What The Hell Is It Going To Take?

I was sitting around the cafeteria the other morning before starting work and one of the guys I work with asked me who I thought was going to be our next President. I wanted to say something sarcastic like, "What do I look like, a fortune teller?" Instead I just said not a one of them are worthy to be our next President. He then said, and I quote, "Aw c'mon, take it easy on McCain, he is a war hero." I was so dumbfounded that I just got up and walked away.

As far as John McCain being a war hero, I have my doubts about that. From what I have read it appears that he was anything but a hero. However, that is beside the point. His being a war hero has nothing to do with his being qualified to be our next President.

I don't know how many times I need to say this, but people need to look at a candidates voting record on the issues before they cast a vote for that person, no matter what office they are seeking.

To prove my point, say there is a priest who has been molesting children in their congregation. Just because that person is a priest, does that qualify them to be pope? No, that priest should be given the chance to make amends for his actions and if he continues to disgrace his position, he should be excommunicated.

The same goes for our elected officials. They are bound by oath to uphold the Constitution and if they refuse to do so they should be removed from office, not elevated to a position of higher authority or power.

On the issue of second amendment rights, John McCain’s rating, according to Gun Owners of America, has gone from a C in 2000 to an F in 2006.

http://www.gunowners.org/mccaintb.htm

McCain was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and served two terms, after which he was elected to the Senate in 1986, and has been there since. He has refused to take any firm action in the Senate to curb the influx of illegal aliens into the state which he is supposed to be representing. In fact he was co-author of the recently failed immigration reform legislation.

Senator McCain has also stated that we would stay in Iraq for as long as it takes to achieve victory, whatever the definition of victory is this week. The war is a quagmire with no signs of ever ending. The Iraqi government is inept and impotent and shows no sign of ever being able to control the violence and regain stability without some sort of a U.S. military presence. This war has cost the United States $517 billion dollars so far and the death toll continues to rise. John McCain is unpredictable and who knows if he would not just decide to extend the war into Iran?

McCain, aside from being a wild card that we just cannot take the chance on, has shown that he has no regard for the Constitution, or the will of his constituents. We just cannot allow him to be elected as our next President.

Then there is an acquaintance of mine who believes the same thing, that John McCain cannot be elected as President, but for other reasons entirely. This person claims that if McCain is elected, the conservatives in this country will go to sleep and let him run roughshod over our remaining constitutional rights. This person claims that we should vote for either Hillary or Obama, whoever it is that eventually wins the Democratic tug of war for their parties nomination.

This person told me the following,

“So I say sway the vote Democratic and make your vote count for something. It won't do a damn thing to vote third party. Plus it will make the Republican party re-think it's liberal neo-con platform. Besides, they really need a good ass-kicking. I believe that a Democratic vote, using this strategy, is in fact a "vote for a principle".

Isn’t that what supposedly happened in the mid term elections? Didn’t the Republicans lose control of Congress because of their policies? Has it made one iota of difference? No, George Bush has continued on a path which is destroying our liberties, and bankrupting this country in a futile war, without even blinking an eye.

This person was a dedicated supporter of Ron Paul yet he refuses to support a third party candidate who stands for the same principles as Ron Paul, someone like, say Chuck Baldwin, who just got the nomination for the Constitution Party.

For those of you unfamiliar with what Chuck Baldwin stands for, I urge you to read his latest column which can be found at

http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2008/cbarchive_20080502.html

I constantly hear that a vote for a third party will take votes from one side or the other, making them a ‘spoiler’. However, it is apparent that the Republican Party no longer cares for the Constitution. That is obvious by the unethical way in which Ron Paul was treated by his own party.

For anyone who cares one bit about the future of this country to even consider voting for a candidate from either of the two mainstream political parties only shows how uninformed they truly are.

If enough people would have the courage to vote for principle by casting a vote for someone who understands the serious dangers this country faces, we could make a change.

However, as long as I continue to hear people making statements like the ones I have discussed in this article, I am not holding on to any hope for the future of this country. As the title of this article asks, just the hell is it going to take?