Longwinded Response and Declaration of Political Views

I've been working on the majority of this for quite some time and was about to paste it in a forum discussion (found here) until I realized that it's even longer than my usual rants (I guess that's what happens when I let it build over time ;p). Some of the segments/content herein are new or altered and serve primarily as response to posts in the forum.

It seems we have similar views, but I find it hard to believe that a constitutionalist (like myself) would vote for McCain simply based on his Senate record. Ron Paul was the most constitutionally aligned candidate this election, but bad press and primary campaign funding coming from the grassroots internet movement didn't put him far enough forward for people to research his platform enough to understand his position. My opinion about America and it's core values seems, to me, to be common sense from middle school social studies class, but it may be that many Americans have become too lazy or their perspective is outside the scope of my understanding. I agree with you on a lot of the points you make, but I don't think that you've actually given any particularly good reasons for your position. I also believe that more people should acknowledge just how much George W. Bush has hurt our constitutional rights; this is very important because John McCain has voted 90+% along with Bush over several years while he and his confused VP receive support from bigoted leaders without addressing the awful things they say. It's also incredibly important that the American people not be convinced to let up on their prying; these people will become the most powerful people in the world. It's massively important that we let resolution come (the opposite of postponing) to things like the next troopergate investigation before making decision about a woman who could very easily become a replacement president with an unadressed reasonable statistical possibility of natural death.

I feel that the absolute most important principle in American values is freedom. I define freedom as the right to do whatever you want so long as you do not get in the way of anybody else doing what they want. I believe that in America, the only purpose of law is to protect our freedoms. Murder, rape, theft, discrimination, etc. are matter-of-factly an aggression against the freedom of another citizen. With that said, I think that voting for a candidate (who isn't even running for part of the legislative branch, mind you) based on their opinions about concepts that we can not, based entirely on fact, say is an attack on the freedom of another should not even touch the floor of congress, let alone be part of a candidate's platform. The tiered/federalized system supports the possibility of like-minded people grouping and enforcing common opinion; the federal governments primary purpose is to protect our constitutional liberties. We do, however, have quite a mess on our hands given the state of the economy.

Income tax is entirely unconstitutional as the 16th amendment was never properly ratified and it is neither a direct apportioned tax, nor an indirect uniform tax (this interview does a fine job explaining the position) and is therefore not even remotely close to an executive branch concern so much as legislative and/or judicial. It is also against our founding principles due to the fact that it enforces taxation in Washington D.C. and other unrepresetned zones (taxation without representation, anybody?). The same branch-orientation applies to abortion as the only thing a president can do is appoint justices and choose to veto or not, which congress can, on our behalf, override in a true majority based decision anyway (overriding veto with process or judicial review with new legislation/ammendments). We should be looking for a president that knows these things well, as it will be his job, and acts accordingly. We don't need a President who is pro-choice or pro-life, we don't need a President who will legalize drugs (as much as I believe drug related infractions should be based on what laws they've broken that affect other people, like killing someone while driving intoxicated, not based on what you decided to put in your body while sitting in the comfort of your living room) since he can't legalize/decriminalize anything.

What we truly need is a President who knows to Veto a bill that does not benefit the majority of our population, such as the Patriot Act which was written before the event utilized to pass it and which passed without elected officials even reading it. We need a president that doesn't "authorize" warrantless wire-types on US citizens without reason. We need a President that knows that passing a law that gives the President the ability to declare martial law is the opposite of supporting our constitution's foundation (too late again, of course). We need a President that isn't going to lie to us to support his own agenda or cover his friends' a**es or to establish fake enemies with no proof which degrade society by supporting race/religious hate and enforce an international stereotype of the mean and stupid nature of Americans.

Unfortunately, over the last century we've dug ourselves into such a deep hole of non-majority supporting legislation that, at this point, we need government involvement just to clean up after the mess we let our government make in the first place, but far more importantly we need Americans that hold their representation accountable and force action even when our politicians turn into flopping fish because of their campaign funding or other misrepresentation rationalizations. We need Americans that are willing to push their representation for impeachment when their position has been misused, rather than over suits that with little impact on America that can be handled in civil courts.

The privatized fiat currency we've allowed to gradually destroy our economy while being convinced (for whatever reason I do not know) that printing more of it can actually fix something is a mess that can't be resolved in one term. The money we waste declaring war on our own people (War on Drugs) sending armed forces into the homes of families near "farmers" in California (this used to be illegal), or arresting large numbers of people in unfortunate circumstances negatively affecting one or two people, all the while bailing out white collar criminals who have potentially contributed to the destruction of the lives of millions (criminals punished by paying them millions of dollars for failing to perform their duties effectively). This isn't something that can be fixed without the government, it's something the government needs to fix on our behalf.

Lastly, while battleground states can be very narrow lines, the only reason that it is currently "impossible" to elect a candidate outside the two major parties is that everybody seems to think that they have to vote one or the other or they're throwing their vote away. This isn't actually a two-party country, there's just an illusion that benefits big business and continuity of current tactics. The person who wins is the person with the most electoral college votes, no questions asked, period. Still, regardless of differences of opinion I'm very happy to see that many of us are still actively engaging in discussion and debate about these concerns. It gives me hope, and it's the only thing we can use to change these dangerous illusions.