Election 2022 update: Vote for liberty
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send your username and password to you.
Give me Liberty
Rodger Williamson
If you are reading this column I feel it safe to assume that you care about local and/or national politics, and thus, you care about who represents us in our various levels of government and what those governments do regarding the collection of taxes, use, and/or abuse of their authority, and how said governments serve our local, state and national communities that we are all a part of.
We the people host elections as a way for citizens to put into public office persons who represent something near to their own ideology, and this coming Tuesday, the eighth of November, is our next election day.
In theory, those who win an election were voted into office by a majority of the population. However, in practice, those who win are usually voted into office by the actions of the larger minority of proactive voters, aided by the inaction of the majority of the population who choose to not exercise their civic duty.
In the recent 2020 presidential election we witnessed a record nationwide voter turnout of more than 233.8 million eligible voters. Yet the combined totals of voters that cast their choice for either the current president or the last president, in total together, made up just 66.5% of eligible U.S. voters.
Biden won this past election with support from only 34.7% of eligible voters, Trump came in second with 31.7% support of eligible voters, and 33.6% of eligible voters either voted for someone else or did not vote at all. The simple reason for more than 118.1 million eligible voters to choose to not vote was that they rejected both of the major party candidates as unpalatable.
Our system of politics as it was created was never intended to be limited to just two political parties. In fact, when it was created, parties were discouraged. However, shortly after the creation of our federal Constitution, parties were created, and there have been many that fielded candidates throughout our nation’s history, but the Democrats and the Republicans have locked down a two-party stranglehold on both the federal and our state politics since before the American Civil War began.
This year offers something different, as for the first time in more than 20 years voters in Coosa County and all across the State of Alabama will see a third option listed on their ballots this coming Tuesday, November 8. …Say hello to the Libertarian Party.
With a viable alternate party on this year’s ballots, I encourage the voter of Coosa County to set aside a moment in these last few days before the election to look up each of the Libertarian candidates that will be on the ballot and learn about them. Use the internet and search for information on all of the candidates, and see for yourself what their position is on the policies that matter to you and your family.
I personally am partial to ballotpedia.org as informative and impartial, but leave you free to do your own research and come to your own conclusions. As for me, I am fed up with BOTH the Republicans AND the Democrats, as together they have created the political strife that we have all witnessed for the last several decades. I choose liberty. I choose freedom. And thus, I will choose any candidate that does NOT have either an “R” or a “D” by their name on the ballot.
If there is a Libertarian running, they have my vote. If there is not a Libertarian running for a position, but there is instead an Independent, I choose the Independent. And if there is only a Republican and/or a Democrat, I believe that I shall write in the name of someone from the Libertarian Party who is listed elsewhere on the ballot, as it is time to shake loose the death-grip of the Republicrat Duopoly.
However, if for no other reason, it is my hope that Thomas “SickOfDC” Casson can win the U.S. Representative 3rd District seat, as the sample ballot that I pulled up online actually listed him as Thomas “SickOfDC” Casson.
Listed below are the Libertarian candidates that you will see on your 2022 ballot:
Governor: James “Jimmy” Blake
Lieutenant governor: Ruth Page-Nelson
Senator: John Sophocles
U.S. Representative, 3rd District: Thomas “SickOfDC” Casson
Secretary of state: Jason “Matt” Shelby
State treasurer: Scott Hammond
State auditor: Leigh Lachine
Commissioner of agriculture and industries: Jason Clark
Public Service Commission, Place 1: Ron Bishop
Public Service Commission, Place 2: Laura Lane
As for the proposed amendments to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, our 1901 Constitution is the sixth consecutive Constitution of Alabama. (Prior Alabama Constitutions were adopted in: 1819 – converting the Alabama Territory into a State; 1861 – Secession; 1865 – Reconstruction; 1868 – Reconstruction; 1875 – ending Reconstruction; and from 1901 – the current document).
At 388,882 words, the current Constitution of Alabama is 12 times longer than the average state constitution, 51 times longer than the U.S. Constitution, and is the longest and most amended constitution still operative anywhere in the world. Without a doubt, the current Constitution of Alabama is a horribly worded document that needs to be scrapped and a new constitution drafted.
This year, there is a proposed Constitution of Alabama 2022 on the ballot, but technically it is only a tidying up of the existing 1901 Constitution, with no significant changes. However, until “We the Voters” can put persons into our legislature that are seriously willing to tackle the drafting of a newly worded document, that both limits the powers of our state government and ensures the liberties of all of us who claim Alabama as our home, then I as a Libertarian concede to this 2022 tidying as a stepping-stone toward a future new constitution.
In addition, there are 10 proposed amendments to our 1901 Constitution. I suggest that you take a moment and read each amendment individually and conclude for yourself whether the amendment, if adopted, protects the liberties and freedoms of we as citizens, or does it take away from the people and delegate to the government additional powers or additional taxation capabilities, and then vote accordingly.
Be prepared. Vote for a better future. And always vote for liberty.