Ron Paul 2016: Why I Refuse to Vote Anymore
I remember in 2008 being angry and resentful of all the people that voted for the "Marxist" Barack Obama. Looking back, it's funny, since I voted for Chuck Baldwin. Oh, I'm not questioning the socialist nature of Barack Obama, but the reality is that he supports the same planks of the Communist Manifesto that most congressional criminals support, including a lot of Republicans. So, nothing special there.
For the most part, I voted straight Republican in the 2008 election, though not for president. I determined that I wasn't going to support evil, so I voted for someone that actually lined up with what I believed at the time.
Then, as the time to vote in 2010 rolled around, I had "evolved" a little more.
At the time, I lived in the great (HA!) state of Ohio, and the gubernatorial race was between an unusually pro-gun Democrat and a Republican with a mixed record on many things, including gun rights. In reality, I didn't have to struggle to figure out whom to support: I voted for Ken Matesz, Sure, the Libertarian Party candidate didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning, but I had already decided not to support candidates that I couldn't fully agree with, so eventual winner John Kasich was a no-go.
In 2011, I watched a video of Ron Paul. Like tens of thousands of others, I can say "It all started with Ron Paul." When he spoke, I heard what few others had ever said, and no politicians: I heard him speak of real liberty. I had long since parted ways with even my "Christian perspective" education, choosing to embrace factual reality over whitewashed, feel-good anecdotes, though a more accurate understanding of history was still to come.
As I heard, for the first time in my life, a politician speak of the Constitution as if it really mattered, and of liberty as if it was so real that you could reach out and touch it, Dr. Paul inspired me to throw off for good the War Party duopoly and embrace true liberty, which obviously could not be found in any political party viable for election.
Over the rest of 2011, and into 2012, I read voraciously, devouring articles and essays from the great philosophers of liberty, such as Frédéric Bastiat, Lysander Spooner, Ludwig von Mises, Murray N. Rothbard, Lew Rockwell, and, of course, Ron Paul. Through being exposed to multiple schools of thought, some liberal and others conservative, but all lovers of liberty, I underwent a thorough "detox" process, seeking to remove every vestige of coercive collectivist thought, and coming to understand and respect the inherent God-given rights of every individual.
(Side note: as a Christian, I am bought with a price and belong to God, but that was through my own choice of accepting Christ as my Savior. God does not coerce me into obeying Him. I obey Him out of my own free will.)
Thus, after realizing that the State is inevitably based on coercion, force, violence, and theft, I determined that I would no longer consent. After all, when a government is unjust, its powers are still derived from the consent of the ruled; they just need to stop consenting. So, I stopped consenting.
I will no longer vote in any election. The "democratic" process is a sham where 51% eat the 49%, and I refuse to participate in this system by casting a vote. The reality is that the politicians never do what they promised to do, so why should my bad choice of a pathetic politician affect you? After all, if you can get one vote more than me, you can legislate the theft of my wages, my property, and even my life, if I participate in an activity that you wish to outlaw.
That sort of power shouldn't exist. It's barbaric. We just pretend it's civilized and call it "democracy."
Democracy is the god that failed. It's time to quit participating in a fundamentally flawed system that promotes two twins as being radically different, that presents theft as altruism, and suggests mob rule as "democracy." It failed. Let it die already.
Article originally appeared at JamesLStreet.com
