I've been told that I should not vote for a third party.  I've been told I should not split the vote.  I've been told I can be a Libertarian just never vote Libertarian.  For that matter, when I vote in the party primaries, I have to vote for "the one who can win."  Many will say that at times like these the most important thing is to win.  I'm sorry, I disagree. 

I am one of what may be a small group of patriots... that recognize the crucial need to know what is right; 

• that our life and our liberty are sacred and we must protect them and all the rights of our fellow man, 
• that our rights come from God, The Creator, not from some government,
• that we must put these principles above all else.  

This is not a new sort of patriotism.  It is an old one.  It is one the founders knew and, for which, were willing to risk their life, liberty and sacred honor. 

This is not the accepted sort of patriotism.  Patriotism of this sort has been discouraged more and more for the past 100 years.

This is not the popular sort of patriotism.  A fact that is made ever more clear as we approach another election.

I know one more thing, that the United States of America can be saved!  It can be turned around.  We can bring it back to it's former glory.  However the punditry spin it, and throw blame every which way, it does not start with the President or with congress, or with a political party or with an election.  It starts with you and me.  We have to have standards to hold our elected officials to but what is more we have to be more than familiar with those standards ourselves.  We must set the bar much higher for the people we entrust stewardship of elected office then we must put the bar higher still for ourselves.  Building a better world starts with being a better person.  

But I know this also, that it will not be done just by winning a game or by winning an election.  If we continue to play politics as if it were a game of winners and losers we will miss out on real victory.  Players of the game will try and pit my team against your team, players make it all about winning at any cost, about defeating your opponent.  they will tell you if you want to win you will vote for the candidate that has been chosen for your team.  Politics is a game, they say, you have to go with the winner.

Politics is not a game!  Politics is about the proper role of government in our lives.  It is about what we do with this tremendous gift of liberty.  Do we protect it for future generations or throw it away to benefit an elite powerful minority that tell us they know what's best for us.  It is about how we are to treat our fellow man and what kind of world to we leave for our children.  It does not get more real than that.  

No one knows how much more time we all have but one thing is undeniable; there has never been a more important time for people who really know right from wrong in the world of politics.  In no other place on earth could every single person have so much to say about it then in a country founded on the concept of self governance.  

In the end the world will be divided into two sides; Good and Evil.  One side will rally an army with hate.  Hate will be raised as their standard and it will be directed at the other side.  Count me on that other side!  Count me on the side of the hated. 

Everyone's vote matters more now then ever.  I will be casting all of my votes not based on winners and losers but based on my principles.  If that causes you to hate me than I welcome your hate.  While it does not prove I am the side of good, it certainly proves that you are not.