When Voting

     It is not a big secret these days, whether you vote Republican or Democrat, we tend to get the same outcome....more government! George Bush was a republican and he tripled the size of the federal government and gave us the patriot act. Obama is a democrat and he thinks the government can't be big enough, and should run every area of our lives. There are other options, but do they stand a chance? In my opinion we need to stop thinking in those terms. If there is to be a real revolution in this country we should be willing to take some chances.
     The third largest party is the libertarian party. I've voted Libertarian in the last 5 straight presidential elections. It is no secret, however that I hold to conservative values. I disagree with the libertarians on a few issues, but refuse to vote republican or democrat anymore due to the similarities in the end result. There is however some interesting things going on in the republican party. Since 2009 we have seen a movement who call themselves the Tea Party. Named after the iconic event in Boston, the Tea Party's main objectives are, responsible government spending, lowering taxes and decreasing the national debt.
     The Tea Party has been called part conservative and part libertarian.
In my opinion the main hurdle for their success is to separate themselves from the Republican party completely, but this is difficult in a two party dominated system as ours.
If the Tea Party continues to grow and gain momentum, they have a real shot at the polls. We will see their numbers continue to grow, but probably not fast enough for the next election. We may have to sacrifice some time for the Tea Party to succeed. If we indeed see a presidential candidate come out of this movement, it would be a miracle if they won anytime before the 2020 elections! I have two reasons for saying this. First, many voters are going to be split between voting for the Tea party candidate and the Libertarian candidate, therefore splitting the votes against the liberal left. Second reason is that it takes time to create a third party. The Republican party most likely won't endorse a candidate that is for small government. So the only options left are to create another party or join with the Libertarians. My hope for the future is to see the Tea Party members and the libertarian party join sides and be the newest party to dominate Washington. The downside is that we may have to sacrifice a couple elections to give us time to unite. I'm willing to take these chances to see some real change, because it wont happen overnight! -BDB (Google Images)