wide awake
Member
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
- Messages
- 158
Hi all,
I hope this is not too long but it helped me at least to put my thoughts in writing.
I am a 43 year old male that lives in Charlotte, NC that was raised/went to school/college in NY.
When I was of legal voting age, I registered as a Democrat primarily on two principles:
1. I was very liberal in my views on social issues
2. As a History/Poly Sci Major, I learned quite a bit about how our foreign policy had unintended consequences and the frightening amount of spending on the military industrial complex
Once I started earning a living, I became more and more fiscally conservative and when I moved to NC in 1993, I registered as unaffiliated but though my changing views on the economy allowed me to vote Republican in some races, I still tended to vote Democrat as I could not look past the efforts of the religious wing of the Republican party to dominate its platform.
When Bush II was elected, despite the religious undertone, I was a bit hopeful as he ran on some principles that I did agree with – not believing in “Nation Building” and being a “Fiscal Conservative”… we all know the end to that movie.
I first started to become aware of Ron Paul in early 2007 when I saw him on Bill Maher who highlighted his exchange with Giuliani about the 9/11 attacks. I was intrigued and I knew about the differences between Neocons/Paleocons and Libertarians but I could not even begin to consider voting for somebody with an “R” next to their name after Bush II. Also, unfortunately, a friend’s wife had a bad experience with two young Ron Paul supporters in a grocery store parking lot in early 2008 that left a bad taste in my mouth.
I will admit that I was also excited about Barrack Obama’s election because of what I perceived his “principles” to be… we are in the middle of that movie and it seems like the same movie I watched in 00 to 08.
I was truly discouraged… bad enough that it was acceptable for leaders to break specific campaign promises but now most people overlook that they don’t even stick to their stated principles.
I really hadn’t paid any attention to the early Republican candidates or any news about them. As summer neared, my wife and I planned a less-expensive vacation for us and our two kids as we tried to spend less than what we did on our Disney vacation the year before. Since my sister lives in Virginia, we decided to spend our time there and planned out trips to go to Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello (with Busch Gardens and a water park sandwiched in between so as not to give our kids history overload… actually they loved every place we went). It’s difficult to go to historical places like that and not have your interest in early American history rekindled. I started to recall the fantastic HBO mini-series based on David McCullough’s book on Adams. My wife never saw it so we rented it through NetFlix and watched again… then I read three books by Joseph Ellis (American Creation, American Sphinx, Founding Brothers). We watched the Ken Burns PBS documentary on Jefferson. My wife (a life-long Democrat) said “I’m such a geek, I think I have a crush on Jefferson”.
I am an avid watcher of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert, as well as Bill Maher. I had noticed that all of them were taking Obama to task. On one of Maher’s shows, the audience groaned when he criticized Obama in a joke and he retorted “He’s not your boyfriend, he’s the president… get over it.” I was obviously not alone in my disappointment in Obama among those that supported him in 2008.
Then of course came the Daily Show segment… it re-introduced me to Ron Paul. I started to read up on him… watch a lot of youtube videos... damn this sounds like what many of our founding fathers actually said. Despite a few issues that I struggle with, I became convinced this is the person I should be supporting. I have come to the conclusion that our political environment (including the vast majority of people involved in it, the money and the mechanisms that supply it, the special interests that dominate it) is so poisoned that the only solution is to move towards as limited of a federal government as possible.
So I have changed my registration in NC from unaffiliated to Republican so I can vote for Ron Paul in the primary. I have started to talk to all of my friends (Rs, Ds, and Is) to get them to look into Ron Paul and do the same thing. I am buying a Ron Paul tee shirt this week. I will be contributing $200 to the Constitution Day money bomb. I will look into volunteering (will only do so if I am convinced that the efforts will be respectful).
Ron Paul is the only candidate from either of the two major parties that I will vote for in the 2012 general election. Short of his nomination, I am going to vote for a third party candidate.
I have enjoyed reading the board here and look forward to participating!
I hope this is not too long but it helped me at least to put my thoughts in writing.
I am a 43 year old male that lives in Charlotte, NC that was raised/went to school/college in NY.
When I was of legal voting age, I registered as a Democrat primarily on two principles:
1. I was very liberal in my views on social issues
2. As a History/Poly Sci Major, I learned quite a bit about how our foreign policy had unintended consequences and the frightening amount of spending on the military industrial complex
Once I started earning a living, I became more and more fiscally conservative and when I moved to NC in 1993, I registered as unaffiliated but though my changing views on the economy allowed me to vote Republican in some races, I still tended to vote Democrat as I could not look past the efforts of the religious wing of the Republican party to dominate its platform.
When Bush II was elected, despite the religious undertone, I was a bit hopeful as he ran on some principles that I did agree with – not believing in “Nation Building” and being a “Fiscal Conservative”… we all know the end to that movie.
I first started to become aware of Ron Paul in early 2007 when I saw him on Bill Maher who highlighted his exchange with Giuliani about the 9/11 attacks. I was intrigued and I knew about the differences between Neocons/Paleocons and Libertarians but I could not even begin to consider voting for somebody with an “R” next to their name after Bush II. Also, unfortunately, a friend’s wife had a bad experience with two young Ron Paul supporters in a grocery store parking lot in early 2008 that left a bad taste in my mouth.
I will admit that I was also excited about Barrack Obama’s election because of what I perceived his “principles” to be… we are in the middle of that movie and it seems like the same movie I watched in 00 to 08.
I was truly discouraged… bad enough that it was acceptable for leaders to break specific campaign promises but now most people overlook that they don’t even stick to their stated principles.
I really hadn’t paid any attention to the early Republican candidates or any news about them. As summer neared, my wife and I planned a less-expensive vacation for us and our two kids as we tried to spend less than what we did on our Disney vacation the year before. Since my sister lives in Virginia, we decided to spend our time there and planned out trips to go to Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello (with Busch Gardens and a water park sandwiched in between so as not to give our kids history overload… actually they loved every place we went). It’s difficult to go to historical places like that and not have your interest in early American history rekindled. I started to recall the fantastic HBO mini-series based on David McCullough’s book on Adams. My wife never saw it so we rented it through NetFlix and watched again… then I read three books by Joseph Ellis (American Creation, American Sphinx, Founding Brothers). We watched the Ken Burns PBS documentary on Jefferson. My wife (a life-long Democrat) said “I’m such a geek, I think I have a crush on Jefferson”.
I am an avid watcher of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert, as well as Bill Maher. I had noticed that all of them were taking Obama to task. On one of Maher’s shows, the audience groaned when he criticized Obama in a joke and he retorted “He’s not your boyfriend, he’s the president… get over it.” I was obviously not alone in my disappointment in Obama among those that supported him in 2008.
Then of course came the Daily Show segment… it re-introduced me to Ron Paul. I started to read up on him… watch a lot of youtube videos... damn this sounds like what many of our founding fathers actually said. Despite a few issues that I struggle with, I became convinced this is the person I should be supporting. I have come to the conclusion that our political environment (including the vast majority of people involved in it, the money and the mechanisms that supply it, the special interests that dominate it) is so poisoned that the only solution is to move towards as limited of a federal government as possible.
So I have changed my registration in NC from unaffiliated to Republican so I can vote for Ron Paul in the primary. I have started to talk to all of my friends (Rs, Ds, and Is) to get them to look into Ron Paul and do the same thing. I am buying a Ron Paul tee shirt this week. I will be contributing $200 to the Constitution Day money bomb. I will look into volunteering (will only do so if I am convinced that the efforts will be respectful).
Ron Paul is the only candidate from either of the two major parties that I will vote for in the 2012 general election. Short of his nomination, I am going to vote for a third party candidate.
I have enjoyed reading the board here and look forward to participating!
