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Wednesday, August 8, 2012

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
   

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