I am running for congress on a challenge from my daughter to make a change in this country. I do not think it will be a large change, but anything is an improvement by Bruce West
(libertarian)
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
I want to tell you about my Christmas. I was sitting at home watching the news with my family when the news started talking about the health care bill which passed the Senate. I was irate. My wife and kids have put up with my yelling and screaming at the television quite often this year.
I think my wife was tired of hearing it when she said "why don't you do something about it." I laughed to myself, there is nothing I can do to fix this mess. I was so disappointed. I started up the computer to look for the next Tea Party Event!
I replied, "Things will be different when I am in charge."
My daughter then chimed in. "You always tell us if we do not like something change it."
At about the same time she said this, my email program popped up and there it was, a letter from the Libertarian Party looking for candidates. I thought about it and laughed. Then thought about it some more. I think I found my answer. I can protest at the tea parties, but that does not accomplish anything, they ignore or marginalize those at these events. If I am a candidate, they have to listen to my and my views.
I filled out the form, notarized it and now I am running for the 8th congressional district in the great state of Texas. I have no idea how to do this now, but I am determined to bring commonsense into the election process and the congress of the United States.
I am a working man; I live paycheck to paycheck, so this is going to be a really cheap campaign. I will try to use the Internet and my website to generate votes. I will even go door to door.
My goal is to win, but I will be satisfied if all I accomplish is to get people to think outside of their own little box. From what I have seen so far, nobody ventures out of their box anymore. When we judge our government, we judge our government by what it has done for us. We should be asking what our government has done for the country.
Currently, our congress is answering to the left or to the right. They are both extreme points of view.
The Left wants no religion in government, the right wants a government controlled by religion. I, and the Libertarians want a government that protects both of those views without getting involved.
The Right wants to do nothing about health care (but bitch) and the Left wants health care for all. I and the Libertarians want reduced health care cost. We also want to make the decisions on how to take care of our own bodies and the health of our children.
The Left wants to hand our money to those in need. The Right wants to do nothing and pretend the problem does not exist. I and the Libertarians want to make meaningful change and allow those in need to climb out of there situation. Private charities should be encouraged to make meaningful change (and for the record this does not mean giving blankets to charity).
The Left wants to teach sex in schools. The Right want to teach God and religion. I and the Libertarians want the schools to teach reading, writing and math. Job skills and education.
It is time for us to focus on the issues. Not only does congress need to change, we need to change what we are asking our congress to do. We need to stop evaluating our accomplishments as great steps and take care of the little problems. We need to use standard problem solving to correct root causes, not throw money at something only to make it worse.
I want to inform voters that they do not have to vote for a candidate they do not like or support. They do not have to vote at all. Our votes are the only voice we have to officially tell our congressman he is doing well. Or to replace him. Never waste your vote by sending the wrong message. Do not encourage your congressman to lie to you during the election year because he thinks he has you convinced that he has changed.
The views expressed
in this article are those of Bruce West only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
Bruce West is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Posted By: Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
Date: 2009-12-30 20:06:19
Good luck and my best wishes Bruce!!!
No Dems declared yet in your race per FEC.gov. While I am certainly a rookie, I've figured out most of the IRS/FEC/US House paperwork stuff, so feel free to contact me via towneforcongress.com if I can help out with quick questions.
Posted By: Jahfre Fire Eater
Date: 2009-12-31 09:20:15
Hi Bruce,
Your title starts with, "Why" but the only thing that really matters is "How". First, Good Luck! Kudo's to you for abandoning the ego-stroking, mass-venting exercises represented by the ridiculous tea parties. If just a tiny fraction of the angry folks who participate in those events would adopt constructive activities that are actually part of the political process Obamunism would collapse before the 2012 elections.
Instead, most folks absolutely refuse to do anything construcive at all, ever. They would rather join tea parties, tupperware parties, third parties and all kinds of other parties that are irrelevant to US politics and thus, irrelevant to our future. The most ridiculous, not satisfied with the vast array of divide-and-conquer categories currently available to them, make-up their own parties and promote them as if they were the answer to the consequences of apathy.
It is too bad you simply moved from one totally useless activity to a candidacy for useless pretend political party (LP) but at least once you are exposed to the political process you may come to realize that the only way to change the things you are angry about is to remove the leaders who are responsible for perpetuating those things.
I have no respect for those who know these things yet still refuse to step outside their self-imposed futility. (LP members, Independents, Tea Party organizers, disciples of Alex Jones, and myriad other useless herds of anger-addicted bovines.)
Since you are just getting started, I have hopes that since you've had the clarity of thought to take the first step toward abandoning self-marginalization that you'll eventually take the most important step and start participating in the big leagues; the only place in the entire political process where your vote matters is the primary elections for the DEMs and GOP. Anyone who is not using that primary vote to groom the candidate pipeline is simply irrelevant to the outcome no matter how well they do whatever pointless thing they have chosen to do instead.
If you can turn you anger into enjoyment you'll do better. Very few can sustain anger indefinitely and frankly, no one wants to be around an angry person for long because anger nullifies constructive intellectual processes (see Mr. Jones for a perfect example.) Those who have ONLY self-righteous anger as their motivation have probably already joined one of the self-marginalized herds I mentioned above...they need a place where their futile anger can be re-stoked periodically, that's what herds are for; otherwise they might actually be able to rationally consider their self-imposed futility and find it as ridiculous as I do. That might lead them away from the comfort of the herd and into constructive, though often repulsive, political participation. Political results or self-righteous indignation are really what this choice is all about. Everything else that is brought into the discussion amounts to nothing more than rationalization for irrational behavior. A small but adoring herd is more than many folks can resist...from there, ego takes over, principles be damned...the current state of the LP is the result of 4 decades of this pattern being repeated every election cycle. Enjoy! Learn all you can.
Congratulations for taking the plunge, Bruce. I ran in elections for 20 years, and never got more than 1,000 votes (in Canada, where the districts are much smaller, of course), but I don't consider any of that time wasted. Nor did I ever think I "lost" an election.
I'd seriously urge you to take Jake Towne's offer of help in his letter. He's running this year as a true independent -- no party help whatsoever -- and in the process building up a tremendous amount of knowledge of the process. Congrats to him, too.
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