Liberty and justice for all

I’m not too big on politics (as you may have noticed from the dearth of posts on the matter :)), but with the presidential primaries coming up on Tuesday, I figured I ought to do some research into the candidates. Civic duty and all. :)

Now, I went into this already predisposed toward Ron Paul, being familiar with him through Connor’s blog and posts like Elise’s. And after starting to research the issues, I’m still all for Ron Paul.

Disclaimer: I read through all of the issues on Ron Paul’s site and started reading through them on Obama’s (and watched the Yes, We Can video), Hillary’s, Romney’s, and McCain’s, but my mind swiftly turned to mush from all the political rhetoric, and I could stand it no longer, so I stopped. Blech.

Yes, Romney’s LDS. Yes, Hillary’s a woman. Yes, Obama’s black. Those are all great things, and while I would love to pledge my support for a black or a woman or a Mormon, it’s their platforms that matter. And my quick skim of the various candidates’ websites left me rather unimpressed. Except for Ron Paul’s.

I do realize, of course, that I ought to have studied all the issues and all the candidates in-depth rather than just nibbling a bit here and there. Next time, certainly. :) In the meantime, I’m casting my vote for Ron Paul, even though I know he doesn’t stand a chance. It’s a matter of principle.

I wish I had the stamina to go through and list all the issues and why I like Paul’s stances on them, but that’s not really my thing. Suffice it to say that of everything I saw and read, Ron Paul’s political philosophies were the ones that rang truest for me. I’m a bit of a Constitutionalist, you see. :)

Anyway, I suspect that I’ll probably only have one political post on here every, oh, four years or so, unless something drastic changes. :P Something could change, though. I’m not gaga over politics, but at the same time I loved my AP Government and AP U.S. History classes in high school, and I loved American Heritage here at BYU, and political philosophy and thought does interest me a fair amount. Someday I’d like to be conversant in that realm. Thus far it hasn’t risen to a high enough priority for me to do much about it, though. ;)

I have to admit that I feel like a cop-out, not having put enough time or thought into all of this, but at the same time I strongly suspect that I’d still be for Ron Paul. (And yet I’d at least be able to explain why. ~sigh~)

Ben, I’m proud of you for taking a political position. I happen to disagree with you, but you based your decision on studying platforms and voted your beliefs, so way to do your civic duty.

I voted for Romney, but NOT because he’s Mormon.

Thanks. :) And I’m glad you voted for Romney for reasons other than his religion. I completely understand people’s desire to cling to Mormons prominent out there in the “real world” (as we’ve been talking about on the Stephenie Meyer post, incidentally), and I’ve felt some of it myself, but I think the only honest-to-ourselves stance is to weigh people on their actual merits, rather than the “Mormon” tag. (Which isn’t to say that being Mormon won’t affect who a person is, of course. I just mean that there are all sorts of Mormons out there, most good, some bad. By their fruits ye shall know them.)

I’d modify that to “there are all sorts of Mormons out there, many good, many bad, many somewhere in between.”

Ben-
So nice to find a fellow supporter of the Constitution. I agree about Ron Paul. He’s splendid.

Rikker: I can agree with that. :)

e: Same here. :)