makeshiftmind

“There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide.”
– Ayn Rand

From the Ayn Rand Lexicon.

“If the gov. doesnt bailout the Delorean company, America will lose its time travel advantage.”

– Michael Duma

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Dear Starbucks girl,

I’m sorry for biting your head off at the drive-through.  You just happened to be the first person to ask me “Did you vote?” this morning.  And after I emphatically said “No.”, you had to ask, “Are you going to?”.  Please understand that if I have to repeat myself, my volume and eyebrows both go up, dramatically.  Even though you gave me my grande Thanksgiving blend coffee for free because you, also, aren’t voting today, I just wanted to take a moment and explain myself.

I can’t go to the voting booth and choose a candidate that represents my values.  Oh, there is such a candidate out there — and he even ran on a major party platform.  I voted for him in the primary, even though he was ignored by the media and received negligable speaking time in the two primary presedential “debates”.  He has served in Congress for 18 years, and even ran for president once before.  His voting record has been absolutely consistent.  He has written serveral books on economics, liberty, and government, and has lectured at economic think-tanks like the Mises Institute.

And yet, I can’t vote for this man.

I can’t vote for him because the ruling class has decided that the three qualifications for president found in Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution are more like “guidelines” instead of law.  Instead, our rulers choose to allow or deny access to the great, sacred voting ballots in each state based on arbitrary whim and a strict, regimented dedication to party lines.  If politics could be compared to a market system, we could say that the ruling class holds a monopoly, and they erect artificial barriers to entry to prevent competition in their domain.  The difference between a market system and a government system, of course, is that one is backed by supply and demand, and the other is backed by guns and bullets.

When people line up at the voting booth this morning, they will be voting for the candidates they are allowed to vote for.  This is not a conspiracy theory; this is not paranoia; this is unadulterated fact.  And I cannot — will not — pretend that it is otherwise.  If I go to the voting booth today, I give legitimacy to a system that stands contrary to real freedom, and my conscience would not forgive me for that sin.

Thanks for listening, Starbucks girl, and thanks again for the free coffee.  It is warm comfort on a cold day.  Let’s just hope that the next person who asks me if I voted doesn’t end up wearing it.