I am a Constitutionalists at heart.
I am officially supporting Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, but I am torn.
Torn like the fabric of this great nation.
I have been made acutely aware lately that there comes a time in every generation that defines that generation. 2008 may be that time for my generation and the weight of it feels familiar.
It may be my recent foray into facebook, but I remember an event in High School where someone from our class wrote “SBA” on the football field with fertilizer. Too much fertilizer effectively burns the grass and this act of youthful angst destroyed a portion of the field.
It was our class president and his lackeys.
Our study hall class was talking about it and something rose up in me. I didn’t want our class to be remembered as the class that destroyed the football field and suggested we impeach our president.
I still remember the following Friday night being confronted in the hallway by a very drunk, very agitated class president. He had got wind of the conversation and was not happy about my suggestion to kick him out of office. He was a bully, a drunk bully, and our conversation almost came to blows. Were it not for the intervention of a mutual girlfriend, we would have. Nothing more happened, but I learned an important lesson that night.
People in power do not like opposition and will do everything within their power to remove that opposition, and the most effective way to deal with opposition is fear.
Granted, the power of the high school class president is laughable today, but I learned a valuable lesson that fear is real, and I hate being manipulated by fear.
Fast forward to 2008 and all I hear this election cycle is fear.
Fear of Islam, fear of terrorists, fear of recession, fear of change, fear of taxes, fear of war, fear of spending, fear, fear, fear.
Fear is a powerful motivator and once you get past all the arguments, they boil down to one core issue.
Obama is black, McCain is white.
You see the Republicans have held power for 6 years. 6 years to end abortion, 6 years to lower taxes, 6 years to reduce government, 6 years to do anything conservative.
What have they done to reduce the power of government? Nothing. In fact, in 6 years we have more polarization on the abortion issue, higher taxes, more government regulation, and the destruction of the Republican party I grew up with.
It is because of this, the reality that the Republican Party is the Democrat Party light, that the only real issue this election cycle is race.
I can hear it now, you are a Christian, what about abortion? McCain is pro-life and Obama is Pro-death, shouldn’t you vote for the one that is pro-life?.
Sorry kids, this election is not about abortion and no election will ever be about abortion. Abortion, or more importantly the social acceptance of abortion as birth control, is not a government issue, it is a Church issue.
I am actually pro-choice when it comes to government. I think the choice to keep the baby should be so overwhelmingly better than abortion, that abortion becomes rare. I prefer an agnostic government over a theocracy. As long as my government holds to the value of liberty and that all men are created equal, we are good. If you truly want to impact abortion rates don’t just hold signs, offer to support a mother through her pregnancy. If you want to reduce pregnancies don’t just tell kids to stop doing the nasty, actually get involved in the lives of fatherless boys and girls and love them. And for God sake, stop thinking that pro-choice means pro-abortion and pro-life means anti-abortion.
If those labels were accurate, abortion would already be illegal again in the United States as the Republicans had 6 years to change it. Wake up Republicans, voting for an “R” means nothing when it comes to abortion and does not exempt you from doing your part. In fact, voting for a pro-life candidate (again) that promises to change law without addressing the underlying issue of eugenics is a greater evil.
For me, it comes down to one issue, race.
As a white man in power, I feel an obligation to move the issues I can actually effect forward. I can’t change the abortion issue with my vote, I can only change the abortion issue with my life. I can’t change the role of government with my vote, the power of the Constitution was destroyed during the civil war, and will take another to change it back. I can’t change the way the world sees our country, I can only teach my children to love and that war is the last resort. I can’t roll back the effects of decades of socialism with my vote, I can only reach out to those in bondage to socialism and offer them a better way.
I can’t do much with my vote this year but what I can do is very powerful.
I can remove the argument of racism from my own life and God willing, from these shores.
I can willingly use the power that has been granted me because of my skin color and advance a man that doesn’t look like me to the highest office in the land. I don’t have to agree with his ideas, because no matter who wins this year, they both have the same ideas. I don’t have to boil Obama down to a sound bite and decide that because he is pro-choice, he is pro-abortion. I don’t have to listen to fear and and miss my opportunity to do what is right, do what is courageous, do what might cost me something. I can willingly choose to do something that might actually make a difference. To willingly do something that in one fell swoop will start dismantling the wall of racism in my heart, and the heart of America.
Now that is one issue I may be willing to hold my nose and vote for.