I have pretty much washed my hands completely of the Republocrat, I mean, Republican party.  I will never make the mistake of voting for a Bush again.  I made the mistake twice.  Well, actually three times.  Shame on me.  I had reservations with W.'s daddy when I was an 18 year old first time voter back in 1988.  I didn't vote for him in the '88 primary, but went on to support him in the general election.  His "no new taxes" lie, along with his compromises on gun control and his sickening kowtowing to the totalitarian, freedom hating Chinese government, were a major turn off and quite disillusioning for a young man getting his first taste of democracy.  Since Clinton was not an option, and Perot turned out to be a whack job, I voted for Harry Brown, Libertarian presidential candidate, in both '92 and '96.  (Keep in mind that Perot, as a third party choice, had a strong lead in the polls, and could have been elected if he had not dropped out of the race and then reentered later.)

     If Harry Brown had been allowed to take part in the televised debates, he would have blown a lot of voter's minds.  (The democrats and republicans work together to keep third party candidates out of the debates.)  www.harrybrowne.org
     
     Going back to Bush:  like father, like son, W. has been a major disappointment as well.  And the disappointment isn't due to Iraq.  My primary beefs with Bush are:

* 3.2 million factory jobs lost in America since 2000 http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8OKGR480&show_article=1
 
* Weak border security and a desire to grant illegal aliens amnesty  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/cdfe9204-04ba-11dc-80ed-000b5df10621.html

* The size of the federal government has increased on W.'s watch.

I voted twice for W. because it was very apparent that both elections were going to be very close.  The 2000 election proved to us all that every vote DOES count, so I went ahead and voted for W. again in '04 just to keep Kerry out of the White House.  

     I no longer subscribe to that philosophy.  Again.

     Oh, don't get me wrong-I still believe that every vote counts.  It's just that I've come to realize that there's no point in placing my vote on someone who is only slightly different than their opponent.  Should I vote for the dark blue candidate or the light blue candidate?   Either way, I'm gonna get blue.

     It's time to vote for a different color.

     Vox Day (see the link to his columns) makes a good point that conservative third party voters must concede to taking a step backward in the short run to make great gains in the long run.   In other words, we should stick to our principals and vote for candidates who offer true change and reflect conservative values, even if that means Hillary Clinton slips into the White House in '08 (like her hubby did in '92 with 43% of the vote).  

     Let's stop limiting our choice between tweedle dee and tweedle dum.  There ARE more than two choices typically in all elections-not only presidential elections.  Let your voice be heard and vote for someone different.  Let's have the courage to vote for a third party candidate.  The Libertarian party would be a good place to start.   The worst that could happen is that either we actually do end up with someone in office who has some truly fresh ideas, or else the backlash of a massive conservative voter revolt might just be the slap in the GOP's face that the party needs to wake them up to get them back to their roots.  If not, then at least we know where the GOP truly stands, and you will no longer have to waste your time with a phony political party who talks one way and acts a different way.  

     The only possibility for me to vote Republican in '08 would be if Duncan Hunter get's the nomination.  Although that appears to be a long shot, I like this guy the more I learn about him.  You can learn more about Duncan Hunter here  http://www.gohunter08.com/.  Another long shot is Ron Paul, who, although he is running as a GOP candidate for 2008, was the Libertarian candidate for President in 1988.

     Just keep in mind that when it comes to national elections, 1+1+1= 2.   

     Don't allow Katie Couric to put your democracy in a box.  If Katie doesn't find the time to interview or report on a particular candidate, that doesn't mean the candidate is not worthy of your vote.