Isilion

Until about six or eight months ago I was of the school of thought that voting–except maybe on local issues–was a complete waste of time. The only thing at issue in national and most state wide elections is who gets the reigns of an entrenched, centralized, control-oriented bureaucracy backed up by force of arms. There is never any debate about whether such a freedom killing, spirit crushing system should even exist.

Now, though, I hear this guy who says “Government has a role but it is very limited: protection of individual liberty. What I’d like to be is a president who doesn’t even have the goal of running your life, running the economy or running the world.”

I honestly believe that ordinary working and middle class people–in short, most everybody–will respond to him, and more importantly his message, like a drink of cold water on a very hot day. Among the people I’ve met at the MeetUps and in the crowds I’ve seen in videos of his speeches and rallies the hope is palpable.

On foreign policy and economics he has a clear-eyed analysis that any conscious person can understand and he offers solutions that certainly make sense to me and I suspect they will to many other people as well once they become aware of him and what he is saying. I don’t see any other candidate in either party with either his vision or his character.

If things continue as they are, and I’m doing what I can to insure they do, a fire is going to sweep across this country. Unless someone pulls some sort of substantiated skeleton out of his closet a little more damning than some fifteen-year-old quotes from an obscure newsletter, or unless he goes the way of Paul Wellstone–something I believe will become increasingly likely as the campaign progresses–he is going to be the forefront of an earthquake.

Article I, Section 8 - Powers of Congress

(1) The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

(2) To borrow money on the credit of the United States;

(3) To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

(4) To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

(5) To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;

(6) To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;

(7) To establish Post Offices and Post Roads;

(8) To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;

(9) To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

(10) To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations;

(11) To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

(12) To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;

(13) To provide and maintain a Navy;

(14) To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

(15) To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

(16) To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

(17) To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; And

(18) To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.