It’s time for a reboot. Switch off your television. Stop listening to the mainstream media. Both the left wing and the right wing news channels are full of complete garbage.
The left wing is afraid of citizens being left out on the streets, and wants to create more social programs and wants to tax the rich to pay for them. Those on the right know that this is lunacy.
The right wing is afraid of terrorists, and wants to continue massive military spending, start more wars, and expand internal security. Those on the left know that this is lunacy
The left bashes the right, and the right bashes the left. The divide gets wider and more people become polarized.
Perhaps instead of simply bashing the other side, you could work with them and agree on some issues that really stick out.
Raising taxes will not work. Britain found out the hard way; before being booted out in 2010 the socialist Labour government raised the top tax rate on British people to 50%. In the aftermath of this monumental stupidity two thirds of Britain’s millionaires fled the country. The overall tax revenue ended up dropping by 7 billion pounds. Luckily, the conservative led government has come to its senses and has plans to drop the top tax rate in the new years budget. What is even better about this is that while the conservatives have the majority in this new government, it is only with the coalition of the liberal democrat party. These are two monumentally different philosophies working hand in hand to better the country in these difficult times. It is not smooth and neither side always gets what it wants, but for the most part it is working.
In the US the only thing both sides of the isle can agree on is to tax more, spend more, start more wars and to destroy what little is left of the constitutionally protect freedoms American’s have revered for over two centuries.
You must clear the wool from your eyes and see this country for what it has become. Neither side is interested in what is best for you. This country is one of the most corrupt nations on the planet, and almost every senator and congressman is bought and paid for by special interests.
Aside from the debt ceiling and other major issues, there is a crisis of morality. We don’t hear about all the killings that our government carries out overseas, and yet we wonder why other nations hate us. We don’t teach the value of hard work any more, and we wonder why union members fight us.
Stop watching the mainstream news, and start doing your own research. Prepare yourself for the worse, but hope for the best. You are the difference between good and evil. You are the difference between right and wrong. You are the difference between happiness and and misery.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi
Be the light at the end of the tunnel. Build your life as best you can. Teach what you have learned along the way to others. Be the inspiration that ignites a new generation of liberty lovers, of peaceful warriors, of inventors, dreamers and explorers.
The revolution starts in the mind, it starts with you. If you have already swallowed the red pill from the movie ‘the matrix’ then keep tumbling down that rabbit hole. You are getting closer to the truth. Do not yearn for the blue pill where everything is rosy and nothing is ever wrong. There is much evil in the world, and it will be hard to witness once you have learned what is really going on. But you must see the world for what it is if you are to make any real difference.
“Misery is everywhere, accept it with a smile” – Cliffhangers Rules by Rich Hoffman
“Having a sense of humor saves you” – Joseph Campbell
Light up your own life, so that you might extinguish the darkness in the world. Be that shining example of all that is good in the world. Do not let your light fade because of fools who wish to suck the life out of you and use you as nothing more than a mere battery. You are more productive than they could ever be, and when you burn bright enough, your very existence will burn into their slimy hands until there are enough of you that they will shrink from existence from fear of being burned by it.
Stand up, speak out, do not give up.
“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” – Winston Churchill
Do your own research, look deeper, do not fall down, do not crumble, once you get past being upset, you will learn a greater depth of knowledge than many will ever know. Keep your spirits up, and know that there are many out there who feel just as you do.
Arm yourself with knowledge, and know that when the time comes, there will be others by your side.
“America is over $16 trillion in debt. The “official” unemployment rate still hovers around 8%. Our federal government claims the right to spy on American citizens, indefinitely detain them, and even assassinate them without trial.
Domestic drones fly over the country for civilian surveillance. Twelve million fewer Americans voted in 2012 than in 2008, yet political pundits scratch their heads.
It’s not hard to see why, though.
To go along with endorsing a never-ending policy of bailouts, “stimulus packages,” and foreign military adventurism, the establishment of neither major party questions the assaults on Americans’ liberties I’ve named above.
As my campaign showed, the American people are fed up. Many realized heading into Tuesday that regardless of who won the presidential election, the status quo would be the real victor.
GOP leadership is now questioning why they didn’t perform better.
They’re looking at demographic changes in the United States and implying minorities can only be brought into the party by loudly advocating for abandoning what little remains of their limited government platform and endorsing more statist policies.
My presidential campaign proved that standing for freedom brings people together.
Liberty is popular – regardless of race, religion, or creed.
As long as the GOP establishment continues to not only reject the liberty message, but actively drive away the young, diverse coalition that supports those principles, it will see results similar to Tuesday’s outcome.
A renewed respect for liberty is the only way forward for the Republican Party and for our country.
I urge all my Republican colleagues to join the liberty movement in fighting for a brighter future.”
It does not surprise me that the republicans lost the race for the white house. You get what you pay for. A rich out of touch guy with a vague (at best) plan to fix the economy and a base which ignores a large portion of its supporters running against an incumbent who passes himself off as being cool. This only leads to disaster.
The funny thing is, the youth voted for Reagan (the oldest ever president) thinking that he was cool and they loved his message. The youthful conservatives of today voted and supported Ron Paul during the primaries (a man who would have been the oldest ever president) because they thought he was cool and they loved his message.
The republicans of today are not the conservatives of Ronald Reagan. It is no surprise that after George Bush Sr a large portion broke away for Ross Perot, and since then they have lost two races to Clinton, barely scraped by against Gore and Kerry, and lost consecutively to Obama, the second time to a man who had a worse economy than Carter. Unfortunately Romney is no Reagan, so even with Obama being similar to Carter, he still won. If you wanted a Reagan revolution you had it laid out on a plate for you in the form of Ron Paul.
Many people forget or do not know that Reagan was never supposed to be president to begin with, it was supposed to be Bush Sr all along. The republicans learned their mistake from last time and did everything to shut out Ron Paul, so that they could get one of their groomed candidates to run again. It is no surprise that Reagan and Ron Paul broke the mold and did so well, because they offered real ‘hope and change’ a message which Obama adopted, even if it was only empty rhetoric on his part.
The way to win an election is to energize your base and appeal to other groups. That is why the democrats have been successful. Though their economic handling has been disastrous, they still pass themselves off as being cool and being tolerant. People like to vote for their hopes, not their fears.
The republican party has become the party of fear and hate. Conservatives hate Obama, and bash his supporters without mercy, they fear him, and even say so openly. This does not make them look good, but worse is their shunning of the youthful voters.
I am a capitalist and my views are very libertarian. Most of the people I know would be happy to vote conservative, if they would just stick to free market and civil liberty principles. Though we may be ‘pure’ by nature, we’d be happy if the conservatives just stuck to their own free market principles, which are supposed to run parallel to ours.
Had the conservatives looked at what the youth in the party was doing, what they were saying, and who they were following. If they had paid the slightest bit of attention, they would have flocked to Ron Paul and carried him to victory. Instead they for a second time went with someone ‘electable’ and then shot themselves in the foot by silencing the youth in a despicable manner. If you want anyone to blame for the loss of the 2012 elections, you must first look at the Obama supporters and then look at yourselves in a mirror. Your hatred, you intolerance, your fear has caused this to happen. You only have yourselves to blame. We did everything we could to get you to see reason, to get ourselves heard, to stick to true conservative principles, to elect a man who would have made a real difference in this country. And yet this man was shunned and set to the side by the media, the party, and the ‘loyal supporters’. Had we been given at the very least a fair hearing at the RNC, things would have turned out very differently.
But now we have a second Obama term, and we must reunite forces if we are to stop his atrocious agendas.
The Tea Party of 2010 must reignite itself, and push to take over the senate. It is a tragedy that we lost seats in this election, when we surely should have won them. This is what happens when a movement loses its way, ignores its own principles, shuns a large part of its supporters, and go’s with the party line. Too much time was spent trying to push an unpopular candidate on those who were not interested in him, and not enough effort was put on safeguarding ourselves through the senate. The arrogance of the republican party about getting Romney elected because ‘Obama sucks’ really turned potential voters away. There was absolutely no net increase in voters for the party between 2008 and 2012, in one of the worse economies and worse loss of civil liberties in a life time, that is truly a crying shame, and sticks out like a sore thumb about how far off track the party really is.
If we want to win the next election, if we want to stop the deficit, if we want to regain our civil liberties, the Ron Paul libertarian conservatives (mostly young people) must be embraced with open arms.
This cannot be the party of ‘no’. It must be the party of (dare I say it) ‘yes we can’. Yes we can restore this nation, yes we can rebuild the economy, yes we can defeat the democrats, but only if we get our edge back, only if we gain more voting blocks. And do you know what the easiest voting block is to take over? Youth. Even the college kids who currently worship Obama would vote republican if we put a cool guy like Ron Paul in, someone with a strong message, strong convictions, and a background to prove it. If thousands of people show up to see this old man talk at a college campus in the primaries, how many people do you think will show up for his son at a presidential event?
Forget abortion, forget gay marriage, forget drug enforcement; these issues make us look like we’re from the stone age and they pale in comparison to the economy and civil liberties, issues which are vital to our survival. Wake up, get hip, promote freedom, make it cool, and embrace the youth. It’s our future that’s at stake, so there’s plenty to talk about. If you want to regrow the party, that’s where to start.
The young conservatives of today will be the core of the republican party tomorrow, so you want to nurture that, not turn it away. The new generation of conservatives are more libertarian in nature than the previous generation. We are more tolerant of others beliefs and practices, but we’re more firm in our convictions on economics and civil liberties. Oh, and we already have a new candidate in mind, one that even the older conservatives can like.
Let’s get the ball rolling, let’s get to work on calling our representatives and putting their feet to the fire. Let’s gear up for the senate races in 2014 and let’s start the campaign for Rand Paul 2016!
I have mixed feelings about the 2012 election. I did not vote for Mitt Romney, but I also did not want Obama to win. I did everything I could to strengthen the liberty movement, and to help the libertarians to offset the corruption of the republican party. I voted for Gary Johnson for president to give the libertarians a cutting edge to build from, but I also voted for many republicans in house and senate seats to overthrow the diluted democrats, who simply do not get it.
I thought Mitt Romney was a progressive and that being elected as president would allow him to sweep our efforts under the rug because he is a conservative, if only in name. Perhaps he would have improved the economy slightly, and bumbled it along a little longer, but I think he also would have started a massive war with Iran, and he would have done nothing for our civil liberties. But all that aside, I know many of you worked hard to get him elected simply because he was the only person with enough power to beat Obama, who has turned out to be a terrible president, and a detriment to our freedoms and our way of life.
I would like to apologize to those who I have upset or offended during the course of this election period. I set out to get Ron Paul elected through the primaries. A man who I thought could actually change things for the better. Sadly he was shunned like a piece of garbage by the crooked establishment and the bought and paid for media. Ron Paul is one of the very few people who still shine as a beacon of hope in a wasteland of empty promises. But what’s done is done, and now we have to move forward. The points that I made over the course of the last few months, particularly against Mitt Romney and the establishment were to prove how corrupt they are and to illustrate just how far gone our republic is that he could ever possibly be our best chance to preserve freedom.
The republicans and the democrats are exceedingly corrupt, and we must continue to throw out the incumbents who do not follow the constitution, and install people who will actually do their jobs the way they are supposed to.
I will continue to point out faults in both parties, but I am willing to work with both the libertarians and the conservatives to find common ground so that we can create a bulwark against the tidal wave which is coming in the form of massive debt, the dollar collapse, and the erosion of civil liberties. Barack Obama’s policies are a detriment to our liberties, and we must stop the attack from both sides of the isle.
I would like to extend my thanks to those of you who worked on the side of liberty, whether we agreed on our methods or not, I know you did what you felt was right, and I did the same. Now is not the time to point fingers, but to find common ground and focus on our strengths so that we can build a future. I think every reader on here will agree on free markets, civil liberties and the protection of the constitution. I think also that by far the biggest issue of the day is the national debt, and we must work to plug the dam immediately if we are to avert a complete currency collapse.
I am willing to work with those of you who believe in individual liberties, and who are working hard to preserve them. I will continue to write articles to expose the looters, and combat the corrupt. I will continue to offer solutions and to explain my theories along with information that I have found along the way.
Though the storm clouds are gathering, and our greatest challenge is fast approaching, I know that we will prevail. The liberty movement is just getting started!
I know that many of you reading this right now are sad, upset, furious, concerned, even frightened to death about Obama gaining a second term. I know it feels like the world is coming to an end, and I know that we are seriously heading for a bumpy road ahead. The US has kicked its debt about as far down the road as it possibly can, and now is the time to force congress to pull their thumbs out and actually do something about it. I suggest you get out there and start pressuring your representatives to do something about it, I don’t care if they are republican or democrat, do not let up until they fix it.
What gives me hope is that before Barack Obama was ever elected president, I could never have imagined such a thing as the Tea Party. Before Barack Obama was elected, I had never even heard of Ayn Rand. Before Barack Obama was elected people weren’t talking about individual liberties and deficits in daily conversations, and now it’s all over the place.
Between the Atlas Shrugged movies and the Tea Party movements, between the alternative media channels and the politically aware out there, I know that this country has the potential to have its brightest days ahead of it.
I knew months ago that Barack Obama was going to win a second term, and I said weeks ago that our battles are only just getting started. “This is not the end, this is not the beginning of the end, but this is perhaps the end of the beginning” as Winston Churchill would say.
The Tea Party of 2010 needs to reboot itself and concentrate on local issues once more. Read your constitution, know your rights. The police state, the nanny state, the socialists and the fascists all want you to bend to their collective will. Well to hell with them! We know our rights, and we won’t go without a fight. I will not shuffle off slowly and quietly into the night. Make your stand, let your voice be heard. They don’t control us, they might have won this battle, but we will win this war, and secretly they’re scared to death of us. So shine your individual beacon of liberty where the creepers hide in the shadows, and let not your hearts be troubled. We have a power in us than cannot be stopped.
“An Idea who’s time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government” – Ron Paul
When I moved here I was sold on the idea of freedom.
The United States of America as it stands today; is not a free country.
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are not going to save this nation. These two men are parasites. Mitt Romney is not a great businessman; he is a looter of the highest caliber. Paul Ryan is not a great Ayn Rand prodigy; he is a moocher. Paul Ryan practically begged for the auto bailouts which Obama has been ridiculed for over the last four years. There is no clear evidence to prove there is any real difference in policy between a Romney and an Obama administration. Both men support more government, both men will destroy this country.
It is upsetting and infuriating to see people around you who believe in freedom, and yet do not know that they are part of the wall that separates all of us from it.
When it comes to spending and debt; wars are the highest cost. You cannot be pro liberty and pro war at the same time.
You cannot say that you believe in liberty and freedom of choice and be against legalizing drugs.
You cannot be for fiscal and personal responsibility and argue for different forms of medicare/Medicaid and social security.
It is up to individuals to make their own choices in life. If they make bad choices; they should pay the consequences. It is not up to me, you or big brother government to enforce our opinions on others. I do not want the DEA breaking down my door and shooting my dog because they got the wrong house on some stupid drug raid. I do not want my friends killed in some foreign land so that corrupt politicians can make a profit on an out dated fossil fuel. I do not want my wife grouped at an airport so that a corrupt company can make money on cancer giving body scanners. I want to be left the hell alone so that I can live my life as I see fit in my own way. That is what I thought this country was about. But apparently I was wrong. And the upsetting part is that so many people are so plugged into the system that they’ll even fight for bad parts of it, just so that other parts can’t gain control. But you know what? When you fight for evil; evil prospers. You cannot win in a rigged game.
When I first moved here I thought this country had avoided the pitfall of socialism and that freedom was flourishing. Unfortunately I found out that both Britain and America have both thrust themselves headlong down the path of totalitarianism. What a tragedy for all the brave men and women, for all the families of those who died in the last world war who thought they were fighting to preserve freedom and democracy in the world. Well to be fair, perhaps they did, at least for a few decades. But now, things are about as bad as they’ve ever been.
I like my father-in-laws concept (adapted from Nietzsche) about the overman. He calls himself the overman warrior. It means that he has become more than man, better than man if you will, and is a warrior for advancement past the usual pitfalls of life. The overman goes beyond petty emotions and is strong where others are weak. The overman sees through evil and does what is right no matter how great the adversaries.
At the young age of 17 Rich’s first book ‘the symposium of justice’ instilled a lot of great ideals in me. After having read his book, he suggested I read ‘the hero with a thousand faces’ by Joseph Campbell. The top three books that changed my life are Robert Kayosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Hoffman’s ‘Symposium of Justice’ and Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero with a thousand faces’. Between these three books during my teenage years, and some other great books since, I have been on a very different path than most. When you add that into having a great wife and having moved to a different country; it all adds up to a very different and very clear set of viewpoints on the world.
I absolutely adore Charlie Chaplin’s speech at the end of ‘the great dictator’. Every single time I watch his speech on YouTube I get a little choked up. How touching and how fitting it is for today’s global society, and how sad it is that it wasn’t paid attention to before all the killing of World War II.
“we don’t want to hate and despise one another…in this world there is room for everyone..” What a wonderful and touching thing to say.
I love capitalism, and when I say that I mean true lassie-fair capitalism. In its raw form it has brought the world from mud huts to skyscrapers, and from sweaty brick homes to air conditioned mansions. In its true form capitalism helps everyone.
I think the general population of the USA is being sold down the river in this election, in the same way they have been for the last few decades. It’s like the south park episode with the douche and the turd. Which crap do you want to vote for most?
I’m happy to report though, that there is a huge groundswell for liberty in this country. I love it’s history. People here have such an individualist attitude. Most people do not want to be told what to do.
There is a third option in this presidential race, and I am proud to say that I support it. I support it in the same way that the founding fathers supported and gave birth to the constitution.
I will help defend this fragile old document, because it is the most important thing worth saving in this country.
All the other subjects being talked about during the debates are just distractions to get you sold down the river.
Many people are still playing into the fallacy of republicans vs democrats. Does this really matter when our liberties and free markets are at stake?
There is only one candidate in the race for presidency who is for free markets and freedom, and it’s not Mitt Romney.
I get sad when I see political signs in people’s yards for Obama/Biden, it’s sad when people choose to ignore what’s going on around them. I get equally as sad when I see Romney/Ryan yard signs, because those people have learned nothing either.
I see republicans and democrats fighting over silly little issues when there are much larger ones at stake.
Why is it easier for many conservatives to believe Barack Obama is a communist Muslim, than simply a continuation of George W Bush?
Why is it easier for people to believe Romney is a fiscal conservative for small government, than a continuation of big government under Obama?
Why is it that instead of tackling the biggest deficit issue; which is our military spending and countless wars overseas, we are talking about shaving a hair here or a hair there off medicare and medicaid?
The elephant in the room is certainly the deficit, but you don’t hear about bringing the troops home and ending the massive military spending which is crippling this nation.
Why is it more acceptable to cut education and medicine, than our endless wars? Wouldn’t it be better to bring the troops home, slash military spending, cut taxes across the board and then start chipping away at the other issues? Wouldn’t this be a better way to allow individuals to create jobs?
The debates so far have been a complete farce. Oh sure, Romney and Ryan beat their counterparts, but doesn’t that seem like a hollow victory when they are almost identical in their big government agendas?
When we look at the media we see huge bias from both liberal and conservative news. Even in alternative media we have massive spin and bias stories. I believe people like Glenn Beck are masters of misinformation. Glenn talks of lowering the deficit, and yet shrieks whenever we don’t support Israel. A country which we send billions of dollars to every year.
Glenn protects Israel, which threatens Iran on a daily basis, and holds a stockpile itself of over 100 nuclear weapons. And yet demonizes all the Muslim countries, instead of promoting peace and trade.
Why are we not sitting down and looking at the real problems? Why are we continuing to allow ourselves to be played?
Yes, the liberals are starting to represent communism, but the conservatives are starting to resemble the Nazi’s of 1930’s Germany. Neither is acceptable.
Stop being distracted. Stop blaming each other. Look deeper into the issues. Liberty is at stake.
You are being played. Obedience to ‘the system’ only leads down the road to totalitarianism. Use your own mind.
Both the left and the right are controlled by outside influence. Break free of this system of oppression and form your own opinions.
It is not ‘left vs right’ it is ‘them vs us’. The central banks, and the shady people who control them from behind the scenes are the ones running the show. Stop being distracted. We can beat them, but only if you wake up.
Remember, the banks profited from the bloody wars of the 20th century, while millions were slaughtered. We have not had true capitalism since the early 20th century. Gold backed capitalist societies promote freedom. Endlessly printing paper money only leads to economic collapse and tyranny.
Mitt Romney is not going to save this country. Obama was elected for ‘hope and change’ anyone could pin their ideas to that. The same is true of Mitt Romney; people can pin their belief’s that he is a fiscal Conservative, free market man, and a limited government sponsor. In reality, when you look at the numbers, he is a big government spender, a fascist and a big government sponsor.
The shady flip flop nature of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, and their media accomplices, help paint a bland picture that you can attach your aspirations to. In reality, they are both continuing the big government programs of the Bush administration. Nothing changes from one administration to the next.
So instead of being distracted and divided, you might want to look at the numbers and what is really going on behind the scenes.
There is a man running who would put a stop to all this, but he will only win if you have the courage to get out and vote for him. Romney will not change anything if elected, so don’t vote for him out of fear for more Obama. While he may be a Muslim or a Marxist, that does not change the fact that he has continued almost all of Bush’s policies, and continued to move us along a path of empire and totalitarianism.
The only way to break free of this is to do something drastic.
I am no longer distracted, and my fellow patriots will not be divided. For my generation it really is liberty or death. So who is brave enough to wake up, smell what’s really cooking, and join us to put a stop to corruption and restore this nation?
What if you all tell your friends what’s really going on, and we all vote for Gary Johnson in November? Will it actually make a difference if you vote for the lesser of two evils? Or will it make a real difference if we vote on principle and advance the cause of liberty?
“life is without meaning, you bring the meaning to it” – Joseph Campbell
Well it’s been a hectic past couple of weeks. I wrote about the previous week in my last article, and this past week has been busy too, with end of quarter at work, and with a wedding on Saturday.
I got a chance to relax on Sunday and sit in the hot-tub at my in-laws house. While I was allowing the warm water to relax my muscles and the jets to massage the stress away, I was thinking about the past few weeks and about the future.
The reason I get into politics, is because I can see an erosion of freedom and responsibility in daily life. It is because of this that I argue my points across and try to make sense of it all.
When I take part in life, particularly when I take pictures of families at weddings, I’m not thinking about all the silly politics that goes on. I’m thinking of the meaning of life, and all the family and friends who are supporting the new couple. I’m thinking about how happy everyone is, and how to capture their smiles in the most natural way possible without them even realizing it.
I found out this morning that the father of the bride of one of our previous weddings, died on Saturday, around the same time that we were taking pictures of a newly wed couple and their families dancing and having fun. It is with bitter irony that you realize how fragile life is, and that while one family is singing and dancing, another is going through the terrible pain of loss.
This is the second time this year that a close relative of a newly wed couple has died shortly after us taking the last pictures of them. Its a haunting feeling to know that you took the last ever picture of them alive. The comforting aspect is that you know that you captured a memory of them for the family to treasure even long after they are gone.
With the birth of my second nephew, and the thoughts of starting a family of my own, I return to the political spectrum and wonder how much of a future there will be in the world without peace.
If the death of one person can upset so many people, how would a huge war make you feel? When you realize that many thousands of people die in conflict each year.
If we cannot balance a budget or restrict government growth, if we cannot stop the lobbyists and the corrupt politicians from sending our young men out to war, and continue to restrict growth through legislation. Then how much of a future will there be, not just for us, but for the world?
A friend sent me an email this morning of the space shuttle discovery. It shows the cockpit, and all the instruments. After many conversations with him about Star Trek and space travel, it seems as if we are going backwards as a civilization. Why are we not out there traveling the solar system? Why are we constantly bombing each other and starting wars? Why do we have a ‘war on drugs’? Why can’t we just leave each other alone, and only punish those who actually literally harm others?
Why do we feel the need to use the government as a way to redistribute wealth? Why do we feel the need to use the government to create benefit programs, when charities are perfectly capable of taking care of those in need?
Life has no meaning unless you bring meaning to it. When you are born, you are an empty vessel. It is up to your parents to teach you how to walk and talk. After that, it is up to you to continue the learning process. It is up to you to advance yourself. It is up to you not to hold yourself back. You must do what you feel is right. You must hold yourself to your own highest moral standards.
Life moves forward when you cherish it, and advance yourself through productive means. When you embrace knowledge and creativity, when you learn all that you can, and work toward your goals. You can and will achieve anything.
When you reject the old, the useless, the warn out policies of the past, and embrace new ideas built upon the learning of successes throughout the world, then you will have achieved a bright new future in which anything is possible.
I reject the two party system in politics because it is broken and it does not work. From an outside perspective, and can say they are almost identical.
I reject war because it is a racket. I am perfectly capable of defending myself.
I embrace the US constitution, because it is the most well written document to protect and embrace freedoms that the world has ever seen.
I embrace liberty and free markets because they allow the individual to create whatever he or she desires, and then sell that product to others to enhance their own lives.
I embrace value, true value, because if you value your life, the lives of others, the value of the inventions created by men of the mind.
I embrace new technologies. These new technologies were invented, and without them, we would still live in caves and would not have a civilization to begin with.
I embrace nature, because nature is abundant, and everything erupts forth from it.
I embrace respect. Because without it, fights ensue, and ideas get squashed. It is not the better idea that succeeds in battle, but the person with the largest hammer. Battles are necessary from time to time, but logic should always be supported by fact, and then brought forward as the successor.
Life has meaning when you bring meaning to it. What is the meaning of your life? What have you done today? What have you done to enhance and enrich your own life? And in turn, what have you done to enhance and enrich the lives of those around you?
Your hard work pays off when you keep going despite bumps in the road. Sometimes you have to stop and alter your course slightly, or even go off road, but if you stay on track you will get to your destination.
When was the last time you looked up at the stars? Can you imagine a better future?
What did you do to make your life happy today?
Are you living a happy life?
We live for our own happiness. If we are not happy, or able to find contentment, then our lives are wasted. You only get one shot at life. So make it a good one.
I have nothing to gain from these posts except a chance at a future.
There are periods in history where the individual must stand up and fight, or perish with the collective. We are currently living in such a time.
I do not relish the idea of pounding out an article each day. Well; not every day. There are days, as in recently that I’d rather just wake up, take a shower, make a pot of coffee, cook breakfast and take the dog for a walk, and not think about anything but the fresh morning smell and the sun rising.
The reason I study politics and philosophy is because politics affects my life whether I like it or not, and philosophy is the key to unlocking the potential to change the status quo and deal with life in general.
In a political sense, I do not fall into the left/right paradigm. It makes no sense to me, and I only take part in it when there is advancement to be gained toward liberty and economic freedom.
With the current presidential contenders from the democrats and republicans there is a dead heat. They are both as bad as each other. I don’t buy the idea that Barack Obama is an undercover Marxist Muslim here to drive the country back into the stone age. Equally I wouldn’t call Mitt Romney a great businessman, or our lord and savior. At best, these two clowns are puppets who will do whatever their financial backers tell them to. Almost all of those in power have been bought and paid for, and it does not matter if they are all Marxists in disguise or if they are fascists only interested in a quick buck. They are all bad, and they need to go.
I’m not interested in term limits, because there are good congressmen out there such as Ron Paul who have served well for over two decades. Term limits would only give the wrong-doers a tighter time frame to commit their evil acts.
Our problems are far deeper than ‘the economy’, ‘benefits’, ‘medicare/medicaid’ and all the other ‘issues’ that have been trumped up by the past administrations and played like a pied piper for all of us to debate about fruitlessly and endlessly.
The United States has the most advanced document that enshrines human freedom ever conceived by human intelligence. The protection of this document and the enforcement of it by its citizens is paramount to the survival of this country and to the world.
Before the US constitution there was the Magna Carta, a document which was signed in my very own home town of Canterbury, England. For me; freedom and the ability to say and do as you please runs deep.
If we do not restrict the power of government from both sides of the US political isle soon, we will lose the ability to do so entirely.
For my generation, it really is liberty or death. We are not much interested in all the other ‘issues’. On our current path; which is nearing hyperinflation; we know that the economy will fail. We can deal with that, we can rebuild that. But if we lose freedom now, we will never again see it in our lifetime. Economies boom and bust, but can be rebuilt. But can a country which has lost its moral compass return to freedom so quickly? I doubt it.
No one in my age group who I have spoken to seriously about politics is going to vote for Romney or Obama. They are all Ron Paul supporters. We will all be voting for Gary Johnson in this election period, in support of the same ideals. If you are serious about defending liberty, and providing a chance at a future for my generation, I suggest you do the same.
It does not matter if we win the election or not. Mitt Romney is not going to beat Barack Obama. Romney is too stiff, too out of touch, and his rejection of the young and grassroots movements has already cost him the election.
Can we survive another four years of Obama? That is uncertain. Can we afford not to make a difference in this election? No. We must make a difference. The more people vote libertarian, the bigger the message will be to Washington to change its ways. Who knows, we might even win.
Freedom is not won overnight. It takes many battles, many of which will be lost, but over time the message will spread and the war will be won. But it is up to the individuals to stand up and make a difference. And that is why we fight.
Many voters on both sides of the political spectrum are currently experiencing ‘Stockholm syndrome’.
Mitt Romney has a terrible record as governor of Massachusetts, and so does US House Representative Paul Ryan. And yet now that they are on the campaign trail they say a few nice things that make us feel good, and the republicans support them.
The same is true with the Democrats. Barack Obama has been a terrible president, and yet his supporters still root for him as the lesser of two evils, even though he passed the NDAA act and kept our troops over seas.
George Bush was supposed to be a moderate conservative and yet he massively increased spending, the debts, government and he started two wars. Obama is a continuation of that presidency, and Mitt Romney is an expansion and continuation of that further. And yet we see people on both sides clinging strongly to their statist candidates because they are afraid of what ‘the other side’ might do if elected to office. Rather than realize that their own party is as damaging to their livelihoods and freedoms as ‘the other side’.
We are now expected to vote through fear of what the other side might do if allowed to get office, rather than realizing that both are wrong and will only harm us.
The republican establishment showed last week that it is not interested in your constitutional rights, they laid out in plain sight this year that they are only interested in unbridled power. The RNC prevented Ron Paul from speaking, and shut down any chance of him being nominated.
We have heard that “we need to vote in Romney in first! Then we can influence him!” which sounds like something Nancy Pelosi would say “we need to vote for it first before we read it”.
We’ve now got people thinking that Mitt Romney is a good manager and thinking outside of the box for picking Ryan as a fiscal conservative, which is completely unfounded, given his voting record.
Paul Ryan is not a good man, and is beginning to show his colors again while campaigning. Remember that Paul Ryan practically begged for the auto bailouts:
Mitt Romney chose to shun Ron Paul, who, if only he’d been allowed to speak, and his delegates been allowed to share their voices and concerns, may well have put their support behind him. Instead he choose to put up Clint Eastwood, whom I admire greatly. But Mitt Romney’s Dirty Harry stunt backfired. The liberal media of course derided the speech, but interestingly, so did the conservative media including Glenn Beck. This has helped to expose the fallacy of the left/right media paradigm, and has exposed that they are all corrupt. Not only that, but Clint Eastwood’s speech overshadowed Mitt Romney’s highly edited, polished and robotic speech which was very vague and didn’t specify how to actually fix the economy or return lost liberties to the nation.
It’s very telling of what the republican establishment is doing, when they’d rather have an old man talk to a chair in front of the crowd, than allow another old man to talk about the future of the party and how to restore liberties. I liked the things that Clint said as much as the things Ron say’s, but I’ll stick with Ron on not endorsing Romney.
In a time when information is available everywhere, ignorance is a choice.
I would encourage you to learn about the candidates, what they stand for, and to look at what the power structure is doing in each party.
The republicans are already showing their true colors again. They did nothing good for the country during the Bush administration, and now that they are close to having full power of the house, senate and presidency, they are showing once again what fumbling fools they are. They are simply a milder version of the democrats. Think of Bud light and Budweiser, there’s not much difference in the two of them.
Many people who are over sixty years old believe that anyone but Obama will be good for the country, but they cannot support their arguments with facts, only rhetoric, and memories from the good old days of Eisenhower and Reagan. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have the people who are under forty, almost all of whom support Ron Paul, and are beginning to understand that both parties are deeply flawed and do not follow the constitution.
The liberals were infiltrated by statist ideas a long time ago, and it has become very obvious. The infiltration of the right is less obvious, but it has happened.
The Overton window is a political theory that describes as a narrow “window” the range of ideas that the public will respond to as acceptable, and that the political viability of an idea is primarily defined by this rather than individual preferences of a given politician. It is named after its originator, Joseph P. Overton, former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. At any given moment, the “window” includes a range of policies considered to be politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too “extreme” or outside the mainstream to gain or keep public office.
So how do we escape the perpetual downward trend of statism? The first thing to do is to recognize the problem. This chart will help you figure out where you stand on liberties and freedoms:
Libertarians offer an alternative answer to our current problems. You might even be a libertarian yourself.
There is only one escape option left for the nation right now, and that is a 3rd party candidacy. Ron Paul was our last chance to steer the republican party from within.
FROM DR RON PAUL
8.27.12
As we enter the fall political season, we will hear a great deal of rhetoric from both major political parties and their many candidates for office. It’s important for us to remember, however, that words can be made meaningless by misuse or overuse. And when we as citizens allow politicians to obscure the truth by distorting words, we diminish ourselves and our nation.
For example, we’ve all heard politicians use the words “democracy” and “freedom” countless times. They are used interchangeably in modern political discourse, yet their true meanings are very different. They have become what George Orwell termed “meaningless words”. Words like “freedom,” “democracy,” and “justice,” Orwell explained, have been abused for so long that their original meanings have been eviscerated. In Orwell’s view, such words were “often used in a consciously dishonest way.” Without precise meanings behind words, politicians and elites can obscure reality and condition people to reflexively associate certain words with positive or negative perceptions. In other words, unpleasant facts can be hidden behind purposely meaningless language. As just one example, Americans have been conditioned to accept the word “democracy” as a synonym for freedom. Thus we are conditioned to believe that democracy is always and everywhere benevolent. The problem is that democracy is not freedom. Democracy is simply majoritarianism, which is inherently incompatible with freedom. While our Constitution certainly features certain democratic mechanisms, it also features inherently undemocratic mechanisms like the First Amendment and the Electoral College. America is a constitutional republic, not a democracy. Yet we’ve been bombarded with the meaningless word “democracy” for so long that few Americans understand the difference. If we intend to use the word freedom in an honest way, we should have the simple integrity to give it real meaning: Freedom is living without government coercion. So when a politician talks about freedom or liberty–regardless of the issue being discussed– ask yourself whether he is advocating more government force or less. The words “liberal” and “conservative” have also been abused. “Liberalism,” which once stood for civil, political, and economic liberties, has become a synonym for omnipotent coercive government. Liberalism has been redefined to mean liberation from material wants, always via a large and benevolent government that exists to create equality on earth. “Conservatism,” meanwhile, once meant respect for tradition and distrust of active government. But in recent decades conservatism has been redefined as support for big-government grandiosity via military adventurism, corporatism, and inflationary monetary policy. The modern political right has redefined conservatism into support for an all-powerful central state, provided that the state furthers supposedly conservative goals. Orwell certainly was right about the use of meaningless words in politics. Our task, therefore, is to reclaim our language and reclaim our liberties. If we hope to remain free, we must cut through the fog and attach concrete meanings to the words politicians use to deceive us.
I hope my posts are somewhat of a counsel to those who are rubbing their eyes in disbelief. I know its hard to give up ideas you’ve held for so long about certain people and certain parties, but the cause of liberty and freedom is worth the sacrifice. I’d rather be told a cold hard truth and learn to live with it, than to be told a comforting lie, only to have its bitterness slowly seep in over time and rot from the inside out.
Do not be discouraged, do not be upset, once you have learned what has happened to both sides of the two party system, you can begin to rebuild your ideas and share them with others. There are many good intellectual libertarian websites out there where you can learn more, and do your part to return liberty and free market concepts to this once free nation.
The time for a third party has come. The time to restore liberties is now. We must restore this nation. Give me liberty or give me death!
Becoming American 