What I've Learn About Myself in Regards to Politics

If the political talk of the past few months has made me realize anything it's this:

1) The Right and the Left are one in the same - they're just as bad as the other and rather than work together they'd rather bicker and fight and slam each other, accomplishing nothing. The extremists on the Right, while they get more publicity these days, really are just as crazy as the extremists on the Left.

2) I'm a conservative moderate.

Growing up, I was raised in a conservative home. I was brought up Christian, attending youth group Wednesday night, Sunday school and service on Sunday mornings and small group in high school on Sunday nights, I also went to a smaller private Christian school from kindergarten through high school. Democrats were "the bad guys" and the Independent party was a joke. I always considered myself Republican by default, but I did lean more towards the middle of the political spectrum.

You know things have gone crazy in the GOP when Ron Paul is the only candidate that seems to make any sense. And he's not even really a Republican - he's a Libertarian.

And yes, this time around, I'm supporting Ron Paul.

Call me crazy, but he's the only candidate I feel that really seems to get it.

The "real" Right is too busy fighting gay marriage (which, regardless your feelings on the topic, I think it's a lost battle - whether you like it or not, it's going to happen) and now this ridiculous "War on Women" (being anti-abortion in most cases, I get the reasoning behind the mandatory ultrasound, however the rest of what I've read, especially in regards to birth control... are they trying to piss off most women? Even the conservative ones?)

Yes, some people have issues with his policies - mostly his foreign policy ideas - but being that there's 3 branches of government that are supposed to keep each other in line via checks and balances, I don't see it being a huge issue to worry about.

People aren't crazy about his saying to cut military funding... but yet the military backs him up and is in favor of him...? If the military doesn't have an issue with it then why should we?

And I'm obviously pro-Israel, but I do agree that we should pull out and let her take care of herself for a bit, only stepping in if needed. And same goes for everywhere else we have troops that we really shouldn't. Help our allies when they need it, but let them do their own thing in the meantime.

He's against SOPA and all the other SOPA-like bills congress keeps trying to sneak past people when it comes to internet censorship.

I love how he's for state's rights and letting the state's decide what's best for them... kinda like how things were once upon a time! 

And I know people are all "but he's for marijuana legalization, prostitution, gay marriage!" Read people. He said he feels those issues should be determined at the state level, meaning let the states decide for themselves. Gay marriage, like I said, it's a losing battle to try and fight it when you really get down to it. And I honestly don't have a problem with the legalization of marijuana - I've never used it, but I see it being like alcohol when it was once again legalized after prohibition. Crime regarding it went down and we didn't have the jails crowded with people who were in them solely because of it, and hello - they can tax the hell out of it, helping the debt a little bit! Sure, some people will try it because it's legalized, but not everyone's going to start toking up just because it's legal - there's lots of people that don't smoke cigarettes because of the health risks and not everyone drinks either.

And personally, I love how when it comes to the topic of abortion, he's an OB/GYN. His account of a late term abortion he witnessed by an instructor during his residency is quite sad and puts late term abortions a bit more in perspective - at that late in a pregnancy the fetus (a term I hate to use) is clearly a baby. While he does believe legalizing or banning abortion should also be up to the states to decide for themselves, I get the impression he has the same view as I do (abortion only allowed in the cases of rape or life/death situation with the mother, such as South Dakota's proposed Measure 11 back in 2008).

Romney seems to flip-flop too much, depending on what crowd he's trying to draw support from, and the Rick's... they're just too extreme. And while I understand where them and even Bachmann are coming from with their ideas and stances, pissing off everyone except the super conservative right is NOT going to win you an election. And Newt... I'm sorry but he if his personal life speaks anything about his character, the guy's a jerk with no morals.

Ron Paul is really the only candidate that has a chance against Obama - the Right will get behind him because he's not Obama while the moderates like myself like what he stands for and he can possibly sway those on the Left or the indifferent who aren't Obama fans either without feeling like they're voting for someone they can't agree with on the issues. Plus, it's no secret, he's the only candidate that seems to know what's in the constitution - if you've seen any clips from the debates, all the other candidates turn to Ron Paul when a constitution question is asked.

And honestly, at this point, I can't bring myself to vote for any of the other candidates - I'll write him in (if he's not the 3rd party candidate) if I have to.

While Romney seems to be the current front-runner, really, there's no telling at this point as none of the candidates have nearly enough delegates to get the bid - we're still more than 4 months away from the convention. I'm really like the idea of a Brokered Convention... it is a bit suspicious how Ron Paul seems to have the biggest turn outs and following and "likes" around the internet, yet the media keeps throwing the likes of Romney down our throats.

And reading up on Brokered Conventions, I came across this post which quite nicely puts what I've been saying all along:

"Of the four candidates [Romney, Santorum, Paul and Gingrich], only Ron Paul balances the budget, only Ron Paul wants to stop the war-mongering, only Ron Paul does not alienate the majority of women, only Ron Paul can ignite a fire in independents, and independents (not the radical right), are the key to this election.
Republicans are not going to vote for Obama so appealing to the far right makes little sense in terms of an overall strategy. Moreover, independents are likely horrified by the war-mongering and misguided statements on religious and social issues of all the candidates but Paul.
If Republicans lose this election, it will be because they all outdid each other in foolish attempts to appeal to the far right on issues where a huge majority of the population of the US is in the middle."