Presidential Candidates

We are faced with a unique opportunity this year as the ridiculously early primary election season picks up speed. We actually have a choice in presidential candidates from a “major” party that won’t propel us further down the path to social slavery!

Along with the usual suspects, a qualified candidate has slipped through the cracks and managed to make it into primary season! This doesn’t happen nearly as often as it should, the question is “will we take advantage of it and stop (or at least slow) our downward slide?”

Let me start by explaining why most of the candidates are not fit for the office to which they aspire. I’ll not waste time and space discussing the Democrat candidates, because it’s pretty obvious that none of them are qualified. I’ll focus on the Republicans—the party that most Christians think is the “good team”.

Please note that I am not going to give an in-depth analysis of each candidate, (usually only just enough to prove that he is not fit for the office) nor am I going to give the “positives” of each candidate. It’s nice that they want to lower taxes, but that doesn’t make up for utter Constitutional ignorance and apathy.

I might also throw in an additional fact or two that, taken alone, may not technically be enough to disqualify the candidate. These are simply additional reasons not to even consider the candidate in question.

John McCain

“Campaign Finance Reform”. Need I say more? Senator McCain is responsible for one of the most egregious violations of the First Amendment we’ve seen in a long time. He’s disqualified by reason of Constitutional illiteracy/apathy.

Rudolph Giuliani

As Mayor of New York, he supported taxpayer funded abortions for any woman who couldn’t afford one. He also opposes the Second Amendment, preferring to put the government in charge of who can and can’t own what type of firearm, with the emphasis on “can’t”. In case you missed it, he’s also on his sixth wife, which says something about his ability to keep an oath or sacred vow. He’s unfit by reason of Constitutional illiteracy/apathy and moral bankruptcy.

Mitt Romney

Anyone with designs on godhood (as any “good” Mormon has) should concern you (and NEVER be elected to ANYTHING!). Romney also displays a frustrating ignorance of the Constitution by claiming to support both the Second Amendment and the so-called “Assault Weapons” and Brady gun bans. Obviously, he’s disqualified due to terminal Constitutional illiteracy at the very least!

Fred Thompson

Supported McCain in 2000. (Also supports so-called “Campaign Finance Reform”.) Believes that life begins at conception, yet also that abortion ought to be legal in all 50 states all the way through the end of the first trimester. Lobbied for “Planned Parenthood”. Certainly disqualified based on Constitutional illiteracy/apathy!

Duncan Hunter

Voted to make the so-called “PATRIOT” Act permanent. (Gross violation of Constitution on many counts.) Certainly disqualified due to chronic Constitutional ignorance/apathy.

Okay, those are the easy ones (relatively speaking). Now we come to the VERY controversial and emotionally–charged candidate from Arkansas. I’m going to break with format and discuss this one a little differently.

Mike Huckabee, on the surface (in other words, in his campaign literature) appears to be a good candidate. He has the endorsement of HSLDA, he’s a professing Christian with an apparently sound marriage. He claims support for the Second Amendment, (and actually demonstrates at least an academic understanding of it’s intent) says all the catch-phrases that small-government conservatives and the evangelical masses long to hear from a candidate, etc., etc..

Unfortunately, once you start digging (if you’re honest about it) you’ll find yourself confronted by the less flattering reality.

Mike Huckabee is the only Republican to earn the endorsement of the national teacher’s union, the NEA (in NH at least). It’s not hard to see why either. He supports the unconstitutional so-called “No Child Left Behind” scheme and he raised taxes as Governor of Arkansas to increase spending on government schools.

He wants a nationwide smoking ban and supports federal farm subsidies. These are not the actions of a man who both respects and understands the Constitution!

His fiscal policy while he was Governor of Arkansas was quite similar to Bill Clinton’s, his past is full of ethical problems and questionable activity, and for advice of foreign policy he turns to none other than Richard Haass, president of the globalist “Council on Foreign Relations”.

Immigration? He claims to oppose amnesty and support a secure border, but as Governor of Arkansas, he supported measures to offer preferential tuition rates to illegal immigrants!

There’s much more I could say about Mike Huckabee, but I think I’ve spent enough time and space to adequately demonstrate that he is not fit for the office of President of the United States.

He appears to be the “designated dark horse” of the Republican leadership, pitched to the disgruntled Republicans and freedom-oriented voters who are sick of the RepubliCrat regime.

But enough of the negative, I said that we actually had a qualified candidate this year, and we certainly do.

Ten-term United States Congressman Ron Paul has demonstrated, not merely in stump speeches on the campaign trail, but throughout all ten terms in Congress, that he has a good working understanding of our Constitution, and equally important, a commitment to abiding by and defending it. He’s earned himself the nickname “Dr. No” on the Hill due to his opposition to so much unconstitutional legislation.

He wants to abolish the so-called Federal “Department of Education”, the IRS, DHS, National Endowment for the Arts, Department of Energy, FEMA, BATFE, and countless other unconstitutional federal agencies. (He’ll never see an endorsement from the NEA!)

He wants to abolish the Federal Reserve (not a government agency) and return us to a constitutional and sound monetary system. He plans to reinstate the traditional, pro-American foreign policy of non-intervention in foreign affairs, saving countless lives and at least a trillion dollars every year, not to mention the preservation of what little freedom we have left here at home.

If we run down a list of issues, Dr. Paul (he’s an OB/GYN who has, in his own words, “assisted women” in the delivery of over 4,000 babies) passes with flying colors, but he also possesses an understanding of how these issues properly fit into our legal system that even many activists often fail to grasp.

He’s pro-life

He’s pro-Second Amendment

He’s pro-small government

He’s pro-tax cuts (he’s planning on eliminating not only the “death tax”, but the income tax and several others as well)

He’s pro-American sovereignty

He’s anti-illegal immigration

Etc., etc., etc..

He also tends to live consistently with his Constitutional beliefs, for example:

He does not participate in the lucrative Congressional pension plan

He has never accepted “Medicare” or “Medicaid” in his private practice

He doesn’t accept taxpayer-funded “junkets” (trips)

He returns part of his Congressional office budget to the treasury every year

No, Congressman Paul is not perfect. No one is. But he’s something that we haven’t seen in a while, at least in presidential candidates. He’s qualified.

You’ll notice that I haven’t said anything about his “chances of winning”. That’s because that is an irrelevant topic when determining the candidate who will receive your vote. For the record, however, Congressman Paul has an excellent chance of winning. He’s beaten the so-called front runners in fundraising, with his funding coming in much smaller increments than the other candidates. (Incidentally, he’s received more money from active-duty military personnel than any other candidate.)

We have an opportunity this year, and it’s one that we may not see again for a long time (if ever). We as Christians had better not squander it, or we will deserve what we get, and more importantly, what we lose.

Don’t throw your vote away this year on a candidate who says one thing, but does another when he gets into office. Congressman Paul doesn’t just say the right things, (the same things he was saying 20 years ago by the way) he has proven himself over ten terms in Congress, often voting against the rest of the House! If he hasn’t “gone soft” and begun to “play ball” with the Establishment in ten terms, it’s probably safe to assume that he’s not going to in two terms in the White House!

I don’t often actually endorse a candidate on this blog, but I am officially endorsing Congressman Ron Paul for the office of President of the United States!

(For more information about Congressman Paul, you can visit his website below, or the link to many of his writings and speeches below that.)

www.RonPaul2008.com

www.lewrockwell.com/paul/

Welcome to 2008!

I thought that it would be appropriate to start out this new year with a brief evaluation of our collective situation here in the United States of America.

These are, to borrow the famous sentiment, the best of times, and also the worst of times. Bear with me as I start with the latter, as I’d prefer to leave you on a more positive note!

They are the worst of times because we are watching the tattered rags of what little freedom remains in this country slip away into the flames of elitist despotism.

We have seen removed from the minds of men the only sure foundation for their rights; the understanding that those rights come from Almighty God; that they cannot be given away, and that the acceptance of their violation is nothing short of gross dereliction of our duty before Him.

We as a nation have declared ourselves to be pagan. People who consider themselves to be part of the Church aid and abet the enemy, many without even realizing it. An alarming number of them, failing to even recognize that we are in constant warfare, have no ability whatsoever to identify the enemy or his tactics.

The blood of the innocent runs, if not in, then certainly under the streets, flowing into the sewers from the industrial disposals in abortion clinics across the nation as they crush and grind the corpses of tiny infants, slaughtered in the murderous tradition of Herod and Pharaoh of old.

Women and children are raped, murdered and dismembered.

Families are destroyed by the corrupt government agencies who claim to protect them.

Young men and women, already undergoing the de facto lobotomy that is the purpose of the government school system, now fall in a hail of bullets in the designated victim disarmament zones across the nation.

Men are swiftly being rendered helpless and unable to defend their families as they are disarmed in one way or another.

We submit quietly to our preparation for subjugation under absolute despotism.

I could go on, but in short, darkness covers the land.

Yet all is not yet lost, for these are also the best of times.

Innovations and technology give the few who still stand for freedom and justice the means to educate others, and to fight against the growing storm. The internet has proven a valuable tool in propagating information and organizing our efforts.

Production equipment has reached a point in quality and price where it is now within the grasp of those of us who would create true works of art, extolling justice and virtue, glorifying God in our films and TV shows.

More and more people seem to be waking up to the truth.

We actually have a qualified candidate running for the office of President of the United States, and seeking the nomination of a “major party”. (More on that in my next article.)

As the darkness grows, so also the points of light gain intensity and flare up defiantly to ignite those brushfires of liberty spoken of by Samuel Adams.

We will not be silenced!

As those of you who read my last article already know, we had some friends over this past week to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I couldn’t help but appreciate anew one of the pervasive themes throughout that classic epic: the dedication to duty in the face of what appears to be certain defeat.

So many today would have us turn away from the fight, give up and give in, accept “the way things are” and stop making such a nuisance of ourselves. Tolkien’s epic holds forth a set of heroes who did just the opposite. Heroes, it turns out, never set out to be heroes. They are simply people who do what needs to be done, even when all others around them are trying to dissuade them from taking the risk.

We need heroes today.

We stand on a precipice. If we as a nation, a people, a culture, even as a Church, continue to close our eyes to the uncomfortable truth, we will plunge to the murky depths.

We must face our “sacred cows” and be willing to see the evil that is before our eyes, then take a stand against it, whether we appear to have a “viable chance” of victory or not.

As we enter the Year of Our Lord 2008, let us hold no illusions regarding our present condition, but let us rather recognize the evil that besets us and raise the standard of truth and justice!