I think it would be cool if Texas (or some other state), simply withdrew from the USA (Obama would carpet bomb it before he let that happen though) and started over.

There is a real attraction to socialism that I only partially understand. Perhaps its the idea of getting free stuff others have to pay for. Perhaps its the idea that "we are all in this together" thats so attractive.

The problem with socialism is that it doesnt work in practice, no matter how attractive it appears to be. Look at Venezuela. The place is crashing by the day, but maduro is still alive and in charge (which amazes me). The ONLY thing that will turn the statists in this country around is seeing that the socialist ideas just arent practical- which means they must SEE the country crash before they will believe it. Until then, politics is a useless arena.

Cruz is running to be Pastor-in-Chief and the dirty tricks he played in Iowa, bear out that being the born-again Christian he claims, and the son of a pastor, is ample proof he cannot be trusted. Voting for the lesser of two great evils to be your master does not strike me well. Plus, under the electoral system my vote won’t mean much anyhow, but voting for whomever the Libertarian Party runs will at least tell the establishment there is opposition to their war-loving and statist building.

This is the problem with mob rule in a democracy. Its a bad form of government, as it quickly degenerates to the lowest common denominator or worthless people wanting free stuff from the government to be paid for by the others NOT in their tribe.

Cruz is a religious zealot. If he gets the nomination of Repubs, I hope Trump runs as an independent and Sanders wins and gets it all over with quickly (which he will certainly do with his giveaway programs).

Fighting in the political arena at this stage in our culture is really useless in my opinion. So many of the citizens are socialists or just want freebies paid for by others that a real freedom-loving candidate will NOT be elected, let alone even nominated. All we could expect is a president who will slow down the process of socialization of the country.

I say thats Trump. If Trump isnt nominated, I think its likely Sanders will get elected in the fall. Religious zealots Cruz and Rubio are cut from the same cloth as Hillary and Sanders when it comes to actual running of the country- so the one who gives away the most will garner the most votes.

John McAfee is next up, I guess. :-)

khaling, I'm pretty much where you are at.
I decided to back Cruz several days ago.
Gary Johnson? He's an open option that depends on what may happen.
But keep in mind I'm old enough to recall how votes diverted for Ross Perot helped the first Candidate Clinton sleaze his way into the Oral Office.
No,I didn't misspell a certain word.

When I look at the Presidential race there are many good candidates whose talents can really help the country. In a discussion with a friend after Rand dropped out we through out the idea that Rand might be a good pick should there be a Supreme Court vacancy. Does anyone else feel the same way?

My main guy was Scott Walker, and he dropped out first. Now my guy is Cruz, and I donated to his campaign before the Iowa caucuses. Rubio so far has not said anything I disagree with, but he had that episode with the Gang of 8 on immigration reform. I think he learned from it, but wonder if he would be manipulated by the Rep Establishment once in office. I like the things Carly Fiorina has said, and she had a really good quote in the last debate "People need to understand that the President doesn't run the economy, the people do." Too bad she hasn't gotten higher in the polls.

The old guard Republicans hate Cruz which is, in my eyes, an endorsement. Cruz's resume is outstanding, and his devotion to the Constitution has so far been explicit. With the exception of his mysticism, he is likely the best of the clown posse. Rubio, who is surging, was also disliked by the old guard, but since their boy Jeb looks like he's a wash out, they are starting to embrace Rubio. One thing I can say about Rubio is that he can beat Clinton and anyone else the Democrats put up, in a walk.
Too bad about Rand Paul. His biggest problem is that his demeanor is that of a high school teacher in a class full of slackers. Too bad, but appearance is important when dealing with the majority huddled in the shallow end of the pool.

Hi OA,

It is sad. Unfortunately, he ran a very poor disorganized campaign. He needed a unifying theme and one issue to drum on and instead he was all over the map.

Correction, 7+ years and counting ;^).

I agree that is a critical security issue. Need a Midas to agree, include it in the contract, and others who agree will sign on. Midas is the key, I think.

I am not going to spend more time building Atlantis until a sufficient number of Gulchers would agree with me on an Atlantis immigration policy.

Eight years of disaster and you still haven't learned, CG.

How about we vote on principle and simultaneously work on creating Ayn's Atlantis?

If there were an election cycle in which a 3rd party candidate could win, this is it, but it won't happen. If we want a government run with Objectivist principles applied, we will have to start our own sovereign nation of Galt.

He tried to play the game in washington instead inherit the movement and carry the crown of liberty, his one and only mistake.

I was sad to hear Paul dropped out. I still think a pro-liberty backlash could come in the near future, but it's sadly not happening now.

If they had instant runnoff voting, I would vote libertarian. If Clinton gets the nomination, I will support her simply to keep a non-Paul Republican from becoming president. If Sanders gets it, I don't know. I think I would try to ignore the whole thing and metaphorically "move to Canada".

For a while I thought if Sanders got it maybe Bloomberg would run, but the country isn't ready for a 5'7" neo-liberal electrical engineer / tech startup founder. :)

some of his complaints are not valid. I did think the "give you an F for participation" mailers was over the top. On the Carson thing. I don't buy it. I'm from Iowa, and here's how the caucus goes. You show up and they are very clear who you can vote for before they take a show of hands. There is a door monitor, and so-people cannot leave until a final count has been established based on everyone in the room. There are local election officials roaming at each precinct. Frankly, I am stunned by the C-Span footage showing voter fraud going on in W Des Moines at the democrat caucus. But no republican showing up to vote would have been confused that Carson had suspended his campaign.

In Lord of the Rings, Treebeard states what is the essence of politics: “Side? I am on nobody's side, because nobody is on my side, little orc.”

No two people have exactly the same opinions an all matters, although some are quite close. Everyone here has a vastly more objectivist point of view than the people on Daily Kos, but we nevertheless disagree.

In a voting situation you have to find enough people who share views with you that you can form a majority. Unfortunately the larger the group the less they will all share your views. You wind up voting for someone who only shares some of your views because they share more of them than the other candidate who might make a majority.

If your views are only shared by a small percentage of the population, then this can be unfortunate. The solution is to promote your views so that the number of people who share them increases.

Hello Abaco,
Yes. This is the real tragedy. It is not the fools we elect, it is the fools that do the electing... there are too many that no longer value Liberty.
We must change this. Talk to every young person you know about Liberty, especially the younger generations that must now be deprogrammed, thanks to our statist education system.

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson
Respectfully,
O.A.