timpj5 on August 22, 2008
Tired of the same old politics?
As Ron Paul says in the introduction to his book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, “This much is true: you have been lied to”… and we have. We were told that the Republicans were for smaller government. Truth is, the largest increase in the size and scope of the Federal Government was under this Republican administration. We were told Democrats are for a sensible foreign policy; the anti-war party. The truth is that most of the Democrats who claim they are against the war in Iraq actually voted for it. And nothing ever changes.
We are promised “Change”, that Washington, now broken, will undertake a new beginning where Republicans and Democrats alike will work together in perfect harmony. For all the sniping and backbiting, the name calling and the mud slinging, the Republicans and Democrats are really the same party. The Republicrats.
Sure they have different ideas about how to get there. But in the end, both parties are responsible for the way things are today. Congress has a 9% approval rating and most people feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. Most differ as to which direction that is, but they know the one in which we’re heading isn’t the one we should be. But don’t worry, the candidates ask you to take the hand of one of the architects of the policies that put us in this mess… and nothing will ever change.
If you believe that Barack Obama has your best interest at heart and that he is going to bring sweeping reform to Washington ask him why he hasn’t done it as an influential member of the Senate since his election in 2004. What meaningful change has he brought us thus far? He represents the ideals, the same ideals as Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Ted Kennedy, that some would say have put us in this mess in the first place.
If you believe that John McCain has your best interest at heart and that he will really cut unnecessary spending in Washington ask him why spending in Washington hasn’t gone down. He’s had 26 years to do so. Sure the growth of spending has gone down here and there, but that’s like saying I’m going to stop smoking… more than a pack a day. He represents the same policies of George W. Bush on foreign affairs and who knows what he really believes about immigration or the First Amendment (McCain-Feingold). He has been part of the problem much more than he’s been part of the solution.
The truth is most people don’t like either of these choices. A recent Zogby poll discovered that 62.4% of likely voters want to see better choices. That’s a pretty big percentage of the population who don’t like our options.
The media and political establishments alike want you to believe that you have only one choice between two candidates, only two parties. You have seen the anger from both sides when a politician that doesn’t come from the political “mainstream” encroaches on the established order of things. The vitriol with which Ralph Nader was subjected to after Al Gore lost the 2000 election from the left was cruel. The disrespect shown to Ron Paul during the Republican Primary Debates was unfair, casting him as an old kook who was from another planet all because he agrees with guys named Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin on how we should conduct foreign and domestic policy. The two parties are the same and they don’t want anything or anyone standing in their way.
The truth is if you want more choices they are out there. They will tell you that you have to vote for the “lesser of two evils”. Truth is, that’s a false choice. If enough of you really want “change” it’s there to be had. If you really want “change” you aren’t going to find it in the two major candidates or the two major parties (unless you vote for Ron Paul). If you are one of the 62% of Americans who want more choices, don’t be belittled into thinking you don’t have options, find one and then vote for them. If you don’t know where to look, here’s a head start
David Black said
I’ll address your Losertarian cowardice and idiocy here.
Ron Paul represents losing stock. He spent 35 million in other people’s money to win a measly 14 electoral votes. He speaks to a legion of disaffected populist whiners with no voice, no power, and no respect. He says exactly what they want to hear like any group with a collective sense of low self-esteem who need his fatally idealistic bromides to give them a sense of purpose. He knows he can’t win anything, so why are his supplicants too stupid to get the big picture here?
Ron Paul is unproductive. He has nothing to show for his effort. That to me is unacceptable. I’ve seen the people that follow him. They are pathetic and clueless.
You have a viable candidate that might be 50-60% conservative. You have a candidate who is ZERO per cent conservative.
Since I was raised by a practical no-nonsense Jewish immigrant family who escaped nazi germany, I was taught to make the best with what you have. No one owes you anything.
McCain is the best alternative and he’ll do. You people act as if the government is designed to please your individual desires like they are your mommy and daddy. Your neediness offends me deeply. Stop getting so hung up on what parties do, parties are meaningless. Protecting this country and its foreign interests are what’s most important. I want a guy that’s a warrior, not a cowardly appeaser who wants to negotiate with islamo-fascist savages.
Our government has a war to fight and I can’t think of anything more important right now than killing more Islamo-fascists and helping to preserve Israel’s right to exist. If the Middle East sinks under Islamo-fascist control we’re all screwed.
timpj5 said
David,
I believe I’ve seen you on other blogs flaming. I’ll address your idiocy once and then no more…
Ron Paul as well as most Libertarians believe in the Natural Right of each individual to own his or her own body and property. Both parties today and most candidates from those parties do not. They believe in owning your body and telling you what you can and can’t put in it (the prohibition of drugs). They believe in owning your property and telling you how much of your own money you can keep (Income taxes) and what you can and cannot say (McCain-Feingold). They are Utilitarians and believe that you have to break some eggs to get an omelet. They believe that it’s acceptable for people to give up some of their Natural Rights for the sake of security and social acceptability.
Attacking Ron Paul because he lost the Republican nomination is exactly why the Republican party is going downhill fast. He represents the ideas and beliefs of the Founding Fathers. That government is inherently corrupt and it’s goals achieved thru force, not liberty.
If you don’t like Ron Paul’s message than you don’t like Liberty. The 3 statutes of the Constitution were the protection of Life, Liberty and Property. If you take Liberty out of the mix you have a very watered down government.
You deride Ron Paul because he only won 14 “electoral votes”. I think you actually mean Republican delegates as he has not won any “electoral votes” and neither have McCain or Obama. How many millions of dollars will McCain and Obama spend to sling mud at one another. Only 1 of them can be president, so the other one will have “nothing to show for it”. Such is life, nothing ventured, nothing gained. But if you think Ron Paul is “losing stock” because millions of individual citizens donated freely to a candidate who most closely aligns himself with the Constitution then I fear for the new Republican party.
Allowing to accept 50% government interference in the lives of American citizens, or in other words, 50% socialism is not something I’m prepared to do. While I appreciate your Jewish upbringing I fail to see how your position is Constitutional or rational for that matter.
I don’t act, believe or want the government to please my individual desires. In fact, I want the government to do nothing at all to please my individual desires. I’m quite capable of doing that myself. What I want is for the government to stop stealing my money, “regulating” my life and telling me what I can and can’t do with my own body. I want the government to do what the Constitution says it should: Protect my life from foreign invaders, protect my Liberty by staying out of my life and pocketbook, and settling disputes between the States.
David, I respect your opinions. Many of which I held for a long while. However, I was unfamiliar with our Constitution when I held those views, relying solely on what I was taught and heard on the news. My advice to you would be to re-read our Constitution. Re-read Federalist Papers and Anti-Federalist papers. The Founding Fathers saw the dangers of big government before and warned of its return. We have been so blinded by partisan politics for so long, distracted by those who believe the State is more important than the Individual.
I’m tired of being told I’m not doing my “fair share”. I’m tired of being told that I have only the choice of one of two candidates. It’s not true. You may not like it because you are part of the problem. Heavily invested in what the State can “do for you”. I believe it’s time for a change. I reject the notion that a moderate politician is any better than a Liberal politician because both believe that Government is at least sometimes good and it’s ok to interfere in our lives sometimes. That’s unacceptable all the time.
David Black said
Yes, I meant delegates, not electoral votes.
You Losertarians sound exactly like Christian fundamentalists in their regard for the holy bible.
Both of you are intolerant of modern reinterpretation and remodification to suit present needs.
if you no longer think America is run in a manner that suits you you are free to leave.
Go live in Cuba for a year and eat boiled grapefruit rinds if it’s so bad here.
If you think you pay too much in taxes then you are too clueless to take advantage of tax loopholes. It’s no one’s fault but yours if you can’t work the system to your advantage.
David Black said
Speaking of intolerance, I cannot accept people who cannot consider life a win lose zero sum gain proposition. You make do with what you have and work it to ensure your survival and the survival of your family.
My fathers and uncles came to this country with nothing after Kristallnacht and made a fortune in the garment business. They didn’t whine abut what the government wasn’t doing for them.
Isolationist and anti-imperialist paleo-con/losertarians have always been complaining about an allegedly unConstitutional government. They complained about our involvement in WW2. They complained about the UN. They complained about the Marshall Plan. They complained about NATO. They complained about our alliance with Israel. They complained about nuclear proliferation. They complained about the Great Society. They complained about Vietnam They complained about Nixon going to China … the list goes on.
Do you think this garbage Ron Paul is spouting is new? It’s repackaged populist rhetoric and marginalized kooks on the freak fringes lap it up like a bag of greasy fast food on a Sunday afternoon in front of their TVs watching NASCAR.
timpj5 said
David,
I’d like to request that you not comment here anymore. I won’t delete your comments, but you certainly have proven that you’re incapable of having a rational, logical discussion about the core values of this country. You spew hatred and politcal rhetoric which you seem not to even understand yourself. As you seem to be unable to wrap your mind around these values as previously pointed out, I will help once more.
The basis of rational discussion is the exchange of ideas. Whether you agree with them or not, discussing ideas is the essence of democracy and liberty. When the free exchange of ideas is put down, an unintellectual mindset to say the least, then we become mindless drones without free will or liberty. This is the political environment in Communist China. There is no free exchange of ideas, the government controls the exchange of ideas and only the ideas that fit within the Communist line of thought are allowed. You continue to attempt to marginalize and put down the ideas of Libertarians, who have done you no harm, and whose primary platform is that of Liberty.
Are you that opposed to Liberty so as to be unable to have a rational discussion about the value thereof? What harm is done in discussing the merits of Liberty as opposed to those of quasi-Liberty, Utilitarianism or Communism? Have I harmed you in any way because I disagree with the notions of acceptable levels of repressive federal government? The simple answer is “No”. Are you threatened by the free exchange of ideas because the foundations for the ideas of your political party/candidate don’t hold water? Because their only foundation is convenience, utilitarianism, political expediency, or unadulterated thirst for power?
I will not tell you that the beliefs you hold dear are of no value. You have every right to your beliefs. And I have a right to mine. My values subsist on the foundation of Liberty. That I am owned by no one else, including government. My Natural Rights are God-given and my property, as well as my life, are owned solely by me.
As for your suggestion that I go find another place of residence if I don’t like the way the country is being run, that is an extremely dangerous notion, such as reeks of corruption and elitism. Ron Paul’s message certainly is not new. In fact, it is contained in many a document written several years ago. Here is an excerpt from a document you may never have read, ponder it’s words carefully, for the truths therein are the key to successful government:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” – the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America
I am not such a man who will suffer when evils are sufferable which is why I am a Libertarian. It is not only our Right to attempt to change our government when it no longer upholds our Natural Liberties, it is our duty to this and future generations. I don’t believe that a few injustices are acceptable. Thomas Jefferson said, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent“.
You seem willing, if not eager, to accept a man who bears the stamp of “conservative” approval in a half-hearted fashion. You say better to have a candidate who is 50% conservative than one who is not conservative at all. I say neither one is acceptable. For today it is 50%, tomorrow 25% and the next not conservative at all. And what did it benefit you to vote for a man who is 50% qualified to represent you? Is 50% Liberty sufficient a starting point for you? I will not endorse a candidate with my vote who is only half inclined to perform his primary duty as President which is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.
If we are required to choose but from two poorly qualified choices then we most certainly are a foolish breed. There are many candidates and some much more Constitutionally qualified than John McCain. In fact, Ron Paul is one and Bob Barr is another. Whether you agree with their ideas or put any stock in their principles you decry them for having radical ideas which are unpopular except to the “freak fringe”. I dare say that 90%+ of the Founding Fathers would be included in that “freak fringe” and that their unwillingness to suffer while evils are sufferable, and their profound belief in Liberty, is why this great nation exists.
David Black said
The “evil” you fear is a manifestation of your rampant paranoia. All you libertarians play from the same handbook. No wonder you have no power or influence on the American political scene.
David Black said
I am not trying to abridge your rights to free speech. Again with these paranoid tangents!
Just as you have the right to espouse the libertarian line, I have the right to condemn that line.