Thursday, December 20, 2007

Just give me freedom!

I have been somewhat at a loss as I try to figure out the candidate from among the several currently on offer for which I should actually vote. Almost all of them seem to possess entirely the wrong instincts for my personal taste. Looking at the leading candidates on the Republican side we have:
  1. Mitt Romney: Fervent Mormon and recent convert to the social conservative club. Making his campaign about his experience as an effective manager of large bureaucratic organizations (Bain, the Salt Lake Olympics, the Massachusetts government). But the solutions he offers are more a refinement of the bureaucracy than a transformation of it. He never asked, for example, whether government health care is a good idea, only which means of providing would work best.
  2. Rudy Guiliani: I respect Guiliani for his work in transforming New York from a crime-infested hole of a city into the safest large city in the world. But he has a long history of antipathy toward gun-owners, government reduction measures like the line-item veto, and is very soft on illegal immigration, and a big supporter of the freedom of speech choking monstrosity that is also known as "campaign finance reform." Where is the love for freedom from the government for the average citizen from this guy? While he has a record of punishing evildoers, he also has a long history of restricting the freedom of the law-abiding to accomplish that objective. Sorry, Rudy, I can't support you either.
  3. Mike Huckabee: Rock-solid from a pro-life perspective and an evangelical to boot, but shaky on the role of government. I mean seriously, the guy thinks it's the job of the federal government to legislate where and when people can smoke cigarettes. Where is that in the Constitution? Or for that matter, his view that illegal immigration is okay, that an expanded role for government in health care, education, and on and on is a good thing. Is there any place in our society over which Huckabee thinks government should have no oversight?
The Dems, if anything, are worse. Where is the candidate making the case for less government rather than more? I suppose, when the election finally rolls around, I will vote for the candidate who is less of a statist than the alternative, but what a depressing choice.

I guess what I want is a government modeled on Romans 12, where Paul says government's job is to protect and uphold what is morally right and punish evil and evildoers (both foreign and domestic). Beyond those limited functions, I want government to leave me the heck alone! I've got to believe I'm not the only one who feels this way. So where is the candidate who thinks that way?

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