I’m in bed, reading the news, watching vapid television shows, trying to take my mind off the choice I have to make tomorrow. I’ve agonized over this for months. How do you choose between the slow destruction of your nation and a fast one? I’m not sure I have the stomach for this election.
I’ve examined all the choices. I’ve done my research. I have an overdeveloped sense of justice that just won’t let me actively participate in the destruction of my nation. And yes, I’m pessimistic. I truly believe that no matter which major party politician wins the White House tomorrow, he’s going to take us on the road to destruction.
I’ve been having a fascinating conversation via email with one of my readers – a ponderous mix of political philosophy and ethics. He’s smart. We’ve been trying to figure out whether people who advocate theft and redistribution by force are actually evil, or whether they simply don’t understand the actual consequences of what they espouse. There’s a part of me – a huge misanthrope – that thinks they’re just plain evil. How can someone NOT understand that punishing achievement, stealing earnings and giving them away to others is just plain wrong? How could they not see it?
But then, maybe they just don’t examine the moral implications of what they’re doing. To them abuse of someone strong isn’t abuse. When the weak are needy, they bleed, but when those they consider strong are robbed or taken advantage of, they’re strong, so it doesn’t seem like abuse. Everyone has what they need. Everyone is fuzzy and warm. Everyone is happy… What they don’t get is that someone has to produce what they steal and redistribute. Someone has to create what they appropriate. And their efforts are being destroyed by power-hungry politicians, stolen and given away like they’re worth nothing.
And here we are, voting for what we believe is the lesser of the two evils, and the circus is starting already. It’s not even Election Day yet, and the Democrats are already screeching, “ABUSE” and filing lawsuits against the Republicans in — where else? — Floriduh!!
This time, it’s not about ballot recounts, as in Bush v. Gore in
2000. It’s a Democratic legal salvo accusing the Republicans of
plotting a last-minute challenge of registered voters with potentially
bad addresses, which may prevent them from casting a regular ballot at
the polls Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed in Leon County last week,
cites alleged evidence of Republicans trying to ”cage” a Duval County
voter and of a GOP sheriff’s candidate challenging some 300 voters in
Glades County. Caging is the term for sending mail to voters in a bid
to identify, by the undelivered pieces, who might have moved from their
address on the registration rolls.
So I’m going to the polls first thing in the morning tomorrow. I’m still not sure what I’m going to do. I’m hoping that if I pound my head on the walls of the voting booth hard enough, I’ll somehow get an epiphany. Ultimately, I know we’re screwed no matter how I cast my vote, so I’ll do my civic duty, watch the train wreck unfurl and brace myself for the post-Barackolyptic world (thanks to the best boyfriend ever for that one!) by clinging to my guns and being the bitter, greedy capitalist redneck that I am.
What choice do I have?
Nov 04, 2008 @ 03:53:33
I’m not exactly thrilled with McCain but I do not see him as the lesser of two evils. Not the best choice, nor my first choice. But far and away the BEST choice now when given the alternative. Obama scares the ever luvin’ snot out of me.
Nov 04, 2008 @ 04:47:40
I cannot vote for either major party candidate. I can’t. Like you, I cannot participate in the destruction of my country.I will be voting tomorrow. Just not for either of the assholes, one of which is assured to win. However, I vote not because I think it will matter that I couldn’t support either of these mutated zygots, but because my conscience will be clear, that I have done all I can peaceably. So that when the SHTF, I will feel no guilt about what I must do.
Nov 04, 2008 @ 07:00:50
Chuck Baldwin
Nov 04, 2008 @ 13:30:13
Vote for me Jerry Rhoads –write in canidate! J/J but I am writing my name in today at 1600!
Nov 04, 2008 @ 14:23:06
I agree with you that McCain represents, at best, a slower handbasket to hell. As a Christian, I am forbidden to support evil, “lesser” or otherwise. I voted for Chuck Baldwin.
Nov 04, 2008 @ 16:50:39
We’ve been trying to figure out whether people who advocate theft and redistribution by force are actually evil, or whether they simply don’t understand the actual consequences of what they espouse.I break libs down into three groups:1. The ignorant / stupid who don’t actually understand what they really support, rather like a child who doesn’t grasp (and hasn’t been adequately taught) that pointing a gun at somebody is dangerous. I’ve seen surveys that indicate that a sizable fraction of our population thinks that the government has its own money, and merely collects taxes to help fund a few extra things. Another idiot I heard supported the bailout because, if the government didn’t pay off all those bad debts, the taxpayers would have to! Lenin would categorize these people as “useful fools”.2. The greedy, who support liberal ideals because they think that they will get something from it. This includes politicians who get votes by promising to rob Peter to pay Paul, and those too stupid / lazy to earn all the things they want in life and don’t mind using the power of the government to steal it from others. There is a third motive, perhaps not quite so discreditable: the desire to feel good about one’s self by “doing good”. It’s a sort of modern-day Robin Hoodism: stealing from “the rich” to give to “the poor”. I get quite pissed at people (like The Annointed One) who quote the Bible as some sort of moral justification for what this, as I am unaware of the book, chapter, or verse that tells me to take from one of my brothers to give to another.3. The insane.Discussions like this do nothing to endear me to my democrat (spit) fiancee… She falls into the second category. She thinks that things like free health care “for those who need it” and free education “for those who can’t afford it” are “good things”. To the extent we discuss politics (which she avoids with the excuse that I am preachy and shout at her), she admits that SOMEBODY has got to pay for these things and even knows that the “somebody” includes her, but thinks that the benefits of social programs outweigh the moral costs of stealing from people.I have thus far refrained from snarling at her that, if she is so f***ing set on being a do-gooder, then she can bloody well donate to charity and leave my paycheck the hell alone.
Nov 04, 2008 @ 20:55:27
doc, you may wish to re-evaluate your choice of fiancee’, or not. Or at least wait until she is an adult before marrying.My wife and I are not always on the same page politically, but we hold to the same moral values, which often puts us in agreement, though she is more liberal (not to the point of insanity or stupidity) than I am.I reread this, and it sounds kind of ugly. I did not mean it that way, but if before you are married you shout at each other or avoid topics because talking is painful to one or both, marriage will not cure it, it will exacerbate it. Not good or fair to either of you.I do apologize for opining on what is really none of my business. But I been there, more than once, got the scars to show for it.I wish you well.
Nov 04, 2008 @ 21:46:50
straightarrow,I know. I’ve thought about it. I have fond hopes that she’ll wise up as she gets older and watches more of our income confiscated in the name of “fairness”.Sigh…
Nov 05, 2008 @ 03:01:59
I know some people who are totally in the tank for Obama. None of them are genuinely evil. They’re ignorant. They also buy into the class envy bred in the echo chamber of the leftist villifaction of “big business”. Some of the seem to want to vote for Obama because they hate Bush.Mostly, I’ve given up trying to understand it.