Why I Don't Vote

 2012 was a watershed year for me. It was the last time that I stood in front of a voting machine and cast a ballot. It was also the first time in my life that I had voted FOR a presidential candidate instead of simply AGAINST his  adversary.  Since then I have been completely free and unfettered from the political process, and view it as a tragic sort of entertainment best viewed from as far away as possible. Since I know so many people who are once again convinced that this is The Most Important Election ever I considered it my civic duty to explain just a bit as to why I will not be participating this time, or the next time, or the time after that.

1) I wrote a book.  This is not so much a shameless plug as an explanation of one rather large step on my journey. I wrote a book called Swindled where I documented how the GOP on local, state and national levels tweaked , bent and in some cases broke federal election law to in order to secure the nomination for Mitt Romney.  Considering how that worked out for them, it's even more remarkable that they would go through so much trouble. The greatest candidate of my lifetime was  in that race, and with a complicit media ('conservative' and 'liberal'), they literally cheated him out of his shot. Writing that book, I became finally convinced that the GOP  cares nothing about liberty; they care about power. 
2) I helped a guy get elected.  I write this knowing that the individual I'm talking about will probably read this.  My family got heavily involved a few years back with getting a dear friend of ours get elected to a state-level office.  I was in his living room the night the campaign started. He was a man as committed to liberty and as opposed to the status quo as any of us. I remember disagreements with his campaign manager about how 'extreme' his views were. He was the underdog,  the libertarian who was going to take the system by storm, make everybody mad, and then come home after a single term. In fact, now that I think about it, this is the man who introduced me to Tom Woods book on Nullification.  Amazingly, we won. My friend replaced a useless , statist, GOP do-nothing who had all the money and we won.
  And then I watched my friend change.  He began to  refer to himself as a 'conservative'.  He championed some dubious legislation and broke at least one of his campaign promises. He ran again, and was re-elected. And again.  Now he's the insider who gets invited to the important fund-raising dinners with all his buddies at the Capitol.
  We love him. We love his family. He's still better than  what he replaced.  But we appear to have a whole lot less in common with him philosophically than we did before he got elected. 
3)The system is evil.  Now think about this for a minute.  Cast your mind back to, oh, lets say the last 3 presidential elections, although one could certainly  go back further than that.  The GOP nominated John McCain, a self-proclaimed 'maverick' who believed  pretty much everything depending on what time of day you asked him. He literally prided himself on his unpredictability on voting. Sometimes he was  for freedom, sometimes he was for statism.  You couldn't pin him down because he was a 'maverick.'.
  John McCain was touted to small-government types as 'the lesser of two evils' and even though he was obviously an unstable old man, we were supposed to vote for him because Barack Obama would be President if we didn't. This was the Most Important Election Ever. Hold your nose and vote! It's your duty! The world will end if Obama gets the White House!
  Now consider 4 years later, when the GOP snubbed Ron Paul to nominate Mitt Romney, a man who believed nothing.  His views, at least on things that the President can actually affect, were identical to his opponent, but he would gladly change them if it would get him 10 more votes. He was horrible and dull,and nobody was excited about him. But  the American people were told that this was The Most Important Election ever and that 4 more years of Obama would destroy the Republic. Sure he's a borderline statist, but he's the lesser of two evils. Hold your nose and vote! It's your duty! The world will end if Obama keeps the White house!
  Now it's 2016 and the GOP has nominated a man who wasn't even a Republican a few years ago. He believes, apparently whatever pops into his head. He's an unregenerate blowhard who openly admitted he'd like to have martial relations with his own daughter.  But hey, none of that matters because he's the lesser of two evils! This is The Most Important Election ever! Hold your nose! Do your duty! The world will end if Hilary gets the White House!
  How many times must you be sold the same stupid idea?  Every time the 'lesser' of the two evils is greater than the evil before it. It's a game for suckers.
4)The system is worldly. Now I want to  conclude this by talking to 'my crowd', the Christians. The GOP uses us, and has for pretty much my entire life.  They meet with evangelical leaders like Falwell and Dobson, and these  leaders slobber all over these politicians for a seat at the table. This is done because the politicians believe theses leaders can deliver them blocks of people who will support them, and apparently that works for them. But I challenge you to think for yourselves. Think about Donald Trump ( just as an easy example), and then consider these verses.
  The Bible says "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
  The Bible says "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."
  The Bible says "For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning."
The Bible says  "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."

  Christian, you are never commanded in scripture to vote. You are commanded to  preach the gospel.  You aren't commanded to 'save America', you are commanded to be part of the salvation of men's souls.  God not only isn't a Republican, He isn't even an American.
  In 2012 a friend of mine was positively abused on social media by people we both went to church with over his support of Ron Paul. He was called names and insulted by his brothers and sisters in Christ. His failure to  fall into line and back the empty suit of Romney caused division and  bad feelings.  This time around, another friend of mine has offered to 'defriend' anyone on Facebook who doesn't support Trump. What sort of wicked system turns brothers and sisters against each other like that? And why do you keep participating, Christian?
  It's ok, really. Let them ruin the place, they are going to anyway. it's theirs to ruin.  We seek a heavenly country wherein dwells righteousness.  Our citizenship is in heaven, and if the place falls apart, and it becomes (more) repressive, take heart; the church of Jesus Christ has lived and thrived under those conditions from the beginning. This literally isn't our fight.
  Don't get distracted. Don't believe their lies. Don't waste your time voting.

Politics Is An Evil Business

  Several years back I was  accosted at a street festival by a local politician who was running for  state representative.  I'm not sure if they were already an incumbent or not, but they asked me what they could do for me up at the capitol. I  told them they could leave me alone.  I told them to not pass any more laws and  to get rid of  the ones they had.  They assured me they were big advocates of 'limited government'.  What they were really advocates of was big campaign contributions from  corporate welfare hopefuls.  They were handily elected and proceeded to  busy themselves with 'bringing home the bacon' and 'making friends' because after all, that's how you get things done.  Life marched on.
  A few years later,  with Obamacare looming, a friend of mine decided to cast his hat into the ring and challenge the incumbent.  This fellow was a true blue  liberty advocate, a reader of Mises and  Hayek.  In fact, this guy was the guy who loaned me Tom Wood's book on nullification.  We were excited, and my whole family got behind this campaign.  It was a heady beginning.  He  told me that his plan was to run for one term, make a bunch of people mad, and then return home.  The incumbent was  status quo, and our friend was a dangerous  outsider.   Not everybody involved in the campaign was  excited about his libertarian roots. From the beginning I saw that  his extremism was a source of heartburn for the people that were trying to actually get him elected.  As the campaign wore on he was  asked to tone down the rhetoric by his campaign advisers while the small  crowd of crazies  from the living room   encouraged him to continue fighting the good fight.
  What happened next may have been the worst thing to happen to him.  He won.  He did fight the good fight for a while, but the  wheels of the well-funded machinery began to wear at him in the  state capitol.  The things he wanted to get done were blocked and stymied at every turn by 'conservatives' who weren't advocates for liberty, but they were advocates of 'limited government'. His chances of repealing things and nullifying things  grew more and more minute . I specifically remember a heartbreaking conversation we had when he told me that the Republicans in my state would never allow  Obamacare to be nullified, and it was a waste of time to try.  I thought something that I did not say.  I thought 'well then why are you running for re-election?'.
  Speaking of re-election, the former incumbent financed a primary opponent against him, and he  squeaked out a victory.  Somewhere in the middle of that he  experienced some minor legislative victories (however you define victory), and began  to be liked in the  capitol. The people that opposed him and blocked him in the beginning began to  advise him and  endorse his ideas.  I told him in the  grocery store one day that he was no longer the  dangerous outsider; he was the incumbent.  Along the way he pushed for  funding to  help bring home some bacon for his district. he began to talk about the importance of  a politician  providing jobs for the community.  He fell out with the local Tea Party group that he had been an early member of. He  broke a campaign promise to  vote against a tax increase, claiming he had inside information about how necessary  the tax was.  He began to attend Republican dinners and fundraisers.  He began to prepare to run for a third term.
  The  old incumbent and  some  well-heeled friends of   theirs  mounted yet another  establishment pro-corporate welfare candidate against him in the primary.  He was  put in a position to prove all the  good things he had done in his first two terms.  This is measured by  how much money you bring  back home, because its hard to argue  for all the things you prevented from happening after all. He sent out slick multi-colored mailers saying how he has been endorsed by all the GOP hierarchy in my state.   I'm sure he'll do well in the primary, and I'm supposed to go vote in a couple of hours but I don't know what I'm going to do.  I refuse to vote for his opponent, but my friend has become , unfortunately, the lesser of two evils.I say that knowing that, in all probability he will read this.
  Please understand that all of this breaks my heart. I really like the guy. We love his family, and I'm sure he  thinks he's stayed by the stuff. I know the typical wisdom is that you do what you have to do to get the  job done. The typical thinking is that without powerful friends, without playing the game you can't get anything accomplished.  I'm sure he would make the argument that it takes a lot to get there, and it takes a lot  to stay there. I'm certain the case could be made that he wasn't elected to represent just the libertarians, but the whole district..
  My point in all this is not that my friend got caught up in pragmatism, but rather that politics is a horrible filthy,  comprising business. You have to go day in and day out and deal with people who have made it their life's work the practice of acquiring power over other men.  What are the odds they won't get any power over you?  They charm and manipulate for a living. What are the odds you can carry that fire in your bosom and not get burned?  How  can you hope to escape without  selling off at least a portion of your soul?
  If government isn't the answer, then getting involved in government cannot possibly be the answer. Those of us that truly want liberty cannot  worry and fret ourselves with running for office. The odds aren't that you will convert the machinery to the cause of liberty; the odds are that you will be converted. You will be assimilated, and you might not even realize it. If you feel yourself in any danger of 'playing the game', your only hope is to resign and run as far away from the halls of power as you can.   Let lesser men seek power over other men, we've got a world to build.