Throwing your vote away....or is it?

I have finally decided to cut ties with the Republican Party. Rest assured, I am not heading left to the socialist democrats though. No, after much research, soul searching and prayer (probably not nearly enough prayer though) I have chosen to join the Constitution Party instead.

The hard part of choosing a 3rd party instead of the mainstream was the idea that my vote would no longer count, or worse, be an indirect vote for the opposition. I'm sure everyone of us has heard that voting for a 3rd party candidate is paramount to treason, but after reading much well thought out papers on the subject I no longer believe that.

One such paper pointed out the clear fact that a vote for a 3rd party candidate was not a vote for ms. kerry, no more than was it a vote for Mr. Bush. It was in fact, a vote against both in favor of a person I feel has a better vision for this country and this world. It's a vote for my conscious, for the ideals I believe in and espouse to my children. Its a vote for a better future and a vote for something rather than a vote for the lesser of two evils.

If you look at the party platforms, its easy to see that the Republicans have been preaching one philosophy while living another. Under the Republican controlled congress and Whitehouse, spending increased more than any other time in history, as did the size of government. With that spending and growth, the American people also gave up more bits and pieces of their liberties and freedoms. The Republican party did very little in step with the party platform but continued the policy of spend and grow.

I looked long and hard at what I believed in, and the realization is that I believe our founding fathers had a pretty good handle on human nature. They learned the lesson of big government and what happens when the people are indebted to the bureaucracy instead of the government working for the people. They struggled long and hard to devise a system of government that had very clearly defined boundries with very limited powers. This was intentional and based on a fundamental belief that God was the center of the universe, not man. They began on the premise that God granted equality to all and that a government's single role was to protect against infringements of the gifts given by God.

Their idea was that all people had a God given right to health, happiness, and the pursuit of liberty. This does not mean that all people will always be health, happy, and rich, but that in terms of governing, all people have the right to these things and a government's singular role is to protect those rights. Therefore, first and foremost, the government is charged with protecting the freedoms of the people. This is mostly accomplished through a strong military. When we as a nation are faced with people who would mean us harm, dilute our freedoms to pursue health, happiness, and liberty, it is the government's first duty to do what it can to protect us. The forefathers took this to heart, most of them loosing everything in the revolutionary war, with the vision of protecting the larger body of citizens. We've seen our nation rise to great challenges to protect our freedoms; from the desires to separate into different nations,to fighting dictators bent on destroying anyone who didn't fit an ideal of "perfect". Millions of men and women have given up great deals of wealth, health, and even lives to protect the rights given to men from God.

Yet, our current administration and sitting congress is unwilling to enforce the laws that govern who can enter our country and feed off the rest. Even with the vast majority of Americans demanding stronger boarders and enforcements of existing immigration laws, not the president, nor most members of congress, are willing to take steps to protect the people of this nation. The attack of 9/11 was not accomplished from outside, but within. The next attack will happen again from people already living among us, and very likely having not been screened to any great extent. I am not calling for the abolishment of immigration, but the end to illegal immigration that does not bring benefits to the nation but rather adds to the depletion of our society. The illegal immigrant does not contribute more than they take, and often takes far more than they contribute. Along with the lax boarder security, our real enemies, those who have flat-out declared their intention to harm us as much and as often as possible, use the carelessness of our policies against us. They know they are free to move among us, to plot and execute at will. Allowing these things to happen is the first and most important breach of trust our government is guilty of.

The current "conservative" republicans proclaim victory over the upholding of the partial-birth abortion ban as if somehow that makes up for all the other murders they easily ignore. They wave the flag of righteousness yet do nothing to eliminate the larger sin. Where is the leader who is demanding a public debate on the court's interpretation of the Constitution? Does any one truly believe that even one of the founding father could have even fathomed that the Supreme Court would declare their precious constitution as giving the right to a women to kill her unborn baby? How does that protect the God given, God ordained rights of anyone?

One of the biggest worries of the founding fathers was that a central government would have the power over the individual states. Their fears, despite their best efforts, have become a reality. Rather than allowing smaller groups of people (states and local communities) to decide how best to educate their children, the federal government establishes a National Education Association that dictates and rules over states to define what should and what should not be taught to the young of our country. If the local schools don't tow the line, the federal government withholds tax payer money from them. It is blackmail to the tenth degree! In many states, parents have to fight for the right to teach their own children! There are penalties imposed on those that do not want their kids taught that we all came from rocks and that sex is permissible as long as you "do it safely". Heaven forbid that you try to teach your own children that the lessons of the government are wrong, unhealthy, and immoral. Doing so could result in the government taking those children away from their homes. No, the federal government dictates that children must be taught that homosexuality is just another choice. They must be taught that a Godless "scientific" method was responsible for our existence and any lifestyle that one chooses is just as good as another, so long as it doesn't require the concept of a higher authority.

These are not the ideals of the republican platform as I've read it, yet these are the end results we have received with every republican vote cast over the past 25+ years. Both sides are power hungry. Both sides want to increase the dependency of the populace to feed their power bases. Both sides want a Utopian world, but their view of utopia is not one of free people, but of the masses enslaved to the elite. The only real difference is how fast each party wants to achieve these goals. The socialist democrats boldenly pursue these goals as quickly and openly as possible, while the republicans are craftier and more patient. They'll settle for bits and pieces of freedoms over a longer period of time, but the end results are the same. Large government with clearly defined authority roles and sheep useful for labor and herding.

I strongly suggest that anyone who has not looked at the ideals and beliefs of the Constitution Party do so. It will be very difficult for you to cast another Republican vote if you do. If everyone voted their conscious and belief, this would not be a nation with a four year choice of who is less evil, but a nation again under God, with their collective priorities in the right order.