William Buckley via Lew Rockwell once referenced the long held conservative view of war:

War is the health of the State.

Perpetual wars, fought by a war mongering ruling class, bankrupt our economic system, impoverish the middle class, kill innocent citizens of occupied countries, and lead to blowback (i.e., terrorist activity on United States’ soil). Time to bring home the troops and build a strong national defense.

I don’t believe I have every had a political center. My parents paid just enough attention to politics to vote their consciences’. It has taken me a while to discover a road that feels compelling and right. I have come to believe in:

• The individual’s right to self-determination.
• Freedom.
• Free-market economies based upon the general ideas of Hayek and the Austrian school of economics.
• A principled, small federal government.
• A strong national defense.
• A humble foreign policy which finds its origin in the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Adhering to this principle requires that we get our troops out of the Middle East, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and wherever else they may reside.
• You may be seeing where this is going.

As I recently shared on the social networking site which shall remain unnamed (SNRU):

If Ron Paul gets the Republican nomination, he will get my vote. If he does not get the nomination, he will get my vote.

In response to the notion that I will be throwing away my vote I said at the SNRU:

My vote will be cast in the direction of my beliefs as much as against the the rest. Never has a candidate been more compelling than Paul. The win is somewhat beside the point. No more lesser of two evil votes.

I now believe that the American people can take care of themselves. Our government’s limited purpose is to provide liberty for all citizens, even for those with whom I disagree. I find it satisfying to have a meaningful political center, one which eschews the nearly indistinguishable two-party system. As a bonus, this posture coalesces nicely with my spiritual, existential, and metaphysical outlook.