So, you’re a Republican? That’s your team. You would like a smaller less intrusive government that costs a lot less, right? Great! I’m with you there. That’s why you need to realize that Mitt Romney is NOT on your team, you need to vote AGAINST him and make sure you do what you can to deny Mitt Romney the presidency. Even if it means that Obama stays in office. Why?? Well let’s back up a few years.

Election Day, November 4, 2008. That day the Republican party was officially pronounced dead. Not even on life support. The party was over. Dead. It was embarrassing to say you were a Republican. Obama won in a landslide victory. Democrats increased their control of the House of Representatives and Senate, and became an unstoppable force able to ram through just about any legislation they like. And that they did. Welcome ObamaCare.

Republicans desperately needed to completely re-imagine themselves if they had any hope of continuing forward.

Election Day, November 2, 2010. Republicans swept up, taking control of local office, state office, the House of Representatives, and nearly took back the Senate, removing Democrats’ filibuster proof majority, leaving Democrats sweating it with a razor slim majority. WHAT THE HELL CHANGED?!

Principles. Principles were discovered and defended at a time when the importance of principles became obvious. These principles weren’t handed down by someone’s god, they’re principles of reality. For instance, you spent all your money? No more party. Very simple.

Despite a desperate smear campaign from much of the media, the Tea Party movement that came into prominence had nothing to do with racism towards a black president or the pocketbooks of greedy wealthy elites. The Tea Party sprung up as a mass of Libertarians and Republicans that stood up for their common principles. They hadn’t found religion. To the contrary, they abandoned religion, for the most part, at least politically. They focused solely on economics. They focused on problems of the enormous growing national debt. They focused on reducing our spending and the cost of government and thus reducing our tax burden. They focused on limiting government’s scope and involvement in our lives.

Because of those principles, even as an atheist libertarian, I was as passionate a Tea Party supporter as anyone else; happy to find common cause with any religious supporter on board with these limited government principles.

One of the greatest things that we were all excited about with the Tea Party is their credibility and their unwillingness to compromise it. They knocked out viable Republicans from office if they violated their limited government principles. Because who needs them? Right? What good are Republicans that push for costly bigger government in our lives?

Armed with principles, the Tea Party brought excitement back into the dead lifeless corpse of the Republican Party. The wave of excitement culminated into a sledgehammer of force that overwhelmingly knocked Democrats out of local office, out of State Governor positions, out of the House of Representatives, and almost even cost Democrats the Senate. Nothing could stop the principled Tea Party movement.

Election Day, November 6, 2012 approaches. Democrats are weaker than ever, lacking enthusiasm, if not hugely disappointed in Obama. So where did all that Republican momentum go? Mitt Romney. We’ve got a nominee without any real principles. No one is excited about him. No one really likes. It’s not just that Mitt Romney lacks clear principles, he is actually worse on economic principles than many of the Republicans that the Tea Party overthrew in 2010. Everything the successful Tea Party stood for is abandoned with Romney. Sure there’s limited government rhetoric, THROWN IN WITH statements like “Regulation is essential. You can’t have a free market work if you don’t have regulation“. If you think Democrats are sorely disillusioned with Obama after 4 years of disappointment, can you just imagine how most Republicans will feel after 4 years of daily nonsense like that from Romney?

If Romney wins, every stupid thing that he will do will be used to remind the country of the failure of Republicans’ stated vision for free markets, less government, and lower debt. Because we will absolutely NOT GET freer markets, less government, or a lower debt with Romney; even while Romney uses that rhetoric. Why does he do this? Because Romney doesn’t actually understand or have concern for limited government free market principles, he’s only concerned about coached talking points. Hell Romney doesn’t even understand principles, period. He spends much of his time defending himself from his inconsistencies.

I cannot for the life of me see how Romney represents hope for something better than Obama.

Romney is not serious about anything but getting into higher office. Nothing else matters. No convictions, he stands for nothing and says nothing, but what he thinks a majority voting demographic wants to hear. I think we all know it. And it’s been very effective for him. NO WAY IN HELL would Romney willingly choose Paul Ryan as VP if the Tea Party didn’t demonstrate such threatening power in 2010. He doesn’t want Ryan for his values, he wants Ryan’s demographic. And unfortunately that hasn’t brought values to Romney, but instead pushed Paul Ryan to publicly drop his values, distance himself from Ayn Rand and soften his stance on stronger policies.

Romney will destroy respect for free markets like Bush did. He will decimate the Tea Party like Obama decimated the Anti War movement. Obama has been the best thing for the liberty movement in a long time. There is no material benefit with Romney over Obama, just a loss in credibility and preservation of the (disastrous) generic mainstream.

So, WHY has this been effective for Romney? How did his constant flip flopping and lack of principles secure him the nominee spot? I refuse to blame Romney. He played the game correctly. The problem is not him. The problem is us.

People complain about politicians not having principles, but that’s only because it’s the ones without principles who win. If having principles makes a politician unelectable, that’s not an indictment on the politician, it’s an indictment on the voters.

A plumber’s job is to understand pipes and how water flows through them. A politician’s job is to understand voting demographics and how to flow with them to get elected. The recent strategy has been to stand for nothing that could upset anyone. Obama has come out with very broad slogans like Hope and Change and Forward. Romney has decided to take a stand on both sides of every issue. No clear principles to guide us means that we are a ship drifting aimlessly in stormy waters. Before we complain about the damage that results from that, we must first acknowledge that we are the enablers.

What are we doing? Where are we going? Why are we putting on our clothes, getting in our cars, and burning gas to get to a booth so we can pull the lever for something we know is horrible? When our children find themselves crushed under impossible debt trying to comprehend why they’re trapped in this ruined failing system, we’ll need to raise our hands to explain that the cause was us. We voted for this misery. We fought for this misery. We never thought about the future, we cared only about the present election cycle, again and again. Our parents did it, so we thought it was ok to keep doing the same thing.

Let’s stop for a second and recognize where our behavior has brought us. We’re now over $16 TRILLION in national debt, and that doesn’t include massive unfunded liabilities that will multiply the national debt. It doesn’t include state government debt or local government debt. And then there’s the mountain of individual debt and corporate debt.

All unsustainable behavior has its day of reckoning. This debt isn’t free forever. It’s not a gift. That principle of economic responsibility is starting to become very important. Our business environment is heavily burdened with crippling regulations. We would like it to thrive and succeed. Free market principles are starting to become very important. TSA is groping all of us and throwing away our mouthwash and shampoo when we travel. The Drug War has allowed for egregious violations of our constitutional rights by extreme intrusions on our property, confiscation of our property, and imprisonment and death to millions of otherwise peaceful people. The Drug War is also responsible for hundreds being condemned to rehabilitation centres like Legacy Healing. These massive constitutional violations also come at an extreme financial cost to the taxpayer. The principle of Limited Government is starting to become very important.

It is never ok to sacrifice these principles. But to do so now in order to fight for Mitt Romney is unconscionable . How are we ever going to turn this failed system around if we don’t stand up to it? If we don’t refuse to cooperate with it?

A vote for Mitt Romney is a vote to bring the Republican Party back to its knees. It’s a vote to sap out any recent excitement in an honest message and return to the Republican problem of 2008. A vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for another generation of dull politicians without principle.

Four more years of Obama pales in comparison to another generation of politicians without principle.

This is not an election of Romney vs. Obama. This is anti-Obama vs. anti-Romney. No one really likes either candidate. No one is inspired by either of them. As a Republican, clearly Obama is not on your team, but neither is Romney. Certainly not our team leader.

Both Romney and Obama will drive full speed towards the cliff. The only difference is Obama will drive a little faster, but it’s a negligible difference, and certainly not one worth spending energy on. Our only hope to prevent a bleak dystopian scenario from unfolding is to send a powerful NO!! in the face of the forces that are pushing us there.

Many people are worried about Obama and his continued attempts to seize undue power through the use of Executive Privilege. If you feel like Romney is any better on that, look to how he treated Ron Paul and the libertarians at the Republican National Convention, and rammed through permanent platform changes to protect his position from the grass roots and the Tea Party crowd. That should give you an indication of what Romney will be like as President of our country.

Many Republicans are supporting Romney for no other reason than the fear of Obama’s Supreme Court Justice appointments. That’s a fair point. However, the Supreme Court conservative judges haven’t stepped down in the last 4 years, and probably won’t in the next 4 years under Obama, so I don’t see this as much of a concern. Certainly doesn’t outweigh the damage either administration will cause on their own without the Supreme Court.

And unless we have consistent limited government Republicans in the majority in Congress and the Senate, then we definitely do not want single party control of Congress, Senate, and the White House; whether it’s Democrat or Republican control. If we do not have a limited government majority, then for God’s Sake we DO NOT want our government passing laws. From a limited government perspective, neither party has a good track record in total control. The best we can pray for, is gridlock. Bill Clinton likes to take credit for the economic benefits of political gridlock during his years where he was unable to do very much. The problem with George W Bush was that he almost always had a legislature on his side, which effectively worked against us. If you want limited government, then let’s limit government’s ability to pass new laws and regulations on us, by making sure that no single party simultaneously controls Congress, Senate, and the White House.

Many Republicans support Romney because they’re hoping to repeal ObamaCare. At this point, with our legislature, it’s easier said than done. And as bad as ObamaCare is, it’s a drop in the bucket of our problems. Besides, Romney is running a campaign of Repeal and REPLACE. What is he going to replace ObamaCare with? We can’t forget that he’s the actual architect of ObamaCare. In fact when asked in 2008 if he intends to take RomneyCare national, Romney said ABSOLUTELY!

If we’re heading for a serious economic crisis, Romney cannot possibly help prevent it. The worst thing about a Romney presidency is that he CAN and WILL cause (empty) rhetoric for free market policies to take the blame for the crisis that’s coming. We do not want someone pretending to support free markets ANYWHERE NEAR the captain seat if the ship starts to sink. That will set everything we’re working for back for possibly generations. 30 years from now people will remember the utter disaster caused by putting a free market advocate in charge, and they won’t have the patience to hear you explain, “MY GOD, NO, WE NEVER HAD A FREE MARKET ADVOCATE, WE HAD ROMNEY!!!”

Fortunately, we do have a Presidential Candidate running that actually stands for limited government principles: Gary Johnson. And he’s got a track record to back it up. As a 2 Term Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson vetoed 750 bills, which was about 1/3rd of all bills requiring his signature. He held the line on preventing his legislature’s intentions for government’s size, reach, and cost to grow, and that’s how he was able to cut taxes 14 times while leaving New Mexico with a balanced budget and a healthy growing economy. Most importantly, Gary Johnson is ideologically principled to protecting your life and liberty. Gary Johnson stands for everything the Tea Party represents. He is the ideal Tea Party candidate. His slogan is Live Free. He doesn’t just speak it, he backs it up, and he’s taken some very bold stands that has caused him to be pushed out of the Republican Party by the mainstream establishment that has been running things. It is that same mainstream establishment that led the Republican Party to its death in 2008. It was the Republican fight AGAINST the mainstream establishment that brought the wave of excitement to sweep up in 2010. It is that entrenched mainstream establishment that has to go if our country has any chance. Gary Johnson is the vehicle to help you accomplish that.

The more devastating we make Romney lose in favor of Gary Johnson, the stronger the message and lesson to the Republican Party that they can never again even consider the option of treating Libertarians and the grass roots Tea Party like that again if they ever hope to accomplish anything as a party. Only a powerful heavy blow will remove the unprincipled lack luster Bush/Dole/McCain/Romney types as an option for President in the future. Nothing less. The Tea Party has no chance in 2014 if Romney wins in 2012, since a significant number of them will not oppose Romney when he behaves the same way as Obama.

Indeed it’s unfortunate to now see many principled Tea Party supporters entirely too sympathetic towards Romney, he’s a disaster from our perspective. They think he buys us time. No. There’s no chance of us buying time to convince Republicans of anything but that they can take our vote for granted and ignore us. The only thing that HAS helped convince them is having Obama in office. We would never have had such a strong principled Tea Party movement if McCain won, and we would have lost the opportunity to effectively spread the message for another 4 years. Thank god Obama and his left extremist goals won in 2008, so that we finally had a chance to educate and rally and organize around our message. Let us pray that Romney doesn’t get elected and ruin everything.

If we cost Republicans the presidency because they’ve become useless, they will have 2 options going forward: Complain and cry, or reform. The message will be noticed if we deny them elections unless they reform. That approach was very effective in 2010. Let’s hold their feet to the fire and make sure they stay on track. There is no other legitimate path for a principled Rand Paul type in 2016.

Yes, if you’re not in a swing state, it’s a no brainer to vote for Gary Johnson and show your support. But it’s specifically the swing states we need to target to deny Romney. THAT will be a powerful blow and a powerful lesson.

A vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Obama. A vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Obama. No it isn’t, a vote for Gary Johnson doesn’t register as support for Obama. Gary Johnson’s votes don’t belong to Romney. And yet, no one can count how many times that lie has been told.

If you’re a liberty activist and you currently hold decent positions in the Republican Party, great, keep your position. Some of you are voting for Gary Johnson but are afraid to speak openly on that for fear of losing your position in the Republican Party. That’s fair. But I hope you can see the kind of long term credibility you will gain when Republicans later try to distance themselves from the disaster of Romney like they’re doing to Bush now. At that point you’ll be able to point to your past foresight to demonstrate that you were ahead of the curve, which should help you attain higher positions of influence.

If we get enough votes for Johnson, and Romney suffers a decisive loss against a weak President as a result of it, you can be DAMN SURE that it will be noticed. Gary Johnson is a very effective protest vote to let the rest of the political establishment know that there is a strong movement for liberty that you dismiss at your own peril.

Obama was an embarrassing mistake for those on the left. Romney will be far more embarrassing and disastrous. Don’t constrain yourself to options that you know are awful. There is no hope for anything good to come out of a Romney presidency. If we want limited government principles but we all jump on board and vote for Mitt Romney anyway, then we truly have no hope for the future, and we have ourselves to blame.

There exists a future beyond this election cycle. Nothing is going to change unless we change our behavior. If you want your party to have a future, it needs to stand for something, you cannot waste your vote on Mitt Romney. If you want our country to have a limited government future, you cannot waste your vote on Mitt Romney. Your vote is your voice. What would you want to say? What message would you like to support?

Our society is moved forward by those bold enough not to do what they’re supposed to, because they know there’s a better way. At some point we’re going to need to stand up for ourselves. Later isn’t better than now. Especially when we’ve got an exciting option like Gary Johnson, who’s willing to take such a bold stand in defense of our economic and social liberty. Don’t waste your vote. Show your support for your own life. Show your respect for the lives of others. Live Free. Vote for Gary Johnson.

Above photo was shot at my house ;)

And if you’re still undecided about Romney, just watch this Best Of video, it will clear up any doubts!

A heavily edited version of this article was published in The Washington Times Communities Section and gained some positive reception. Check it out