It pains me to say it, but given my choice of candidates for president, my ballot had Obama marked on it when it was entered. Luckily I live in the second reddest state of all, Oklahoma, which only had 34% support for Obama. My vote was less of a vote for him and more of a vote against what the Republicans have become. If the race here was closer, I would have had to think much deeper about who to vote for, and probably would have not chosen either. But in the end of the day I did vote for Obama.
I had to think real hard about what is going wrong with the Republican party, because I have never voted against them, even when I had the luxury of voting for a 3rd party candidate. And the best single answer I can think of is that the Republican Party, as it currently stands, thinks that defending against terrorism is the number one priority for our government.
Now the idea of the government trying to protect its citizens is a good idea, but the way we have gone about it is wrong. Basically we are being protected through fear mongering. We can't take liquids on plains because of terrorists, we have to surrender our laptops at border crossing because of terrorists, we can't take pictures of structures because of terrorists, the list go on and on of ways that we are being "protected" from terrorists.
And here is where I have the real problem; we can't talk about fear at the same time that we talk about freedom. As the government becomes more fearful they must take away freedoms to protect against these fears, and once one fear is shored up a new one takes hold. This sort of thinking is leading us on a path directly to 1984.
Let me give an example; I have been thinking about... ...there are crazy people out there. But since I have to dance around this subject, like I am now, just so that I don't get called down to the FBI office means that I don't really have the freedom to talk about this subject. Even now I am thinking about deleting this above paragraph.
[Note: I did delete the paragraph, just left the start and the finish. If a kid can get hauled off to jail for writing a zombie story, I can't take those chances. Hurray freedom of speech. ]
So, what can we do? For one the government needs to stop being so paranoid. Also the GOP needs a major reform before I will vote for them again. I can not vote for people to take away my freedoms under the guise of protection. That is just crap. The Republicans used to stand for family and freedom, now they cower in fear. Hopefully one day they will get past the terrorist attacks. But until then I will vote other places.
Chin up Ron Paul, you didn’t fail, it was the party that failed.
4 comments:
Yeah, the (R) lost because of the direction the party has taken. McCain was at least a litte toward the center, but then he picks Palin, an ultra-conservative.
PS, isn't R. Paul a Libertarian? I don't know why he's been masquerading as a Republican.
Yeah Ron Paul basically is a Libertarian, but he is realistic and knows that he can't get anywhere without the backing of the Republicans or the Democrats.
I, too, am frustrated, b/c fiscal conservatives didn't have a horse in this race.
The Republican Party will not regain any power until it re-embraces the idea of limited government.
p.s. Ron Paul ran for president in 1988 as a Libertarian. I feel the GOP is much friendlier and open-minded to Libertarians than the Democrats.
true that.
Yes I think that if Libertarians want to run undercover as another party they will do it as a republican, however as more time goes by more divergences in policy between the two parties comes up.
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