Vetting a candidate is a personal responsibility, and our nation’s Constitutional and fiscal futures, and our children and grandchildren’s futures, hang in the balance!

Vetting the candidates for the 2012 election

By A.J. Cameron (Bio and Archives)  Monday, August 29, 2011 | Print friendly | Subscribe | Email Us

We are less than one year from the 2012 primary election.  Assuming the current regime hasn’t totally usurped our Constitutional government by then, this will be the most important primary election in our nation’s history, leading to the most important general election in our nation’s history.  It is readily apparent that the major parties’ and media’s vetting of candidates is flawed, so it is incumbent upon all who love our country to do for themselves what is our right and what others have abdicated.

Let’s start with something no candidate can personally verbalize.  No one is fully prepared for the Office of the President of the United States of America.  Assuming this statement is correct, whom will a candidate call upon for assistance?  Who has a candidate surrounded himself/herself throughout his/her life?  Even more importantly, do you believe that mere mortal talent can perform effectively in a position of this magnitude, or does the chosen candidate need divine intervention to be effective in this office?

If divine intervention is needed, is your candidate of choice open to seeking divine intervention, or is he/she locked into narcissistically believing only in himself/herself, his/her confidants and an agenda?  How open is a candidate to admitting his/her beliefs?  What have a candidate’s actions revealed throughout his/her life?  Is a candidate’s life an open book, or do you need to be a detective to pry open his/her information through the Freedom of Information Act, or making it a federal case?  Shouldn’t this information be important to know when electing someone who is to oversee our freedoms and the safety and sovereignty of our country?

What are a candidate’s positions on political issues?  Is a candidate for an expanded Federal government and increased spending, or reducing the Federal government and reining in spending, reducing the ‘need’ to increase taxes?  Should government employees be accountable for their contribution to our overall society to justify a ‘pay and benefits package’ that may double what is typically available to those in the private sector who pay for these packages?  Doesn’t a candidate’s view on these issues have a significant impact upon you on a daily basis, especially if you are paying income taxes? 

As voters, we can elect people to office, but we have no control on lobbyists.  One of the leading reasons the office of the President is so unwieldy is the size and scope of the Federal government.  The larger the government grows, the more susceptible it becomes to abuse, and to larger abuses!  Who, among the candidates, will work to abolish unnecessary and outdated departments and agencies, and dramatically reduce bloated departments and agencies?  With the abolished and downsized departments and agencies, the potential for abuse is reduced, making the responsibilities of the President and of Congress more manageable and accountable!

Of course, those who have been working within these departments and agencies will fight such an action, but, if they have marketable skills, let them attempt to use them in the private sector, preferably for a more beneficial impact.  Regarding lobbyists, this is about the only way to reduce the detrimental impact these cockroaches have while capturing huge fees from companies and industries to influence legislation that is at the cost of the American taxpayer.  If nothing else, the lobbyists will be dispersed beyond the centralization and secrecy that Washington, D.C. offers.  The Federal government has become the conduit for the real redistribution of wealth, from the middle class and small business owners (where TAXABLE income is) to the poor and the wealthy (with little to no TAXABLE income)!  Is the Buffett bravado about ‘taxing the wealthy’ focused upon individuals’ overall wealth, or upon taxable income?

The size of government and government spending demands radical change.  Which candidate has the intestinal fortitude to stand upon principle, daring to be radical enough to engineer the changes that must be done?  The number one snake in the political financial woodpile is the Baseline Budget.  Our Federal government spending is well beyond being out of control. 

Without any new spending, under the unique system of our Federal government ‘budgeting,’ with the 2011 budget approximating $4 trillion and scheduled to increase by approximately 8% per year, the budget will be nearly $8 trillion by 2020, and $16 trillion by 2029.  How old are you and how many ‘nine year doubling periods’ do you have in your lifetime?  Even if our economy was hitting on all cylinders, our country cannot withstand what is being done to us by our elected politicians in Washington, D. C.!  We need elected politicians who will tell the truth, cutting not just the rate of increase in spending, but cutting the actual spending that is sucking the oxygen out of our economy.

Our nation is in need of a divine miracle.  We need a responsible and responsive President who has the coattails to pull enough Representatives and Senators with him/her to have a super majority in each house of Congress in an effort to soften the hard landing we are destined to experience.                       

There is the old saying, ‘Follow the money.’  Who is contributing to your candidate’s campaign?  Are they identifiable?  Do the contributors’ interests match yours?  Are the political party hierarchy’s goals parallel to your goals?  The primary election is your opportunity to demand more from the party, lest you be stuck voting for the lesser of two evils, once again, if you vote at all.  As stated earlier, these will be the most important primary and general elections in the history of our blessed nation!  Can you really afford not to elect a candidate a Godly person to the Office of the Presidency whose agenda has our nation’s best interests at heart?   

Are you seeking to change the ‘Reality Show’ we are forced to live with after an election?  With the exception of those who abuse the electoral system, each of us has only one vote per office.  If we don’t want to recommit the voting sins of the past, doesn’t it make sense that we need to change how we go about electing people to office?  Vetting a candidate is a personal responsibility, and our nation’s Constitutional and fiscal futures, and our children and grandchildren’s futures, hang in the balance!