The act of choosing identifies divisions. by Isaac Van Wart
(libertarian)
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
I will vote for Ron Paul today.
The presidential election between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter was the first I am old enough to remember. I remember the mock election in my New Jersey elementary school classroom. I remember our teacher was a Jimmy Carter supporter. I remember our mock election was mostly the voices of our parents speaking through us, and us wanting to please the teacher. I remember my parent's fear of an unfamiliar term — recession — if Jimmy Carter was elected. I remember Dad working two jobs, Mom waiting in long lines during the fuel shortage, and Americans held prisoner in Iran, after Jimmy Carter was elected. I remember being in the minority as I cast a mock ballot for Gerald Ford. I remember our mock ballots were made public.
I learned, for the first time, that the act of choosing identifies a division. My elementary school class was no longer a "we," but an uneasy involuntary association of competing perspectives.
There is an "us" and a "them."
And a cost — the sharp sting of social ostracism — for expressing a dissenting opinion.
Which is why I like Ron Paul.
For the first time in my memory, I see a presidential candidate capable of uniting diverse and competing perspectives. Capable of removing the sharp sting of us and them and cultivating a fellowship of we.
In my wandering through the Ron Paul forums, I've encountered an eclectic assortment of viewpoints — pro-choice, pro-life, atheist, agnostic, fundamentalist — and people — reverend, researcher, physician, prostitute, gambler, lawyer, writer, farmer, pacifist, soldier — all united in a single cause.
Agreeably agreeing to disagree agreeably.
Individually pursuing life, liberty, and happiness...along very different paths.
When I first heard Dr. Paul say, "I don't want to run your life. I don't know how to run your life. It's not the role of government to run your life, or manage the economy," I realized I had finally heard, in my lifetime, the antidote to JFK's, "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." And, I awakened from a long nightmare of indentured servitude.
Because government only exists to serve the people...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
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The views expressed
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You do realize that if you live in a State that has traditionally voted for one party, that your opposition vote won't even count? The people really don't elect the president. The states have thier electors match the votes of the people.
