Odd. I Wasn't A Republican Yesterday

I will make a very brief mention of politics (I generally try to avoid it on the blog). Yesterday was an odd day for me. I have, in my brief time as a voter, always voted Republican. Yesterday I did not.

Of course I live in one of those states where my vote is unlikely to significantly matter; Texas goes Republican. But I voted anyway. It is the principle of the thing.

So yesterday I voted Libertarian. I did not vote Democrat because I mostly revile just about every key aspect of their agenda. I believe in small government. I believe that things like welfare and education should be the responsibility of the people (and from my perspective, the church should be the leader in this). I believe that the government should stay out of the realm of social issues as much as possible. I believe in low taxes. I believe that somebody needs to take a can of gasoline to the federal government and set it on fire. And since Bush has so far failed miserably in doing these things (he has lowered taxes, but a) not enough and b) he didn’t lower spending) and the Republicans don’t seem to care enough to do anything about it, as shown by their choice of McCain, they are definitely not the party for me.

On the subject of taxes, I believe that both Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham should be put in jail for their crimes. It is not ethically right to oppress the poor. It is also not ethically right to steal from the rich and give to the poor. And that will be exactly what the government does and what Obama wants to do more. Some idiots somewhat misguided folk seem to think that this is in line with Jesus’ and the early church’s supposed "communism". Being generous is good; taking people’s money to be generous on their behalf was not a part of the Christian agenda.

My political thoughts have actually changed quite dramatically over the last few years. Some things seem so obvious to me now; yet I don’t hear many saying it. For example, I think it is basically self-evident that the United States government is only genuinely good at one thing, which is blowing things up. It isn’t good about education. It isn’t good about spending. It isn’t good about helping you prepare for your retirement. It isn’t good at welfare. And according to the approval ratings of the president (R) and congress (D) people clearly see this. Yet we just had two major candidates, both of which who would have definitely increased the size and reach of our government. I see a disconnect here.

So yesterday I voted Libertarian. Unlike Obama and McCain, he was the only one on the ticket that had any intention of making the government smaller. Of course he got less than 1% of the popular vote. This is sometimes what voting your principles gets you. If the Republicans want my vote in the future, they will have to find a candidate that looks more like a Libertarian than a Democrat.