president:2008 = us

Are you involved with the presidential campaign yet??

I’ve never been involved or even interested in politics. Actually, to be honest, I’ve always been fairly repulsed by it all. But as I get older — as I understand what it means to pay a third of my income to the government, and as I notice how much the decisions made in Washington affect the entire planet (literally) — I realize that I am involved, whether I like it or not.

I am an American, and sadly, I am not proud to be. When I think about the Europe trip I hope to make this spring, I can’t help but wonder if i should introduce myself as a Canadian, or something. I don’t want to be associated with this empirical regime, but now, I am old enough to know that isn’t an option.

Are you involved? Have you been watching? Are you paying attention?

I’ve only just begun, really, to research and ascertain what I think about the presidential candidates. From the outside, I’ve been very intrigued by a young senator named Barack Obama. He seems fresh and balanced, and Democratic (namely: not Republican). Like, I imagine, a lot of us, I react pretty adversely to the Republican wave going on right now, and thus naturally swing pretty hard to the other side in an attempt to balance the problems.

But I’m not sure Obama’s the best choice anymore.

I urge you, if you, like me, are a person who wants desperately to actually be proud of the country we live in again; if you look into the future and see pretty dire global situations; if you notice the declining state of our economy; if you despise the fact that 50 million Americans don’t have basic health care; if you want America to stop starting wars… check out this man:

Ron Paul.

He’s not getting much love from mainstream media, but I’ll bet I’m not alone when I say that makes me like him even more. In my last blog, I posted a video that is a fantastic introduction to Dr. Paul. Here’s an interview with him that’s also very good: Q&A: Presidential Candidate Ron Paul.

I’m not saying that you and I will agree on everything; in fact, I’m sure we don’t. But I hope you’ll agree that it’s time that we do something to make America a country we can be proud to be from, again.

What happens in 2008 will depend entirely on what we do now.