Discouraged by the Primaries

This is going to be a little bit of a non-PC rant, so I apologize in advance.

I'm not happy with the way the GOP primary is going so far. I'm especially irritated this time around because this has been the first presidential election I can remember where I actually liked a candidate. That doesn't mean I was 100% behind him, but favorable enough that it didn't feel like a lesser of two (or six) evils situation. And that felt really good. But alas, it looks like we're headed for more of the same.

I liked Thompson (who announced yesterday that he is dropping out). He campaigned horribly and had a hard time getting his message across, but eventually in addition to just having "good feelings" about him I started to understand his "conservative principles" agenda in a more concrete way, rather than the vague statements he campaigned on. I appreciated that Thompson was not conspicuously religious, which for someone who emphasizes his conservatism was remarkable. Conservatism to him meant strong defense, strong economy, and placing greater trust in the people rather than expecting government to take care of everyone. He did not spend much time on "moral majority" type "values." On issues, I considered Thompson the strongest on foreign policy, although I thought he was a bit too into the "war" model where it started to bleed into domestic policy.

Things are not looking good for Giuliani. It seems he forgot something fundamental about the way Americans think: as Patton said (according to the movie anyway, I have no idea if he really said that), "America hates a loser." No one cares that he's conceding states he can't win to focus on Florida. They just see him coming in below Paul and think "loser." So his national numbers have slipped. And now he's probably going to lose Florida to McCain and maybe Huckabee or Romney too, and if that happens he's done for. Giuliani is definitely my favored pick. Strong on defense, lots of executive experience--with great results, and most importantly for me, moderate on social issues. That's not about electability to me--it's the key feature I need in a Republican to feel like the candidate represents me and not the enemy.

I really think that if Giuliani goes down, it's back to a lesser of evils contest. Huckabee I won't consider for a second; he doesn't have the fortitude to make the hard calls and do what's right (he's a pussy), he knows dick about foreign relations, and he's got a shitty record as governor. So it's between Romney and McCain. I don't like either.

McCain is probably the BEST candidate with respect to many of the liberty issues associated with the war on terror, and on top of that he "gets" the global aspect of the fight was well as his top competitors. But he has poor ethical judgment. He's the last person out of all of them I trust to wield the veto responsibly, and by responsibly, I mean with gusto. I want a president who is going to give Congress the finger and shut them down to keep them from eroding our freedom. McCain isn't that guy--not only did he vote for the laws that eroded our freedom, he fucking authored them! And then there was his attempt to solve the immigration issue without regard for the ethical boundary of ensuring that no one was to receive a benefit for breaking the law or an incentive to break it. The power of the veto needs to be weilded by someone who knows where to draw the line in the sand, not by someone who says "let's make a deal." And maybe this is going too far, but I can't help but think that maybe the reason he's willing to make a deal and do wrong is because it is politically advantageous---the last think I want in November is a choice between two Clintons.

And then there's Romney. Strong conservative, yeah yeah. But a bit of a boilerplate candidate who says what he needs to. My biggest problem is who's behalf he's running on--the social conservatives. And that's not something I can get behind. At all. I'm fucking tired of them. I'm tired of their attempts to make the entire world safe for children (or for adults with a stick up their asses). I'm tired of them arguing by mystical authority instead of thinking for themselves. I'm tired of the bigotry. I'm tired of them putting the Party on the wrong side of the new frontier of the civil rights movement, a sin which history will not forgive. I'm tired of the conspicuous piety. I'm tired of the scapegoating. And I'm downright pissed off about their unceasing attempts to use the coercive power of the government to impose their values and way of life on everybody else, when those "values" have nothing to do with any concept of rights or ethics but are grounded solely in a "morality" derived from their inability to consider for one moment that people who are different are human beings too.

I'm tired of not having a major party that represents me. I know there are plenty of libertarian-leaning Republicans feel the same way too, but yet it seems that this small but active faction of zealots have been at the wheel. I desperately want the tables to turn. I want them to be the politically marginalized faction of the Party. I want them to feel disenfranchised and isolated. I hope they feel the government is out of their hands and they just give up. Stay home. So we can have at least ONE party that believes that people should be free to live their own lives in their own way, and so we turn to a politics of thinking and deliberating instead of one that celebrates ignorance.

Come on Rudy, you can still pull it off....