“The only proper purpose of a
government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from
physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent
of man’s self-defense, and, as such, may resort to force only against those who
start the use of force. The only proper functions of a government are: the
police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign
invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or
fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective
law."
Ayn Rand "The New
Intellectual"
I guess I need to come clean.
While there are a lot of good people running for the Republican nomination for
President, there is only one person so far that I can get behind and that
person is Rand Paul. I know this will disappoint
many of my Evangelical friends out there who love Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and
Ben Carson based on their strong Christian convictions. While I love and
respect these guys and everyone running for the GOP nomination, this is not a
popularity contest and this is most definitely not a vote for who is the best
Christian.
I have been a Republican all
my life and since the days of my Ronald Reagan loving youth I have lived,
breathed, and died for the Grand Old Party. This will never change but I have
increasingly become more Libertarian over the last few years. I will no longer
vote for Republican Rhino’s like John McCain and Mitt Romney. Nor will I vote
for middle of the road, wishy washy politicians like Jeb Bush and Lindsey
Graham.
Over the last few years I have undergone a fundamental
change in my views on human life, politics and society. While I have been
relatively conservative my entire life, I really did not have a solid and
objective foundation for my conservatism. After much personal hardship,
reflection and study, I have come to believe that “Libertarianism” best
summarizes my personal beliefs. By “Libertarianism” I mean the worldview that essentially
postulates the legitimacy of human autonomy and individualism.
For most of my life I have been a conformist. I have craved
acceptance by certain artificial boundaries of conformity in my conservative
circles and attempted to conform to what the Republican Party and various
Evangelical Church leaders have deemed to be true. I have tried to organize and
live my life by what others have deemed to be best for my life. This is no
longer the case. I now believe that I am the ultimate arbiter of what is best
for my own life.
I am going to start voting
for and supporting candidates like Rand Paul who want to actually do something
to limit the size of government, protect our civil liberties and work on
eradicating our 19 trillion dollar national deficit. I believe the best
government is the least amount of government and for this reason I am voting
for Rand Paul.
For this reason, I am writing a small book entitled, The Case for Rand Paul.