A Primary Challenge and a Republican Nomination, That's the Ticket

Two truths could not be clearer in my mind as I write this today: (1) without a primary challenge to President Obama and the nomination of Ron Paul as the Republican Party's pick for president, I will not cast a vote in the 2012 presidential election. (2) I will not be casting a vote in 2012.

I'm fair. If at least one part of the first truth statement above were to be met I'd vote. A primary challenge for President Obama (awfully tired of neoconservatives referring to him as "Obama") would likely mean someone from the genuine left of the political spectrum actually showed up to play ball (Bernie Sanders, Russ Feingold?).

That is at least what some folks on the left are pushing for: a primary challenge. Sounds nice, but these same folks weren't able to get our current president to stick Elizabeth Warren in the driver seat of the freshly established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Fat chance for a primary challenge to President Obama? I'd say so.

Then on the other side of the coin is Ron Paul's campaign. I like Ron Paul, and I don't think his son Rand is racist either. Sure, he's offered alternatives to Social Security and Medicare, and has said other things that make leftists want to vomit in their soup, but Ron Paul is serious about auditing the Fed, bringing jobs back home and ending our numerous wars overseas, not to mention minding our own business. Who on the left doesn't agree with his primary thesis?

I'd vote for Ron Paul in half a heart beat. Unfortunately the mainstream press is once again exposing its subservience to the status quo and the political establishment. Paul took second at last week's Iowa straw poll, losing to the hyper-religious, overtly bigoted Michelle Bachman by less than 200 points (some 16,000 votes were cast). Despite Ron Paul's popularity, pundits write him off and don't include him in their collectively manufactured "top tier" of candidates (who likes Romney anyway?).

My wife laughed when she heard I'd vote for a Republican (she knows how much I loathe the party's policies). I responded that it wouldn't be a vote for a Republican, because Paul is a paleo-Republican, one who actually holds conservative beliefs, which alongside the mainstream press's contribution to the mess we call American politics, is also why Ron Paul will not get the nomination.

The Republican party wants somebody who will carry the sword of intransigence, hand even more subsidies over to oil companies, expand our wars to kill Muslims and steal natural (yet depleting) resources and never even whisper the idea of auditing the Federal Reserve.

I'd love for President Obama to face a primary challenge. After juxtaposing his campaign rhetoric to his efforts in office, he really deserves to. I'd equally relish the nomination of Ron Paul as the Republican Party's choice. Maybe in the end I won't waste my vote by not voting and I'll just cast my ballot for all independents or third party candidates like I do on any other election day. Yeah, I might as well.