Why You Should Vote For A Third Party Candidate This Election
November 3, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · 7 Comments
The Cause of Liberty does not endorse specific candidates and/or political parties; we seek truth from all and do our best to help community members make educated decisions. This post is not meant to endorse parties or candidates; rather, it is meant as a long-term strategy for freedom.
Having said this, the case for a third-party vote in this election is a simple three-part formula: 1) we live in a virtual democracy, 2) more discontentment exists now than ever before, and 3) Ron Paul’s campaign, as perhaps the most viable anti-status quo movement in America’s post-Revolutionary War history, was a tangible demonstration of both discontentment and the rising numbers and influence of independent thinkers.
1. Virtual Democracy
Although our governmental forms are technically set up as a constitutional republic, elected representatives act as if America is a democracy. They don’t make decisions based upon what they think is right; they make decisions based upon what they think the People want, based on polling data. We’re a de jure republic, but a de facto democracy.
This means that whoever gets elected will listen to the People.
2. Rising Discontentment
More and more people realize that two-party monopolization can be limiting and destructive. All evidence suggests that we’re on the verge of a depression. Bankruptcies and layoffs are reaching record highs.
More and more people want real change. They want more than discussions about what Federal Reserve-determined interest rates should be; they want discussions about whether or not the Fed should even exist. They want to discuss the legitimacy of the war in Iraq, not how many troops should be there. They want discussions based upon principles, not simply issues. They want fundamental, rather than surface-level, incremental change.
We haven’t seen this much discontentment since the presidency of Herbert Hoover. The result of that discontentment was FDR and the New Deal; we now have the opportunity to harness current discontentment and turn America in the opposite direction.
The way to harness the opportunity is to vote for a third party — not because a third party candidate will win this election, but because whoever does get elected will be more likely to cater to the independent freedom thinkers because of our solidified vote in favor of fundamental change.
Since we live in a virtual democracy, a massive third-party voting block sends a message to our next President that he will not ignore.
3. Ron Paul’s Campaign For Liberty
Ron Paul broke records this election and provided solid evidence of people fed up with status quo thinking and policies. His book The Revolution: A Manifesto has stayed on bestseller lists for months. He didn’t get the party nomination, but he did send a message: the people are ready for real change.
The relevance of Ron Paul to this discussion is to provide further evidence for those who argue that a third-party vote just hands the election to “the other guy.” As the thinking goes, Ross Perot gave the election to Bill Clinton, etc. I myself have made this argument in the past.
But this election is different, simply because independent, third-party thinking is much more prevalent and much more viable than it ever has been. Also, the people are beginning to see that there’s not much difference between the two main parties anyway. Are we really better off because we’ve had George W. Bush, rather than Al Gore or John Kerry for the past eight years? I’m inclined to think that either of them would have eroded our freedoms less than President Bush.
Conclusion
We can and we must send a message to Washington this election. A third party candidate isn’t going to win the election, but a record-breaking third-party vote will make the elected President pay attention and cater to us. Status quo thinking and policies are going to be the death of us. We need fundamental change, which is something that neither the Democratic or Republican party candidates are capable of offering.
For those who claim that you’re throwing your vote away by voting third party, my challenge is to question how voting for either Obama or McCain is not throwing your vote away. Vote for status quo and you’re going to get status quo, which in our current circumstances is tantamount to a wasted vote, and the further decline of freedom and of America.
Vote third party and your candidate will not get elected, but the next president will be that much more likely to pay attention to the independent freedom movement. It’s the strategic approach in a virtual democracy controlled by two main parties — without much tangible difference between them. Remember that we’re not fighting a battle; we’re fighting a war. A third party vote will lose the battle (as will a vote for the status quo candidates, for that matter), but it places us in a better position to win the long-term war.
We’ve never had as much momentum — as a result of discontentment — than we have now. Let’s harness that discontentment by sending a message to Washington that status quo thinking is no longer acceptable.
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Obama “In His Own Words”: Clues To Recognize Propaganda
October 27, 2008 by Stephen Palmer · 5 Comments
“Propaganda is to democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.” -Noam Chomsky
Today the following disheartening email was forwarded to me, and I feel the need to comment on it plainly.
Here’s the email, followed by my commentary:
Subject Line: Obama Quotes From His Books — In HIS Own Words!
Text:
Check out these quotes from his books yourself. FORWARD TO ALL YOU CAN.
From Dreams of My Father: “I ceased to advertise my mother’s race at the age of 12 or 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites.”
From Dreams of My Father: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s race.”
From Dreams of My Father: “There was something about him that made me wary, a little too sure of himself, maybe. And white.”
From Dreams of My Father: “It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names.”
From Dreams of My Father: “I never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. It was into my father’s image, the black man, son of Africa , that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself, the attributes of Martin and Malcolm, DuBois and Mandela.”
And FINALLY the Most Damning one of ALL of them!!!
From Audacity of Hope: “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
If you have never forwarded an e-mail, now is the time to Do so!!! We CANNOT have someone with this type of mentality running our GREAT nation!! I don’t care whether you are a Democrat or Republican, or a Conservative. We CANNOT turn ourselves over to this type of character in a President. PLEASE help spread the word.
P.S. At a recent political rally (media did not report, of course), Obama referenced our “57 states.” Of course we only have 50 states, HOWEVER, there are 57 Muslim controlled countries!!!!
Obama is certainly not my choice for President, but integrity and good judgment dictate that I take a stand against mean-spirited and deceptive propaganda, regardless of the target. I understand and love the passion that motivates such things, but this email is a misguided, propagandized, and highly inappropriate smear campaign. It’s based in fear and it will only perpetuate fear.
Four Clues To Recognize — And Reject — Propaganda From Any Source
More than just condemning the email, however, I want to offer the following four clues for seeing through any mass email and/or advertisement, political or otherwise:
1. Excessive Use of Exclamation Points & Capitalized Letters
Fourteen exclamation points in a 291-word email is a glaring red flag for any message. And any sentence ending in more than one consecutive exclamation point should be immediate cause for deleting the email without further consideration. Anything more than three consecutive exclamation points is just laughable.
Exclamation points and scattering capitalized letters are like swearing: they are “the weak attempt of a feeble mind to express itself forcefully,” in the immortal words of an old friend.
2. Quotes Taken Out of Context
Taking quotes out of context is the worst, most damaging kind of lie. To clarify, I have not read either of the books referenced, yet I’ve been personally criticized — as I’m sure every reader has been — enough to recognize the crippling deception of out-of-context quotes.
Furthermore, the person who wrote this and anyone who forwards it must be unaware of the significant race issues that still plague America today. I recently finished a book project for Len Burnett, the ex-Vice President of Vibe Magazine, and my in-depth research opened my eyes to this fact. I sympathize with Barack’s words, which obviously speak of the confusion of choosing between races in a world where race is still a charged issue. His words speak of the difficult journey of a youth; not the political mind of an adult.
I find nothing unreasonable or objectionable in the referenced quotes; they are perfectly understandable and justifiable in a nation whose original Constitution referenced African-American individuals as being three-fifths of a person. Snopes published this excellent article that illustrates the true context of each quote.
3. Bald-Faced Lies
The “most damning” quote is an outright misrepresentation — to put it plainly, a bald-faced lie: “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.” I’ve checked out several sources to verify the true statement, which is as follows:
“Of course, not all my conversations in immigrant communities follow this easy pattern. In the wake of 9/11, my meetings with Arab and Pakistani Americans, for example, have a more urgent quality, for the stories of detentions and FBI questioning and hard stares from neighbors have shaken their sense of security and belonging. They have been reminded that the history of immigration in this country has a dark underbelly; they need specific assurances that their citizenship really means something, that America has learned the right lessons from the Japanese internments during World War II, and that I will stand with them should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”
In my view, Obama could not be any more right on in this area. I stand fully behind him in relation to this quote. It seems that one of the casualties of the War on Terror is common decency. Every freedom-loving American should hope and pray that we get a President this wise as regards this particular issue.
And who are “the Muslims” anyway? Is that like the “Catholics” or the “Protestants?” Why are we supposed to be so afraid of a person who vows to stand behind “the Muslims?”
4. Anecdotal Inferences With No Proof
I found the “P.S.” to be particularly laughable: “At a recent political rally (media did not report, of course), Obama referenced our “57 states.” Of course we only have 50 states, HOWEVER, there are 57 Muslim controlled countries!!!!”
First of all, we’re given zero proof that this ever happened — in fact, the writer negates our ability to prove or disprove it with the insertion that the “media did not report.” Ah, of course — we’re in the Information Age nine days away from one of the most critical presidential elections in history and not a single media outlet saw fit to report such a blunder, even if just for laughs.
Secondly, even if it did happen, there are infinite possibilities to explain it, other than the bizarre inference. I’d love to question the person who wrote this, as well as anyone who has forwarded it, if they have ever misspoken in their lives. If so, then they are obviously America/whites/Christian-hating, Muslim-loving, power-mongers who are out to ruin the country. It really is that preposterous. And may God and fellow Americans have mercy on the person who ever runs for political office and who has participated in such smear campaigns.
Conclusion
This article is more than an analysis of one petty email; it’s a plea to every reader. Make your judgments of political candidates based on fact, not hearsay and propaganda. Give candidates the benefit of the doubt — they may disagree with you and they may even be wrong, but I believe every one of them are sincerely doing what they feel is best to help America. Nobody, no matter how opposed their views are to ours, deserves the kind of treatment that has been smeared on Barack Obama in this email.
Frankly, I’d rather live in a nation run by Barack Obama than by those who write and spread deceptive propaganda against him. I’ll take open and honest socialists over deceptive, under-handed capitalists any day. At least Obama tells us his policies openly; conservative/Republican deceivers will do and say anything to get the vote, then start the tyranny as soon as they’re in office. (Hmm…sounds strangely familiar.) We have far more to fear from harbingers of propaganda, no matter how “conservative” they may be, than from the likes of Barack Obama.
Make your vote about what you believe in, not about what you’re opposed to. Forget about fighting against Barack Obama or any other candidate and start fighting for your preferred candidate, values, and platform. And never, ever spread propaganda of any form; doing so only makes us become what we’re fighting against.
The moral high ground is the most crucial real estate to maintain in any cause or political campaign. If one’s cause is just, there is never a need for deception.
Bucking the System: My Choice For President
October 25, 2008 by Ryan Heneise · 4 Comments
Guest Contributor
(Note: The Cause of Liberty does not endorse particular political candidates or parties. We do, however, support independent, insightful thinking that leads to greater freedom, which we feel this article represents. Enjoy!)
I love change. I love hope. And I love choices. But something about the way our electoral process works really rubs me the wrong way.
Sure, it’s great that we get to vote for our President. But someone out there –- someone with power –- has picked my two choices for me, and for the past year has been hammering it into my head that if I don’t choose one of these two prescribed choices, then I’m throwing my vote away.
You know what I realized? Aside from minor policy differences, like what percentage of a tax cut the middle class will get, and whether we should invade this country or that country, there really is very little difference between the two mainstream candidates. Both Senators Obama and McCain voted in support of FISA, the Patriot Act, and the Bailout Bill, three of the most odious and nefarious acts of legislation that have done incredible damage to the American way.
Neither of these two candidates provide any real solutions, and when put to the test, we see that in the end, a vote for McCain is the same as a vote for Obama; and neither will bring about any real change or mitigate or destroy the corruption that now gnaws away at the character of our government, nor will they stop the cancerous expansion of government powers that make our current government look and act more and more like the government of King George, from whom we won our Independence.
So if there is no real difference between the two, and I’m only voting for one or the other because I want to be on the winning side, or because I want to vote for one so the other won’t win, then I am truly wasting my vote.
What’s a patriot to do?
Well, did you know that there are actually six noteworthy candidates (plus a few others) for president this election? “But,” you say, “none of these candidates can win. Why bother voting at all?” You’re right, we might as well just give up. No sense in playing if we can’t be on the winning team, right?
Look, the whole country is saying that. Everybody is just rolling over and letting the political establishment have its way with them. If we all just comply then we’re going to get exactly what people with power want to give us. That’s what the American Revolution was about folks!
In a way, the American Revolution continues to this day. The fight against tyranny and oppression will go on as long as there are good and evil (and I don’t mean the “axis of evil” – I mean real evil, and people who would use power to harm other people). As long as we’re here on this earth we each have a responsibility to fight to maintain our freedom and our individual rights and to preserve and protect our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
The Constitution (read it, it’s good) limits the government’s power, and it grants the government power only by the consent of the governed. Our responsibility as citizens is to give that consent, to withhold our consent to tyranny, and to keep the government accountable by electing officials that respect the people and their position as representatives of the people.
One of the most obvious ways that we fulfill this responsibility is by choosing our executive, our President. If we believe in the Constitution, then we ought to elect a president who shares our reverence of liberty, freedom, and the Constitution, and who has demonstrated an understanding of these tenets, and who will do the most to uphold these precious things.
That is why I have decided to support Chuck Baldwin for President of the United States.
Baldwin does not have as much political experience as Obama or McCain, but in this case I think that might be a good thing. He certainly is not part of the political establishment. Based on his writings, his history, and his character recommendations, I believe that Chuck Baldwin is the candidate best suited to execute the office of President of the United States.
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Ryan Heneise grew up as a missionary kid in Haiti. He’s lived in West Virginia, Florida, Chile, and California, and now resides with his wife and two young children in Texas. A programmer/entrepreneur by trade and non- profit aficionado by heritage, Ryan’s latest venture is Donor Tools, a donor management product for non-profits.
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What Does it Mean to Be “American?”
October 24, 2008 by Mike Wilson · Leave a Comment
Representative Michele Bachmann from Minnesota recently accused (and she was not the first) Barack Obama of holding positions that are ”anti-American.” What did she mean? In order to define what it means to be “anti-American” we should define what it means to be “American” and use examples from history to see if our judgment is fair or even accurate.
Was Patrick Henry “American?” Was he who emphatically and boldly challenged: “…but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” American? Or did his adamant opposition to the Constitution as it was written in 1787-88 make him “anti-American?”
What does it mean to be “American?” The fundamental philosophies and ideas that undergird the founding of the American Republic are the following (feel free to add suggestions): 1) equality before the law; 2) national and local sovereignty; 3) powerful self-governance and self-determination; 4) peace through strength; 5) disdain for imperialism and privilege; 6) “light on the hill” example of freedom; and 7) a willingness to fight against tyranny and oppression in all its forms.
Which of these principles is Barack Obama opposed to? How many of these principles have been not only ignored, but trampled by the policies of the outgoing Republican administration? Which “America” is Rep. Bachmann talking about?
Was Henry David Thoreau being “anti-American” in his willingness to be jailed for his refusal to pay a poll tax used to finance the Mexican-American War, which he believed to be unjust?
Was Martin Luther King Jr. “anti-American” when he helped “freedom riders” show Americans the absolute “un-American-ness” of “separate, but equal” and segregation?
When will we stop questioning one another’s “American-ness,” or patriotism? I am as grateful for those whose patriotism is demonstrated in fighting with truth and justice to protect my rights at home from an ever-increasingly invasive government as I am for those who fight with weapons with defend my life. What gives Rep. Bachmann the right to question anyone’s “American-ness”, especially when America is made up of thinking individuals who see things distinctly from their neighbor?
I challenge you to find someone whose motives you have questioned, then make a conscious effort to trust their motives, their love for their country, and the hope they have for its people.
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Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
I heard it on…Princess Bride?
October 4, 2008 by Aspen Eggimann · 1 Comment
“Do you always begin conversations this way?”
The most humorous conversations are peppered with quotes from the classic movie Princess Bride. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading and go watch it. Like any good classic it gets better and more applicable each time seen.
What can we learn from this classic? Let me point out a few lessons that I think fit perfectly with our times.
1. When I hear our presidential candidates use the word “change” every couple of minutes, unfailingly Indigo’s voice comes into my head saying, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Change is not being in Afghanistan versus Iraq, or visa versa. It is getting out of foreign nations we shouldn’t be in.
Change in education is not working on “No Child Left Behind” as was suggested in the VP Debate. Change would be getting the Federal Government out of education and and giving that power back to the parents and states.
2. As for the bailout just passed in Congress;
“Think it will work?”
“It would take a miracle.”
One senator, after changing his vote to yes on the economic bailout, said that the fear on Wall Street was going to affect Main Street.
Maybe it is time that Wall Street be afraid.
As a nation we cannot continue on in our current economic situation. We have become a nation that consumes more than it creates, spends more then it earns, and takes more then it gives.
Wall Street does affect Main Street, so let us start the process of changing our economic strategies as a nation. Having the government there to catch business when it falls only prolongs and extenuates the long range problems we will face.
3. Longfellow said our nation was a “ship of state” and that all humanity hung upon its fate. If that is the case where is the watchmen crying, “Look! The cliffs of insanity!”
4. I always get a funny feeling when I hear someone in government make statements about easing the burdens of the American people, having the government look out for the middle class and defending the common workers of America. For as the Dread Pirate Roberts said, “Life is pain… Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.”
It is human nature to tend to fall into a trap of wanting things to be easier, to not have to think about problems and to let someone else do the dirty work for us. But it is better to do the work then buy up the services of the government and let it run our lives.
In closing, “Let me explain — no there is to much — let me sum up.”
First, understand that the current debates between presidential candidates are not about change in policy; they are about change in approach.
Second, as uncertain as the future of our economy is right now, “bailouts” aren’t going to help. Ronald Reagan once said that you can talk to a child until you’re blue in the face about spending — or you can cut their allowance. Giving more money isn’t going to cure the mismanagement of it. Our $700 billion dollars is only a band aid on a gaping wound.
Third, lets listen to people who are telling us we are headed towards disaster.
Fourth, now is the time to reclaim the responsibility of self-governance and watch over our nation and communities. Lets stop abdicating our responsibility to others in exchange for convenience.
And next time you watch Princess Bride, think about government — I promise you’ll learn a lot.
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Copyright © 2008 by The Cause of Liberty. All rights reserved.
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