“I am Voting for Ron Paul for President,” by Jay Sanders

I have known Jay Sanders since he was in elementary school, I would guess. He has grown into a thoughtful and faithful pastor, with a great wife and two cool kids. If you do not read his blog, Pastoral Ramblings, every day it is to your disadvantage. Jay is always insightful, biblically sound, and usually hilarious. It is linked in his bio below.

I knew Jay had supported Ron Paul in the primaries, as I had done so for all the same wise, logical, and sensible reasons. :^) I did not know he planned to write-in Ron Paul in the general election until he offered to write the final post in this series. Thanks, Jay, for letting me know.

In encourage you to read the other posts in this series: Keysha Hogan’s support of President Barack Obama published Tuesday, Brian Gass’ support of Mitt Romney from Wednesday, and Beth Lancaster’s support of Gary Johnson from yesterday.

From Jay:

When people ask me who I’m voting for in November I generally get the same response.

“Well, a vote for Ron Paul would be a vote for Obama. Every vote counts, you know.”

I supported Ron Paul when he ran for president in 2008 because he was the only candidate who was consistently committed to limited government. I have supported him this time around for the same reason. I will write his name in this November because I do not buy the lesser of two evils approach that many conservatives take.

During the 2008 and 2012 campaigns, conservatives didn’t trust Mitt Romney. He was a moderate, at best, and a politicians politician from Boston. He had his own version of universal healthcare and he was pro-choice. This managed to scare away so many conservatives in 2008 that they actually thought that a vote for John McCain was a good idea. In 2012, Romney had no McCain to contend with and somehow managed to be the last man standing.

And because he’s the last man standing, suddenly the politician no conservative could trust has turned into Thomas Jefferson. And that’s the danger of the lesser of two evils mentality. If Romney was running for president in 1992, we’d confuse him with Bill Clinton, minus the bad morals. What was considered liberal in the early 90s has suddenly become conservative. It scares me when I consider the options my two sons will be given when it comes time for them to vote. In 15 years, will conservatives be telling each other to vote for the radical socialist instead of the radical Marxist?

“But,” some have said, “Paul Ryan will balance out Romney’s liberal tendencies.” Yes, the same Paul Ryan that supported TARP, the Patriot Act and other big government programs. I remember the anger and vows to remember on election day those who supported TARP. Many conservatives, it seems, don’t have such a good memory. By the time the Republican National Convention came around, Ryan was being presented as the future of limited government politicians.

P.J. O’Rourke once wrote that, “The Democrats are the party of government activism, the party that says government can make you richer, smarter, taller, and get the chickweed out of your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work, and then get elected and prove it.”

I’m voting for Ron Paul because I don’t want to play that game. I don’t want to settle for a candidate that tells me he’s conservative while he’s bailing out corporations that are too big to fail, invading another country and signing a bill that would allow spy drones to keep an eye on my house for me. Ron Paul has proven, over a very long career, to be consistently in favor of liberty on these and many other issues. The fact that many conservatives consider him to be a crazy waste of a vote says a lot about what passes for conservatism today.

Jay is the husband of one and the father of two. He’s been the pastor at Towaliga Baptist Church in Jackson, Georgia for four years and is a graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Jay blogs regularly at jasonlsanders.com.