Politics and Poker

If you don't want to read my opinions on politics, this video sums my feelings up quite nicely.

It's Time for Campaign'in

Despite the title, this post has very little to do with poker. My livelihood has been under heavy attack by my party of choice since at least 2006 (longer, in truth, since it took years for anti gambling legislation to pass). So as a poker player, I am a bit stuck when it comes to my feelings on the political races in 2008.

My political leanings come across as odd to some. My guess is that I'd be hated by both sides. In a nutshell, I'm a pro-life, pro-gambling, pro-capital punishment, anti-nanny state, fiscal conservative. I'm also a devout Baptist.

I just typed and then deleted about 4 paragraphs explaining why my belief system is not contradictory. Then I realized that I have nothing to defend, so what's the point? Everyone has their right to their own opinions and beliefs. Some people's are just wrong, that's all. :)

I think the candidate who would have most fit my beliefs would have been Ron Paul. I can't bring myself to vote for Obama, but I feel like going out and pushing all the Republican buttons in the poll booth will just be rubber stamping the nanny state decisions and stinking pile of crap that was the Republican controlled congress until 2006.

I think I'll vote for Ron if he's on the ballot. Both the Dems and Reps have got to come to the realization that they are losing the middle as they get more and more extreme. Maybe then we'll see some real change in government.

Voting for someone who has no real shot is not wasting your vote. The reason we have such crappy choices these days is because the sheep keep falling for that 'lesser of two evils' line. If enough votes start being cast for 3rd party candidates, the two main parties will realize they need to field candidates that appeal to these 3rd party voters. Think about it. Elections are decided by tiny percentages. If all of a sudden 5% of votes were being cast for a 3rd party, the two main parties would be falling all over themselves to try to pick up that 5%.

That's my .02 political thoughts.