So, it’s that time now, isn’t it? I have to talk a little more about politics.  We have less than 2 months until we choose another American president. After this last presidency, George W. Bush, I figure this country would be in line for some policy alterations. I mean, his approval rating hit 29% this last summer meaning he was barely better than Nixon after Watergate.

My issue isn’t with Bush himself, but the lies. Let me start with an exerpt of his biography (link will need updating once he is out of office):

George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States. He was sworn into office on January 20, 2001, re-elected on November 2, 2004, and sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2005. Prior to his Presidency, President Bush served for 6 years as the 46th Governor of the State of Texas, where he earned a reputation for bipartisanship and as a compassionate conservative who shaped public policy based on the principles of limited government, personal responsibility, strong families, and local control.

That was the guy people voted for in 2000. As a true conservative, he garnered many votes (though, not the popular vote, but enough electoral votes to get it, suspicious though it was). Though, even prior to the much touted events of September 11, Bush showed himself to not be quite the conservative he claimed to be.

This is where we take a digression into the word conservatism as it comes in politics. Lets just say that conservatism in the U.S. really pisses me off because it really isnt conservative. Introducing social conservatism into the political spectrum along with legislative and fiscal conservatism is an unresolvable internal conflict to me. I believe in true reduction in our government and government spending.  That means I am not a Republican, and definitely not a Democrat.  Now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

The policies after 9/11 were even more appalling to me. I do think we need to catch those who attacked us, as well as find a better system to avoid attacks like these in the future.  I do not think we should implement domestic spying programs (Title V is also especially frightening to habeas corpus) to do so. Nor do I think we should have attacked another soverignty because we falsified information to link them to the attacks. I am all for taking a corrupt dictator out of power with the assistance of other countries, but lying to the American public and legislators in effect causing billions of dollars of national debt. Not very fiscally conservative.

Anyway, on to this current election.  We have John McCain and Barack Obama, and something else…

Change we can believe in.

John McCain is a home-town boy for me.  He has been a senator in my state for almost as long as I have been alive. He is a Republican. He wants us to stay in Iraq (even 100 years if it is needed to keep the peace). He wants to give tax breaks for EVERYONE.  Sounds great, but I have a problem understanding how he is going to pay for his war with no tax revenue.  He has his ideas on education, which are a mixed bag of good and bad. He has policies in line with his party.  That is fine.  My problem with McCain comes from the changes he made.  Ask around, he was always viewed as a moderate Republican that held to reason and reform.  Now he reminds me of Dick Cheney. He is a long-time senator with no executive experience. Warren Harding and John F. Kenedy are the only incumbent senators to be elected president.  So, he chose a first-term governor of Alaska to be his running mate. (I am linking to an old version of the article because there have been some… questionable edits to her wikipedia page since her nomination to VP - you can see the current article here) My only problem with Sarah Palin is that she is a smoke screen.  All of the Democrats are racing to show how unfit she is (and they are right) and it takes away from McCain’s flawed policy and Obama’s accused celebrity. Republicans see her as a breath of fresh air because, face it, McCain is a little boring. She is also inpenitrable - because she is a girl (or is she). Anyway, a fact check on her acceptance speech at the RNC shows that she is willing to blatantly lie on things as little as misrepresenting how she sold the governor’s private jet to as large as stating she had been against the the Bridge to Nowhere (The infamous “Thanks but No Thanks” line she keeps repeating). They are obviously not getting my vote.

Obama.  He is a man who represents change in our regime. I don’t even really care for most of his policies.  I am pro-choice (even though I am very much against abortions, it isn’t my place to dictate their right to do so), and for gay marriage; Because, once again, who am I to tell people what to do on moral based decisions? I think that socializing health care is dangerous but could be beneficial if we are completely open about it - maybe if the person who pushed socialized health care also pushed ethical reform, it’d be okay. But even if you don’t agree with Barack’s plan for American, there must be some common sense that says we have checks and balances in our system, and it sort of relies on a change of powers to work properly.

So, supposedly we have a 3rd option offered up by a previous Republican candidate, Ron Paul. He has been running his Campaign for Liberty since he withdrew his bid. And, I have to say, he is more effective bucking the parties than he was trying to run within them. Today he held a press conference and urged voters to rally behind a third-party candidate in Lieu of the front runners McCain and Obama. Maybe if we mix up the party system some we can actually effect change.

All I know, is that my vote isn’t going to McCain. I am not sure if I am completely prepared to vote for Obama, afterall, I am a fiscal and legislative conservative.  In reality, I am most closely in line with the Libertarian party but Bob Barr campaign just effed up in reaction to Ron Paul’s announcement.  So my vote really can’t go in that direction.  So maybe I make this statement, I would rather support Obama’s over-governing than McCain’s continuation of the Neoconservative beliefs. Right now, I just feel like a man out of place.  These political decisions aren’t as easy as I would like them to be. I can almost understand why so many people are so apathetic.