My vote

Aaron made a suggestion that we should post about our voting choices this upcoming election. I have put this off mainly because I don't know what to do when it comes time to elect someone. I hate all the choices.

I would not go as far as to say I hate all the candidates. All three front runners are doing what they are supposed to be doing. They are pandering to the American public in a way they believe will win the hearts and votes of the people. The problem is, what I want from a President and what the candidates offer me as a Presidential hopeful are miles apart.

Once again, this is not the candidate's fault. It is the American public's fault. How is this? I could trace this all teh way back to the civil war our country experienced but that would be boring for all but the most interested political Historians. The example I would like to give you is something very dear to me: Public Education and the Tenth Amendment.

If not intimately familiar with our Constitution, perhaps the greatest document of democracy, allow me to remind you of the 10th.

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

It started in Reconstruction and endured throughout the turn of the century. It gained steam in the 50's and it choked our Republic finally with the Reagan Administration. What I am alluding towards if the trampling of the Tenth amendment. The Federal Government passing laws and creating agencies to handle what should be an issue of state's rights.

When Ronald Reagan ignored the Constitution and created the Department of Education it was proof we have allowed the government to lie to us and We The People have forgotten what we are allowed to govern ourselves.

The Department of Education is exists in spite of the Constitution saying it cannot, because the Constitution does not address education, public or private. The word does not even appear in the document, and trust it is not because the founding fathers had forgotten about education, or gun control, or taxation, or anything else not addressed in the Constitution. They simply wished for a weak but binding Central Government while allowing states and people to decide things for themselves.

I am a little lost even in my own thoughts so let me get to the crux of the situation. Our government is far too large, its powers far too reaching, and we have forgotten that the country was founded in defiance of such tyranny. Somehow the Feds have made the American public believe the government should answer questions, solve problems, and give them a handout. Rather than forging through life with the intense ambition of the people that founded this country, we allow Politicians not only to solve our needs, but let them feel empowered by relying on them.

I do not need a President that calls for 'change' when our definition of change are vastly different. My idea would include eliminating 50% of government and giving states more power, his would be implementing even more policy requiring states to abide by. I do not need someone telling me if I may own a gun, get an abortion, or regulate what my children may and may not learn in a classroom. I also do not need a President that will go to war over commodities.

Basiclly, fuck all of them. None of them have my best interests at heart, none of them appreciate why this country was founded, none of them once in office would be willing to give up federal control to the states, an not one single candidate cares about my plight through this life. Not one of them has earned my vote, but they have all earned my spite.

But what can you do?


-CC:BJ