I voted today. For all the good it will do.
I have voted faithfully ever since I became old enough to do it. The first president I voted for was Richard Nixon, if that tells you how long I've been going to the polls.
I started out as an independent, but I guess the ideals of the Republican Party were closer to my own, and after a few years I realized I was consistently voting for the Republican candidates, and so I officially became a Republican.
Why Republican? I believe in the Bible. I believe in biblical standards -- that we should honor God in our public and private life, that we are bound by laws (especially the highest law of the land, the Constitution), that parents hold the ultimate responsibility for the raising of their children, that we should all hold to high standards of honesty, purity, and integrity, and that anyone who does not honor these standards should be ostracized, corrected, and removed from office.
For over 35 years, I considered myself a Republican. I began to have doubts, though, when George W. Bush was in office. He pushed through legislation that effectively stripped American citizens of their rights under the U.S. Constitution. When I went in the voting booth in 2004, my hands were shaking as I pushed the button casting my vote for his re-election. I could not bear to vote for him, after he pushed through the USA Patriot Act...but neither could I vote for a Democrat, when the Democrat Party was trying so desperately to get all reference to God out of public life and make room for homosexuals, perverts, and socialists in His place.
Since that day, I have become more and more wary of the professional Republicans. The last straw came in the 2012 presidential election, when Ron Paul was the most intelligent and informed candidate in the Republican race, and the party regulars did everything they could to humiliate and discredit him.
That is when this lifelong Republican divorced the party.
Today I went to the old school house in my rural community to vote. The long white building is a community center now, and it was the first time I'd been inside its walls. The sweet ladies that checked my ID said roughly one-tenth of the registered voters in the precinct had chosen early voting, and turnout on Election Day was looking pretty good, too.
I voted....but not for a single Republican. I was primarily there for the amendments to the state constitution -- amendments that would verbally distance Tennessee from the federal government in Washington, D.C. I did vote in a few state races -- against the RINO in the governor's mansion, and for a Constitution Party candidate whose name I cannot recall; against the Republican congressman who paid for a mistress to go to another state to get an abortion, and for an Independent candidate whose name I cannot recall; against the multimillionaire senator who has aligned himself with the Democrats on nearly every issue, and for a Constitution Party candidate whose name I cannot recall.
My choice of candidates will undoubtedly have little impact on their various races. There are people of power at work who choose our leaders, and I am not one of them.
Those amendments, though, that put distance between Nashville and Washington...maybe they are a first step in a permanent separation. The South will never rise again, but maybe someday a second separation will come. It won't be South against North, but maybe godly against ungodly. Honest against liars. Simple folk against bureaucrats. I only hope I live to see it.
I have voted faithfully ever since I became old enough to do it. The first president I voted for was Richard Nixon, if that tells you how long I've been going to the polls.
I started out as an independent, but I guess the ideals of the Republican Party were closer to my own, and after a few years I realized I was consistently voting for the Republican candidates, and so I officially became a Republican.
Why Republican? I believe in the Bible. I believe in biblical standards -- that we should honor God in our public and private life, that we are bound by laws (especially the highest law of the land, the Constitution), that parents hold the ultimate responsibility for the raising of their children, that we should all hold to high standards of honesty, purity, and integrity, and that anyone who does not honor these standards should be ostracized, corrected, and removed from office.
For over 35 years, I considered myself a Republican. I began to have doubts, though, when George W. Bush was in office. He pushed through legislation that effectively stripped American citizens of their rights under the U.S. Constitution. When I went in the voting booth in 2004, my hands were shaking as I pushed the button casting my vote for his re-election. I could not bear to vote for him, after he pushed through the USA Patriot Act...but neither could I vote for a Democrat, when the Democrat Party was trying so desperately to get all reference to God out of public life and make room for homosexuals, perverts, and socialists in His place.
Since that day, I have become more and more wary of the professional Republicans. The last straw came in the 2012 presidential election, when Ron Paul was the most intelligent and informed candidate in the Republican race, and the party regulars did everything they could to humiliate and discredit him.
That is when this lifelong Republican divorced the party.
Today I went to the old school house in my rural community to vote. The long white building is a community center now, and it was the first time I'd been inside its walls. The sweet ladies that checked my ID said roughly one-tenth of the registered voters in the precinct had chosen early voting, and turnout on Election Day was looking pretty good, too.
I voted....but not for a single Republican. I was primarily there for the amendments to the state constitution -- amendments that would verbally distance Tennessee from the federal government in Washington, D.C. I did vote in a few state races -- against the RINO in the governor's mansion, and for a Constitution Party candidate whose name I cannot recall; against the Republican congressman who paid for a mistress to go to another state to get an abortion, and for an Independent candidate whose name I cannot recall; against the multimillionaire senator who has aligned himself with the Democrats on nearly every issue, and for a Constitution Party candidate whose name I cannot recall.
My choice of candidates will undoubtedly have little impact on their various races. There are people of power at work who choose our leaders, and I am not one of them.
Those amendments, though, that put distance between Nashville and Washington...maybe they are a first step in a permanent separation. The South will never rise again, but maybe someday a second separation will come. It won't be South against North, but maybe godly against ungodly. Honest against liars. Simple folk against bureaucrats. I only hope I live to see it.