Spoiling the Status Quo

What follows is the text of my column in the Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, GA where I serve on the editorial board.

On June 18^th Insider Advantage/PollPosition conducted a survey of registered likely voters in Georgia and found that alongside of McCain’s polling position of 44% and Obama’s position of 43%, Libertarian candidate Bob Barr received a respectable 6% of the polling results. Being a strong showing for a third-party candidate, these results created no small stir in the G.O.P. On June 18^th an Associated Press story in the Ledger-Enquirer reported concern among members of the Republican Party that Barr’s performance in the election could have a spoiling effect on the McCain campaign. G.O.P. consultant Dan Schnur was quoted as saying, “Bob could be the Ralph Nader of 2008.”

The Bob Barr campaign seems to be creating three camps among the American electorate. Supporters of Barack Obama are likely cheering him on as they do their math and count on a vote for Barr being a vote not cast for McCain. McCain’s supporters, on the other hand, have perhaps decided that a third party candidate, in this election cycle, is not good for America because this particular third party candidate is not good for the John McCain campaign. The third camp consists of those previously unheard, unseen voters who are now coming into view on a rising tide of discontent with the condition of our republic and are willing to abandon the status quo of American politics for a cause far greater than a single candidate.

So who are these voters who will “throw away” their vote by “spoiling” the Republican campaign? They are people who reflect deeply upon our past, are asking questions about our present, and worry about our future. The people of this camp are curious about how we became a nation that will carelessly incur insurmountable debt and simply pass it on to the next generation to carry. They are wondering why we feel it necessary to police the world with nearly 700 military bases in approximately 130 countries. They can’t understand why the Legislative Branch now attempts to do the work of the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch now attempts to do the work of the Legislative Branch, while the Executive Branch does whatever the hell it wants. And they are expressing a growing concern over the increasing clandestine socialist intrusion of federal government into life, industry, and commerce.

They are men and women who have heard the words of people like Ron Paul, and now Bob Barr, and resonate with their message of change. And they are unwilling to swoon over slogans and empty platitudes because they believe that real change is found in returning to a commitment to the Constitutional restraints upon federal government and the principles and practices of our founding fathers.

They have become convinced that with each election cycle in our two-party system, more and more Americans are finding themselves disenfranchised from the opportunity to vote their convictions and are instead relegated to voting for the lesser of two evils. They are individuals who are looking at a much bigger picture than just this election and just these candidates. They are taking a long view on America’s future. When they cast their vote in November, they will not simply be casting their vote for a man, but they will be casting their vote for a movement that they believe could restore to America that which made her great: a Constitutionally restrained government with sovereignty resting in the people, individual freedom, and an ethic of personal responsibility.

There are those who observe the Barr presidential campaign, or Ron Paul’s newly launched Campaign for Liberty and the people who support them, and regard them as foolish ideologues hopelessly stuck in a long forgotten Jeffersonian Ideal. They consider them to be dreamers of a peaceful revolution in a world where such revolution cannot exist outside the pages of a history textbook. And they encourage them to, for the sake of tranquility, not create futile and unimpressive ripples in the political waters. But one should never underestimate the power of a rising tide. When full grown and unleashed it can destroy strongholds and forever reshape the landscape.

 

   

Comments

[Ann]

Your last paragraph reminded me of these lines from Julius Caesar, which I had to memorize in 10th grade:

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads onto fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

Well written piece. I approve heartily.

[Ray]

Well said Bill.
My only hope as a Republican is to see the Republican party destroyed and neocon vermin destroyed with it. And out of the ashes a new party, not the party of Lincoln but the original Republicans, the anti-federalist Jeffersonians.
Any vote against McCain and Obama is a vote against fascism and socialism and a vote for liberty.