I’m a college student and I gave $50. At this point All I want to do is to help spread the message of liberty and hope. I know this day will be long remembered.

$75 for me.

I’m strapped too, but gave a little…

The last time I voted was in the 1998 elections, and it was for Ron Paul. I was registered as a Republican at the time, and had to change that. In the following years, I completely lost faith in the system and gradually drew to market anarchism. I haven’t even been registered to vote in nearly 20 years, and certainly haven’t contributed to anyone’s stinking campaign.

But I did contribute to Dr. Paul this cycle, and I have registered (all over again) so that I can once again take part, hopefully not regrettably, in the most twisted, tortured system since Wal-Mart’s “10 Items or Less” swipe-your-card-and-go line.

I may be a fool, but Dr. Paul’s progress is encouraging. The outcome of this election almost doesn’t matter; with each week, he’s reaching more and more people with his message, and it’s working. It won’t be enough to get him into the White House, but like Perot, he’s at least raising awareness to some important issues (Perot was effectively a one-issue candidate), and unless Americans at large have shamefully short memories — please don’t embarrass me, you motherfuckers — that message will stick with people years after the elections themselves are forgotten.

If — if — that message isn’t forgotten, the next low-life to “lead” this nation further into despair can expect, we can only hope, to look out a window of the West Wing one day to see a line of Citizens carrying pitchforks and torches … and some burly guy carrying a 5-gallon pail of hot tar, as well.

For 20 years now, I have been completely without faith in our government, or the system that puts and keeps them there, to ram it to us right through the next cycle (rinse, repeat). I’m damned tired of living in a country where “patriotism” has been so perverted that mere dissent is interpreted as tantamount to treason. Where in the span of only a couple decades, it has become acceptable for the Feds to spy on each and every one of us (”not acceptable,” you say? Nobody’s marching in the streets, there’s no uproar around the ol’ water cooler … so where’s the outrage?). Where torture is even a fucking debate, let alone one seriously considered.

“I have seen the enemy, and he is …” yeah, well.

Now here’s the “obscure” (only for those who haven’t been paying attention) Dr. Ron Paul, and he’s gaining momentum, in a big way. I have no illusions. He won’t win. But for the first time in 20 long years, I believe — or I want to believe, anyway. I want to believe that America is still a country where people actually believe in the Constitution, that it’s not “just a goddamned piece of paper,” a country whose residents still believe in the concept of individual liberty.

Sorry for the long post.

[...] wrote: The last time I voted was in the 1998 elections, and it was for Ron Paul. I was registered as a [...]

Nice post, jh.

Btw, as of 5pm PDT, the Yahoo Politics news page had not a single mention of the money bomb. Oh, there was a story about Colbert “dropping out” of the race, but I didn’t see anything about Dr. Paul. Please someone tell me I’m missing the right links.