Hi, my name is Rich Lohman and I am a libertarian.
I consider my break with the two major parties a 'coming out' of sorts. I have never been a big follower of politics, but I respect the system and enjoy being part of it now that I'm an adult. The problem is, the American political system is broken and it need to be fixed. Getting back to the founding principles of the country would be a good start, and and to my mind at least embracing the libertarian party is the way to go.
I have been an independent voter since 1996. The reason why is that a colleague of mine at work had accused me of taking votes away from President George Bush (41) by voting for Ross Perot in the 1992 election and thus helped him lose to Bill Clinton. Having paid attention in my civics and political science classes in school I know that the popular vote does not decide the election, and that the state of Oklahoma voted Republican in the election so I knew it wasn't true, but it still ate at me.
The next time I had the opportunity to change political parties I did by registering independent before the 1996 election. I have felt relief ever since. Another reason I registered indie is because I do not like the primary election process. It's bad enough that we have to endure an 11-month period of campaigning only to have to vote twice to decide the election in a given election year. It never made sense to me.
In 2008 and 2012 one thing struck me odd...of all the people in this country who we could pick to lead this country how in the hell did John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Barack Obama rise to the top of the heap. Sure, President Obama defeated McCain and Romney in '08 and '12, but really, how? Is this the best we can do? The other question would be why does it always, ALWAYS have to be the pretty looking people from the major parties who care more about self image than taking care of the country?
So I embraced libertarian-ism. A simple concept that we elect a leader who lets his citizens live the way they want to with minimum interference. We elect people who respect the Constitution, not bend it to suit agendas or political ambitions. It's not right-wing conservatism, it's not left wing liberalism. It's centrist belief and as a result, people like me are relegated to the "whack job 3rd party" classification because it embraces both concepts but keeps the citizen free enough to make their own decisions.
I have been an independent voter since 1996. The reason why is that a colleague of mine at work had accused me of taking votes away from President George Bush (41) by voting for Ross Perot in the 1992 election and thus helped him lose to Bill Clinton. Having paid attention in my civics and political science classes in school I know that the popular vote does not decide the election, and that the state of Oklahoma voted Republican in the election so I knew it wasn't true, but it still ate at me.
The next time I had the opportunity to change political parties I did by registering independent before the 1996 election. I have felt relief ever since. Another reason I registered indie is because I do not like the primary election process. It's bad enough that we have to endure an 11-month period of campaigning only to have to vote twice to decide the election in a given election year. It never made sense to me.
In 2008 and 2012 one thing struck me odd...of all the people in this country who we could pick to lead this country how in the hell did John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Barack Obama rise to the top of the heap. Sure, President Obama defeated McCain and Romney in '08 and '12, but really, how? Is this the best we can do? The other question would be why does it always, ALWAYS have to be the pretty looking people from the major parties who care more about self image than taking care of the country?
So I embraced libertarian-ism. A simple concept that we elect a leader who lets his citizens live the way they want to with minimum interference. We elect people who respect the Constitution, not bend it to suit agendas or political ambitions. It's not right-wing conservatism, it's not left wing liberalism. It's centrist belief and as a result, people like me are relegated to the "whack job 3rd party" classification because it embraces both concepts but keeps the citizen free enough to make their own decisions.
My main critics think that I hate the country thinking this way. One friend in particular told me that it was impractical because the libertarian doctrine encourages anarchy. Quite the opposite. The law is there, it's just not rammed down your throat and it takes your personal liberties into consideration. Having a law enforcement background in my past employment I will disagree when some more radical sides of the libertarian party call the current state of the country a "police state", but more respect is given to your civil rights when it comes to enforcement of the law.
I do not consider this a "perfect" concept by any means but to my thinking, it's a whole lot better than what we have now. I don't think our government has any business being involved in our lives any more than it absolutely has to and they are the ones who should decide how much. The two major parties and their leaders say they know what's good for us and spend millions of dollars to convince us and at the end of the day, we are impressed by how good they look and how smooth they talk.
It ain't no way to run a country, folks. Hope you realize it before it's too late.
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