There are a couple of things that tie into this subject, so please bear with me. Ostensibly, this is a political post about who the two major ruling (yes, I said ruling, not governing) parties seek to control who we vote for. But this is also a post about the power of choice, and about how terribly important it is to not allow others to make your choices for you.
As you were growing up, your parents most likely did the vast majority of the decision making for you. But as adults we take on the responsibility of making our own decisions. At least, most of us do. The problem is that, in certain situations, there will be those who will attempt to get you to let them make your decisions for you. Oh, they won't simply come out and tell you that's what they're doing. They'll be tricky about it. They'll present you with an argument or statement that makes it seem only to easy to go along with them, without getting all the facts for yourself. This is what the politicians have been doing for generations.
Politicians only tell you what they want you to know, and they do it in such a way as to minimize your desire to question them. To seek out information and confirmation on your own is anathema to their plans. They want you to blindly accept what they give you so that they can maintain the status quo. And believe when I tell you that, so long as the Democrats and Republicans hold power, it will always be status quo.
"So what?" you say. "It isn't like we have any other choices". That, my friend is where you are wrong. In most schools, they teach about the political party system at least briefly. They may have even taught you that there are more than the two major parties. Many more. But this is where those two major parties start to be tricky. You see, they don't want you to pay any attention to those other parties. So the first thing they do is pretend they don't exist. They never mention them no matter what they may do or how much they may grow. And then they do something I consider to be reprehensible... they convince the public that to vote for anyone but them is a waste of a vote, or worse, is the same as voting for whoever the bad guy is at the time.
This last is what angers me the most, because it isn't just the politicians that do it. I have had family tell me specifically that to vote for the libertarian candidate, as I am going to, will be a waste of a vote, and that my first concern should be to vote for a person who can defeat Obama in November. I have a couple of points for that person and anyone else who would try this tactic on me.
First, how dare you try to force me into making a choice I don't believe in like that. I will make my own, informed decision, and it will based on who I firmly believe is the best choice for this nation, not on the threat that any choice but yours is a waste, or a vote for the opposition. You make your choice, I make mine. It's that simple.
Second, I realize that the odds of my chosen candidate winning are not high. But they are even lower if I do not have the courage of my convictions and vote for them regardless of what public opinion says. The more people realize this and begin voting their principles and not simply for the candidate they feel has the best chance of winning, the more likely someone who is truly worth a damn will end up in charge.
And before you start calling me things like unpatriotic or even traitor for "throwing my vote away" or "dooming the nation" by "allowing" the tyrants to remain in power, I want you to consider something. Did the founding fathers create this nation so that people could simply vote for the guy most likely to win, and in the end maintain a broken system? Or did they create a system which they felt allowed the people, by making their own, informed decisions, to keep the government in check, and even change it completely should those currently in power lose sight of what makes this nation great? You have only to look at the Declaration of Independence to find the answer.
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
How can we possibly say that we agree with those words unless we truly stand firm, and have the courage of our convictions. Don't simply make the choice for who governs based on who is "most likely to win" or whoever is the lesser of two evils. Educate yourself. Rely on yourself to find the choice that you can say you truly believe in. And if there's non-one you believe in, do something about it. We are not a great nation because we allow others to make our decisions. We are great because we take action where others would sit idly by and allow the tyrants to take our freedoms and destroy our liberties.
Stand Up!
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