I'll preface this because it's a political post. So feel free to skip if you're reading from LJ, or not click the LJ cut.
Anyway, I publicly admit that I voted for Johnson. I don't feel guilty about it at all, because I believe the Patriot Act should either expire or be rendered neutral, the ACA needs to be rendered neutral and replaced with better individual controls on the insurance industry, and we should ditch the ME and let them fight their own wars (but provide support, and only support for Israel - if it needs it). There are some other things in there that Johnson had on his platform that I liked, but I'm not going to list everything, just the high points. I could not, in any way, vote for Romney because he wasn't going to do anything that the media fantasized he'd do. He was going to gut the ACA, not get rid of it. He was going to increase use of drones on home soil, and couldn't decide whether the bailouts were good or bad.
I don't believe in voting against someone - remember Republicans? That's how we got Obama - lots of people voting against Bush v. 2.0.1. Didn't really work out for us. On top of that, the party....seriously, we really need to talk about that...."legitimate rape". Really? You guys should just not open your mouth on social issues, not to mention, Roe v. Wade, regardless the flaws in the ruling, is not going anywhere, so it's best to just drop it and focus on an important thing right now - THE ECONOMY. Yeah, your religious nutwing core might care about whether the word marriage is used to describe a non-religious union between 2 people (straight or gay), but the moderates that actually propel you to office don't. We also tend to not care or try to intervene between a Dr. and his/her patient in regards to medical decisions (prescription, medical procedures, etc).
Democrats....oh Democrats. Your guy. He may be a-ok with that whole "women's rights" thing, and he may give lip service to gay rights, but what about rights in general? He's the first guy to kill a US citizen without due process. He's initiated a home grown police force with drones to check out what's going on. He's infringing upon state sovereignty (just wait and see how he handles those recent Marijuana resolution approvals). And let's not forget Benghazi. Do you really think that was 100% on Clinton's shoulders? She's been handcuffed by him for years, particularly in the ME. He pretty much forced her to hand all that over to an asst SecState. Oh yeah, and a guy being held for a year in a California prison because he made a crappy, cheap youtube movie - again, without due process. Not on terrorism charges, but to appease a group that was created to deflect blame for Benghazi.
Yeah. And I'm the one people are pissed at? Because I didn't vote for Romney? Guess what, I didn't vote for McCain either. The year prior, I voted for Clark (hey look, he's a Democrat), ended up voting for Bush in the general - because he was focusing his campaign on something tangible. Was the first time I actually voted Republican, you guys have managed to have candidates I strongly support, but you always throw it away for some lame ass candidate because he "supposedly" can win. Well, Romney lost to McCain the last go round. Who then lost to Obama. And you thought Romney was going to be able to beat Obama? Especially after that display at the convention that told all us moderates to get off the playground because your "big" tent is really a half size. And for some reason, we're expected to fall in line and vote for you?? I'm glad you lost by the margin you did, and I'm really glad it was as close as it was. The Dems can delude themselves into thinking this was a landslide all they want, but 3%. That was the margin. Not 10%+, not even 4%+, a whopping 3%. That is in no way an approval of what you guys want to do with this country. It's called winning by your teeth, and eventually, your jaw will either lock and rip your teeth out, or you'll have to let go. So good luck with that.