A choice without a chance.

   There is a lot of talk about who is the best candidate…but very little is being said about what kind of country is best for each candidate.  In this current country, I think Barrack Obama is the best candidate, but it comes with a huge caveat…and it is that point which should be shouted…nay, broadcasted from one coast to the other.  See, we have 100 years of entitlements to manage, from unemployment to Social Security to Medicare and foodstamps…and there is only one candidate that can run all of these progressive policies.  Obama is the most qualified candidate to continue these policies that are bankrupting our country, because he is the only candidate that wants these policies and programs to expand until the system collapses and we fail as a country.  Mitt Romney can’t balance the budget either, but he is willing to keep playing this game of spinning as many plates as possible for as long as possible.  Mitt Romney won’t end Medicare, he won’t stop Social Security…he will not end his call for replacing Obamacare with his version…because he wants to be the guy who saves them for a decade…then when it all goes to hell, he can say he did his part to try and save it.  Mitt’s methods will not fix, save or help this country, because he isn’t capable of fixing the actual problem…which is the policies and programs themselves.

    Gary Johnson is not pretending to be able to fix Social Security.  He is not capable of fixing it.  He will not save it for our children.  He admits this, but he also admits what the others will not.  It is not fixable, it is a Ponzi Scheme.  You can’t fix a Ponzi Scheme.  Gary Johnson is not pretending to be able to fix Medicare.  He is not capable of fixing Medicare, because Medicare is broke and needs to be done away with.  “What about grandma?”  My answer to that is, “What about her grandchild?”  Who is more important?  There are ways, however, of fixing this country.  The answers are difficult, and they require REAL discussion and open books from Congress.  Why do we not have a budget in three years?  We don’t know where we are financially…the first thing a consultant does when he takes on a task of fixing a company is he looks at the books.  If there are no books, there is no place to start.  Gary Johnson can fix the State of New Mexico, because he knew where he started, he set a goal, and he did not lie about the issues confronting him.  If you vote for someone who allows us to work without a budget, you are making the problem worse, and delaying the eventual pain that will be worse and tougher to fix. 

   The problems that we have in this country are directly related to Woodrow Wilson, FDR and the past 100 years of compassionate government without rational limits to compassion defined and responsibly adhered to.  If our biggest budget woes are from an overreaching military, Social Security’s unfunded liabilities, Medicare and now financial investing in private companies with no payback in sight…then the answer to these problems MUST INCLUDE these problems…that is common sense.  For the Republicans and Democrats to argue that these programs cannot be touched is just their way of not admitting defeat.  Yes, I said it.  Taxes on the rich will not fix these things; Cutting taxes will not allow us to grow out of these problems…these are both lies that both sides believe because the truth that our system is broken is too difficult to believe.  Admitting failure is the first step.  We failed as a country in our effort to support everyone from birth to retirement.  It was an experiment that has lasted so long because of the individual exceptionalism that made our country the envy of the world, but we are now overwhelmed by the weight of it all.   It will end, either by our controlled dissolution, or by a fatal collapse resulting in riots and anarchy.  

    I am called a protest vote for not voting for the lesser of two evils.   You’re damn right my vote is a protest, it is a protest against myopia, corruption, dishonesty and fake patriotism.  My vote cannot be bought, traded or scared into changing.  I am right, and the alternative is another step, either big, or incrementally smaller…but still a step in the direction of failure and tyranny.  You can say what you want, but if you repeat a lie, you are still lying.  You can be compassionate and caring, but if you are willing to sink the whole ship to prove you cared about the guy who fell overboard…then you are still murdering the many to prove you are compassionate.  Mao, Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini all started out compassionate…but in the end, the only ones they were compassionate to were the ones who agreed with them.

 So…here is your opportunity.  Your vote doesn’t have to be for continued failure…but it does have to represent your view of this country’s future.  If you support the way things are, Obama is the best choice.  If you support a slower approach to tyranny and ruin…Romney is your man.  If you think we need to address the real problems with real solutions…then before you vote, read about Gary Johnson’s ideas and his record.  Libertarianism isn’t about anarchy, it is about the proper role of government…and frankly, the proper role of government is not to be involved in foreign countries with our military, feeding lazy and corrupt people who are taking advantage of our safety nets, acting as financial retirement managers, or running the health care industry.  You may not like the responsibility of running your own life, but the alternative is much much worse.  We are seeing it unfold.  Don’t choose the choice that doesn’t have a chance to save our country…because closing your eyes won’t make our problems go away.  Grandma owes it to the next generation to fix what her generation and the one before her started.

-Rev 

To Take A Libertarian Seriously

      I am not the owner of multiple businesses in Nevada.  I sell meat, fish and other grocery items.  I am not affected by tax increases on “the wealthy”.  I am firmly planted in the “middle class” with all the trimmings; a Ford pickup, a house I rent because I short-sold my underwater house,  I am a gun owner, a dog owner and I don’t smoke.  Some people call me many things, but “elitist”, “nut” and “out of touch” are not among these things.  I did not go to an Ivy League School, I don’t have a law degree and I don’t bet on sports, so my gut is basically full of awful diet foods during the day, and the occasional beer and steak on a really good night.  What all this means is that you will not hear my opinions on CNN, FOX or most any talk radio stations…because I am nobody "special".  BUT, what I do have is an above average desire to make this country what we used to be, before we changed from rugged individuals with self- reliance (this is conservative speak for “we wiped off the blood on our knees when we fell off our bikes- without helmet laws, mind you!).  There is a call from seemingly every corner of this country for regulations whenever the trigger happy media has a sensational story in their sights.  If it isn’t the tragedy of a nut shooting up a theater or temple, it is the latest scare from flesh eating bacteria or Ebola.  And if there is an election going on…whoa…it is even worse.   Let me make it clear for those of you who were in a coma this past week.

     The report this week about Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is that he may not have paid taxes over the past decade.  Wait!!!  I don’t care, I’m getting to my point.  The news yesterday was from Obama’s college classmate from Columbia, Mr Wayne Root, who says nobody knew Obama at Columbia, and maybe he applied to Columbia as a foreign exchange student.  Wait!!! I don’t care about this either…we are almost there.  What is my point.  Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Candidate is being left out of the debates, and he isn’t even included in the Polling questions…and he wants to talk about undeclared wars the USA is involved in, marijuana arrests and prosecutions that fill up our jails, the government’s role in marriage, the debt and defecit that is bankrupting our country, the foreign aid we give to countries who would do us harm, the lack of energy independence and the wasting of tax money on private green energy projects the private sector KNOWS are not feasible...and so on.   Mr Romney, Mr Root and President Obama, with all due respect to your education, your knowledge of American politics and your positions in our government as “leaders”, can you kindly pull your heads out of your asses and deal with the issues that are important to us…the average guy.

 I understand that Mitt has money, and people with money can afford to find loopholes in tax codes; but Gary Johnson wants to overhaul our tax code so it is more fair to the average guy without a team of attorneys.  I understand that Obama has sealed records of his collegiate history at Columbia and Harvard…but the average guy can’t get a job to pay back their college loan.  When is your duty to your country, including the oath you take to defend her, more important than the ego-driven need you seem to have to convince the public that your opponent is a bigger ass than you are?  This notion that we must define the biggest evil, then vote for the other is driving me crazy.  It would be like me dating a serial cheater and then getting the opportunity to dump her for a gold digging woman who will bleed me dry and leave me broke.  What do I do? 

     Do we, as Americans, have so little self-esteem that we stay in a bad relationship until we can find someone less evil…not even bothering to change our patterns and look for someone who isn’t the exact same problem, or worse, that we complain about every day?  Is our desire to control everyone else’s personal decisions so strong because we are so weak in our own convictions that we need the government to make sure others live up to our standards?  Are we willing to allow our leaders to steal from us, waste our resources and outright lie to us because we fear ever having to deal with our own problems ever again?  There were days when someone running for office was considered honorable, I dare you to find an honorable person in congress now.  One without a hand in the till.  One who doesn’t take a lobby job when he loses office.  One who does not benefit from the laws he passes.  One who does his or her job with the interest of America before the interests of him/herself.  We are on a ship that is headed for a rock, the rock will not move, and we are arguing about which captain we should choose, the one who thinks we can run over the rock, or the one who does not see the rock. 

     I don’t know if Mitt paid taxes, and I don’t care…I care that he thinks we can keep this government control of our personal lives going without bankrupting our criminal justice system with marijuana smokers sitting in jail while we debate about how much money it will cost to keep Jared Laughner in prison.  I care that he thinks the government should tell two American adults whether or not they can marry each other.  I care that he thinks a war with Iran will make the Middle-East our friends.  I care that he thinks tweaking the tax code by a percentage point is going to make it fair that I am only going to get a tax break if I make less money and get food stamps.  I don’t know if Mitt is a tax cheat, and I don’t care.  I do care that his ideas are wrong for America’s future, even though he is slightly less wrong on some issues than Obama.  Not good enough.

     I don’t know if Obama got into college through a lie or loophole, I don’t care.  I care that he acts like people deserve food stamps and welfare because they tried.  If failure was a rationale for accepting government assistance, everyone who ever tried and failed would be on it.  How about wiping off the blood, selling your xbox or nike’s and try again.  When you are hungry for three days, and you can’t get a landscaping job, or a paper route, or peel shrimp at a plant downtown, or load trucks in a warehouse at night…then ask for help.  What Obama cares about is an illusion.  The illusion is that we have poor people.  The poorest people in America are fat, lazy and know they can get food, housing and spending cash from some source of government aid.  All of them?  Maybe not, but how many millions of people are getting assistance because some work is too hard for them, or beneath their threshold of dignity or effort?  I don’t care about Obama’s college grades, I care that he hasn’t gotten us out of war, and that damned Noble prize for peace is still in his possession.  I don’t care that he is black, I care that he has pandered to a base that condemns people who disagree with him as racist.  I don’t care about his trips on Airforce One with Michelle and the kids, I care that he thinks tax money should be gifted to help American companies that are  being run into the ground and will fail, but they don’t have to change their ways.  I care that Obama hasn’t decriminalized marijuana, even though he smoked a metric ton of it in his life.  I care that he hasn’t offered a lawsuit against the government's marriage restrictions on homosexuals, even though the American principle of individual freedom is supposed to be irrespective of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation…I mean come on…what makes a Democrat different than a Republican now a days?  Tax records?  College transcripts?  Why can’t we get to the issues that matter? 

     The only candidate running for President that is staying on message is Gary Johnson.  He is a Libertarian, somewhat like Wayne Root who is writing and being interviewed on every Right Wing news outlet available.  Wayne seems to think that America cares about Obama’s college transcripts…and of course this focus will surely help Mitt win as the least evil candidate getting coverage.   If the media will only cover Libertarians who play the Republican/Democrat game, then Libertarians won't ever be taken seriously…and that is where we are.  But if Gary Johnson can get into the debates, and these two “viable” candidates get into a cat fight…maybe the country will be able to see, the only person running who can actually solve any of our problems, is also the only one talking about what our REAL problems are.   

-Rev