So…. I’m back from a hiatus. Time for a nice long rant.

Most of you who know me (and most of you do know me… hi, Mom…), know that I don’t get into politics too much. I find most political candidates irritating and dishonest, and elections aggravating to no end. When I voted in the most recent presidential election, I felt just plain icky voting for either candidate.

However, I have recently found a candidate of such consistent integrity and intellect and uncommon sense, who believes so strongly in the ideals of our founding fathers, that I am actually excited to spread the word! That candidate is Ron Paul.

Friends, you seriously owe it to yourselves to visit www.ronpaul2008.com. Take a look at what he has to say. Watch the YouTube videos. See if he doesn’t make a WHOLE LOT of sense! Truly, it would not be inappropriate to compare him to Thomas Jefferson (politically at least). He is a true conservative, in the best sense.

Please, consider him seriously and, if you agree with me, then do something to support his run for the republican nomination. If nothing else, spread the word! (And even if you don’t agree with him all that much, you have to recognize that he’s the only anti-war republican, and therefore the only hope for the republicans to beat the democratic nominee.)

What does he stand for? Here is an incomplete list: Sanctity of unborn childrens’ lives (he was an ob/gyn), balanced budget, Not borrowing tons of money from China every single day, non-intervention as foreign policy, limited federal government (abolishing the IRS, the Federal Reserve, dept of education, and Homeland Security, among others), transitioning out of medicare and social security, no national ID (Real ID), strong national defense, getting out of Iraq, secure borders.

Until recently I wasn’t too worried about a little bit of big brother for national security. After all, most of the “violations of personal liberties” are those I don’t feel anyway. Plus I’m a good person, and I don’t expect that anything I do would be of much interest to our government anyway. But where we’re headed as a country right now is towards a one-world government, where everyone has a chip in their body to track their movement and keep all of their financial/medical/personal information. That’s bad. (For more information, see the book of Revelation).

I also care about social justice- caring for the poor, etc. I’ve come to see that most of the social problems we face are not a failure of government so much as a crisis of the church, compounded by a mentality of depending on the government. Therefore the solution, I believe, is less government, and for the church to step up and take its place in caring for the world.

Our country was founded on the principle of distrust towards power (It leads to tyranny). The purpose of our constitution is to protect the people by establishing a limited government, complete with checks and balances of power. Read the bill of rights. It’s about what our government is not allowed to do. The US Government was not intended to be an enforcer of freedom, but rather an example. The purpose of our government is not to take care of us through every walk of life; its purpose is to protect our individual liberties and provide justice, and to keep the nation reasonably safe.

The more power the government has, the less we have as individuals. And the more control and money the elite gain. As government gets more and more unwieldy, so does it become more of an intrusion in our daily lives.

I believe one of the key ways this happens is through fear – officials repeat the message of terrorism so that the public is afraid. In essence, the messengers become the terrorists in the lives of your average American, invoking terror through words rather than explosives. We must never, ever give up our personal freedoms for our (perceived) safety. It is not safe, and it’s not the American way.