My latest piece for The Carrollton Record:

Why I’m Voting Republican This November

Do you really need a reason to vote Republican this November? Ever since the Democrats came to power (about) 6 years ago, taking control of the executive and legislative branches, we’ve had a mess. I’ve hardly enough space to adequately cover this travesty, but I figure quick hits on big issues will be enough.

Spending

Under the current administration, we have seen the largest increase of the welfare state since Mr. Great Society himself, Lyndon B. Johnson. These stats make me want to puke:

• Department of Education budget (since No Child Left Behind): up 51%
• Department of Agriculture subsidies: up 40%
• Medicare prescription drug benefit cost: $534 billion
• 2005 Transportation Act: $286 billion

The highway bill is a joke, laden with $24 billion of pork.₁ Unfortunately, the president has never heard of a veto, never seen a spending bill he didn’t like. A Republican president would’ve stopped the nonsense.

War

The current president is the (un)intellectual heir of Woodrow Wilson. We’ve seen the worst case of moralistic military adventurism in history with the unjust invasion of Iraq in the name of “democracy” and unfound WMDs. Principled conservatives rightly objected to the war all along. Stability comes before democracy. Conservatives know that it is impossible to throw away the traditions of a country and expect democracy to magically appear. That’s Edmund Burke 101. George W. Bush explained it well during one of the debates in 2000: “Somalia started off as a humanitarian mission then changed into a nation-building mission and that’s where the mission went wrong. The mission was changed. And as a result, our nation paid a price, and so I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called nation building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war. I think our troops ought to be used to help overthrow a dictator when it’s in our best interests. But in this case, it was a nation-building exercise.” Alas, if only George W. Bush had won in 2000!

Civil Liberties

It is the goal of the conservative to protect the traditions which are the rightful foundations of our liberty, like habeas corpus. The Military Commissions Act of 2006, recently passed by the Democratic Congress, gives undue power to the executive, allowing him to indefinitely detain legal aliens on US soil, without a writ of habeas corpus. Do you trust the president to do this? I wouldn’t even trust a Republican president with that kind of power.

Time and time again, the president has subverted the law. He unlawfully authorized wiretaps when he easily could have gone to Congress to amend FISA. He held detainees in Guantanamo Bay without trial. The rule of law is fundamental, yet this president doesn’t care.

Immediately after 9/11, he hammered through the Patriot Act. It is the conservative’s duty to shout “Halt!” when someone tries to enact sweeping reforms with little forethought. Consistently, the president and Congress throw caution to the wind with our civil liberties, all while pretending to make us safer.

Moral Values

This latest page scandal really shows the true colors of the Democrats. Their champion of protecting children, chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, was caught sending explicit instant messages to underage teens. Talk about hypocrisy!

And still, the Speaker of the House refuses to step down. If this had happened to the Republicans, we wouldn’t point fingers and obfuscate. We would take responsibility. The Democrats continually show that they don’t care about principles; they only care about maintaining and aggrandizing their power.

Conclusion

The Democrats, whilst in control of Congress, have presided over obscene increases in spending and the size of government has ballooned. The president combines all the worst aspects of LBJ and Woodrow Wilson. Congress has done nothing but increase the power of this runaway executive, upsetting the checks and balances between the branches and running afoul of civil liberties. They throw away moral values, all concepts of tradition, and the rule of law in their pursuit of power.

It’s time for a change! Send a message to the president! Send a message to Congress! This November, we need to put the Republicans in charge… huh, what? What are you telling me? Wait a second, you mean, the Democrats haven’t been in power for the last six years?

Shit.

₁All of these statistics come from my Intro to American Politics book, American Government, which in turn took these stats from George F. Will in the Newsweek article, “The Last Word.” They’re also a year old, so I expect the estimates look worse today.