It’s My Vote and I’ll Use IT My Way!

I can’t stand to be told “Don’t waste your vote just to make a point!”  My classic answer is, “Why not?” or “It’s my vote, I’ll use it my way.”  That typically doesn’t go over too well, but let me explain a little further.

This past Presidential election, I couldn’t stand my choices.  On one hand, I had Obama (enough said about that) and on the other hand, I had McCain, who, quite frankly is too liberal for my liking.  While McCain was definitely the lesser to two evils, when it came to time to press that button, I just couldn’t pinch my nose tight enough to be rid of stench that was leaving the horrible taste in my mouth, to vote for the guy.

After mulling it over quite a bit, I opted for a protest vote and voted a straight Libertarian ticket.  I came away from the voting booth with a clear conscious and not feeling as if I had swum in a vat of green slime.

When I got home, I got a bit of a dress down from KX59 and not to mention a real ear full from Ma-Belle (my mother) about throwing away my vote on a protest and how it’s just a waste and not the right thing to do.  My mother voted for Obama because she bought into that whole ‘hope and change’ shtick, not realizing what exactly he was going to change, I tried to warn her but I digress.  KX59 was worried that my vote for Bob Barr was going to put Obama in office (we live in Texas, who was he kidding?).

So now we’re up on another election year and I’m ready to head to the polls again and vote third party, in hopes that I can get someone who will put forth real change in Washington.  I want EVERYONE to go to the polls and FIRE CONGRESS.  Until we get rid of the two party system, nothing will ever change.

I would like to see the following things happen:

1.        I want government to shrink so that it will stay out of my personal life.  Ronald Reagan said it best when he said, “As government expands, liberty contracts.”  There is nothing truer than that statement.

2.       I want government to be kept in check.  I want to retain the right to keep and bear arms because I do not trust a government that does not trust me with a gun.  The right to keep and bear arms is the Second Amendment for a reason; the founding fathers felt that this basic human right was very important.

3.       “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.”  Thomas Jefferson.  I want my government to be afraid of the people in that each election cycle they will understand that they are there to do OUR business, not to rule over us.  Once they lose sight of that, they lose their jobs.

4.       I want government to do only what it is proper for it to do, and that is to protect individual rights.  Every time that government steps out of that role, it fails.  See Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and see the EPA, the FDA and the FCC.

5.       Last and certainly not least, I want government to remember that tax dollars belong to THE PEOPLE not to them.  What we earn, belongs to us, if government would stay in its proper role, it could easily afford to operate without putting us in hock to China.

What people seem to forget more often than not is that our rights are not something that is granted by government, they are inalienable.  They cannot be taken away; however, they can be violated.  When our rights are violated, they still exist.  Nothing changes that.

Our constitution was not created to give us our rights, or to tell us what we, the people can and cannot do.  Our constitution was written to tell the government what IT can and cannot do.  We are not subjects, we are citizens.  As citizens it is our duty and responsibility to vote, but not just vote for someone because he’s not the other guy, but vote for the person who will best serve the people and who will ensure that government stays within its proper role.

Until next time.