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Acquaintances know that I when it comes to religion and politics I can run my mouth. Close friends know that these two subjects are my greatest passions. I don’t claim to be extraordinarily knowledgeable but you can only imagine what happens to me in a conversation that these two subjects cross paths. In my strongest opinion we must now raise a generation that will fulfil prophecy and uphold the constitution of the United States.

We have rounded another four years and Election 2008 is making history. We have the prospects of the first women, black man, and even the first Mormon. Unfortunately, beyond the generic conservative verses liberal debate, we constantly hear the words: “sexism”, “racism”, and “religious testing” as every ones primary focus. But one thing has not changed—at least during the six elections of my lifetime—we still rarely hear about the principles of the constitution, liberty, federalism, and the proper roles of the federal government and the President of the United States.

I worry greatly when I listen Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. They would lead us to believe that government is the solution of everything, not only government but the Federal Government. Health care is now a “right”. Prosperity is the evil product of greed and the source of poverty. And as I look out the window at record snowfalls I can’t help but think this must be the product of Global Warming. What happened to a country that was founded from men like Patrick Henry and his famous line, “give me liberty or give me death!”? Democrats do not tread across the constitution alone, Republicans are only a brief step behind. We are voting away our freedoms in ignorance. We now pay over 30 percent of our income in tax (that is more than Russia’s 13 percent). We have lost habeas corpus. And we are in an unconstitutional, undeclared war with Iraq.

To a latter-day saint this should come as no surprise at all. Our Prophets have given us clear forewarning:

Brigham Young:

“Will the Constitution be destroyed? No; it will
be held inviolate by this people; and, as Joseph Smith said, ‘the time
will come when the destiny of the nation will hang upon a single
thread. At this critical juncture, this people will step forth and
save it from the threatened destruction.’ It will be so.” (Journal of
Discourses 7:15 (1854))

Ezra Taft Benson:

“In connection
with the attack on the United States, the Lord told the Prophet Joseph
Smith there would be an attempt to overthrow the country by destroying
the Constitution. Joseph Smith predicted that the time would come when
the Constitution would hang as it were by a thread, and at that time,
‘this people will step forth and save it from the threatened
destruction.’ It is my conviction that the Elders of Israel, widely
spread over the nation, will, at that crucial time, successfully rally
the righteous of our country and provide the necessary balance of
strength to save the institutions of Constitutional government. Now is
the time to get ready.” (Conference Reports-10/61:70)

Recently, one of my Aunts, a wonderful mother, was speaking with her mother. They were discussing my Aunt’s desire to teach her children about the founders and the constitution of this great country. Her mother made a comment that I believe represents many within the our faith. She asked, “Why are you so worried about the constitution of this country? We know that the Elders of Isreal are going to uphold the constitution and we are going to be just fine.” She was said as if we can just sit back and wait for “Isreal” to come out of the sky and rescue this country. My Aunt wisely responded, “Mother, we ARE Isreal! It is us who will uphold the constitution.”

It is not enough anymore to stand by and ONLY vote, but we need to go beyond voting and pro-actively PROTECT our freedoms. Here are some questions you might consider to know if you are active in protecting the constitution.

• Do you have a copy of the constitution (if you don’t Heritage.org is giving out FREE pocket copies of the constitution )?
• Could you sit down and explain what the constitution is and what is in it to a foreigner or your children (it really isn’t a long document and not too hard to understand)?
• Do you vote?
• Do you support those who support the constitution with your vote, your time, and you wallet?

So my challenge to anyone who made it through this article is to GET INVOLVED. I have donated about $200 to the Ron Paul campaign. I also like Mitt Romney, but I am not convinced. I know that Paul doesn’t seem very presidential, but after reviewing his voting record and unfailing service to the principles freedom in this country I couldn’t vote for anyone else in good conscience. i don’t care who you support, just get involved and educated on the issues. This countries freedom depends on it. The best way to raise a generation that will uphold the constitution is to show them how by our examples.

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I received this email yesterday. I got permission to use it , but I am not allowed to use their name. I thought it was very good and expressed my feelings of how important it is to get involved in our country. I have conflicting feelings. I love Ron Paul, but I also feel that Mitt Romney would make a fine President.

Friends,

I’ve sent you this email because you once donated to Ron Paul, will donate to Ron Paul, or will someday wish you had donated to Ron Paul :). John McCain just won the Florida primary. That means he goes into Super Tuesday, Feb 5th (when most 24 states vote) with all the momentum. Rudy Guilliani just threw in the towel and endorsed McCain. And Iowa is probably the only state Huckabee will ever win (he has no money to run a legitimate race). Because the mainstream media has picked McCain as their man of the hour, Romney will now probably have to settle for second in every state of real consequence.

So, the question we have to ask ourselves is, can John McCain beat Hillary Clinton (or Obama for that matter)? The answer is easy: NO. Not a chance. Americans want to end the war. Fifty-three people did in Baghdad died just today. Yet McCain says we could be there for the next 100 years. The people won’t elect another Bush. They want change. Plus, we’re headed into a recession and people will look to Hillary’s or Obama’s big-government programs as the answer to their economic troubles. And McCain doesn’t have the knowledge, platform or plan to show them a better way.

Now, my point. If Romney looses, but you voted for him anyway, what does your vote count for? Well, a lot, if he was the candidate that best represented your ideals. And I encourage you to vote for him if your conscience so dictates. However, I’m guessing that you, like many others, have heard of Ron Paul’s grassroots effort, record-breaking fund raising, voting record and positions on monetary policy, foreign policy, and the CONSTITUTION, but have been reluctant to fully endorse him because he seems a little extreme on a few issues or because it would be a “wasted vote.” If this is the case, I invite you to do two things.

One: take a good hard look at Ron Paul’s stance on the issues. I think you’ll find that the most extreme thing is the amount of federal government taxation and control that is burdening our nation and many other countries in the world.

Two: ask yourself: When is my vote truly wasted? When my candidate looses? When he wins but he would have won without my vote anyway? Or when I fail to vote for the person that most closely represents my views because he/she seems like a long shot? Only you can answer those questions.

Now remember, I’m not trying to guilt-trip you into voting for Ron Paul. But I am trying to guilt-trip you into taking a serious look at the candidate I believe is fighting the hardest for conservative values and free market economics. None of the candidates can hold a candle to Ron Paul’s economic plan (which seems to be the major issue nowadays). He’s the only one hitting at the real problem: a lack of sound money (no gold standard). But you have to read his stuff to figure that out for yourself.

So if you made it this far through the email, thanks. I appreciate it. And if you come to feel (as I do) that Ron Paul is the most principled candidate out there, please make a donation to his fund. Even just today he has raised over 700 thousand dollars already. I’ve never donated money to any politician until Ron Paul. And if turns out that Romney is still your man, donate to him. In other words, I urge you to start getting more involved in protecting your freedoms and shaping your country’s future. Volunteer for their campaigns. In November, we won’t be able to complain about having Hillary or Obama in the White House if we just standby and watch as their supporters donate millions to their campaigns while we keep our wallets and mouths closed.

To end this exhausting email, I would like to add that after studying Ron Paul’s life, writings, voting record and campaign, while simultaneously following what’s happening overseas and here at home with our economy, I sincerely believe that we will all one day look back and say, “you know, Paul was right on almost everything.” He will go down in history as one of the few brave patriots who tried to warn us of the perils that would be caused by excessive federal government and out-of-control spending.

I have great hope for the freedom of our nation. There’s no room to be anything but optimistic.

In the words of the great patriot, Thomas Paine, “THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated…

…I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it.”

God Bless

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I just read an article, Ron Paul, loser again. Here is my response:

I had little hope that Paul might do well when I first started supporting him, but as time moved forward my hope increased as the media reported on the lackluster of the GOP. I just figured that if no one cared about the candidates then no one would show up to the primaries. But the Paul supporters would show up, as they did, and hand Ron Paul shocking top three finishes in many states. Still a long shot, but there seemed to be a chance.

Yesterday, NH had record breaking numbers. If I had expected record breaking numbers, then it would have been obvious to me that he wouldn’t do as well. ALL the Paul supporters would have come out yesterday regardless of everyone else.

Instead we had extremely tight races on both sides of the isle. This put New Hampshire in an absolute buzz. On top of that the weather was perfect.

It was the drama between Romney and McCain that hurt Dr. Paul most. A close look at the Exit Polls shows that 28% of those who were “strongly favorable of Ron Paul” voted for either McCain (8%) or Romney (20%). Even worse, 73% of those that were “favorable” of Ron Paul voted for Romney/McCain. I believe that not only did droves of people dilute the support for Ron Paul, but everyone starts to vote against the candidate they dislike rather than for their first pick.

We have a group of Pentecostals trying to defeat Romney’s Mormonism (even Ron Paul suggested with Jay Leno that discrimination against Romney’s Mormon faith could cost him the race), some who would vote just so Huckabee won’t be in, and another group that doesn’t want Guliani. A lot of voters are voting to defeat the candidate they don’t want, and I think that is part of why we had such huge turnouts. Ron Paul’s supporters seem pretty pure in this regard, they certainly aren’t voting to just defeat others, they just want to vote on principle.

People don’t support Ron Paul overnight. I didn’t and I don’t know one person who has. His ideas take time to digest and understand. When you have bunches of people, scarcely educated on their candidate, you can assume they will vote for what seems most exciting, McCain and Romney. Many of these people didn’t choose a candidate until the last minute.

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Ron Paul started his campaign by appealing to those who are considered extremists and sound like the fringes. I am liking his more diplomatic feel lately. This is a great interview (if you are on facebook click here to see the videos on my blog):

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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Last night I entitled a post: “Poor College Students Sacrificing Precious Christmas cash for Ron Paul“. I finished the post just before I headed out on a Saturday evening date.  My intention was to write a post that would influence my small readership and more of my family and friends to donate, I hadn’t even proof read the post. When I got home from my date it was just after midnight, I shut my eyes and clicked “donate”, giving the $100 I have saved up over the past month. It was an awesome feeling.

It was then that I realized that I had 111 Diggs!  I had three emails from friends congratulating me for getting on Lew Rockwell’s home page. Feeling rather embarrassed realizing that thousands of people had read my poorly written (I hadn’t even proofed it as I ran out the door to my date) blog entry, I some quick fixes.

I also want to thank the two of you who offered to donate a little to my school tuition. I didn’t intend to solicit donations to me, but thank you.

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Back in September I donated to a politician for the first time in my life. I am a BYU student. I am poor. I am trying to help build a company. A few weeks ago, my 1991 VW’s engine blew up. I can’t afford a new car so I am moving about on foot. BUT tomorrow I am going to dump what ever extra money I can into the Ron Paul campaign in my support of the constitution.

I heard about Ron Paul from a coworker, Duane. For over a year I had watch Duane reading about Ron Paul. I figured Ron Paul was a loony, until one day Duane sent me and email entitled, “An important part of my life.” Duane explained how important the ideas of freedom are to him. It was then I saw that Duane—also a BYU student and a newlywed, bootstrapping a company—had donated over $200 to the cause. I deeply respect Duane so I decided I best pay attention.

Jumping on Youtube I found dozens of interesting videos of the debates. Initially I was bothered when Ron Paul would say that he wants the troops out of Iraq immediately. It wasn’t until after watching hours of Youtube debates on the war, and reading an article by my brother Neal about choosing between our fellow Mormon, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul that I decided the war is unconstitutional and will never work to fulfill its purpose—to rid the world of terrorists (I will discuss my logic against the war in a later post)

on September 9, I saw this video:

When I clicked “submit” to my first meager $15 (ALOT for me in September) donation, that I realized, “I must really like this guy!”

I knew nothing about the 5th of November until the day of. I couldn’t donate because I didn’t have the money. Since the 5th, myself, three of my brothers, two of my sisters (I am a Mormon, we have a big family), my mom, my uncle, and several friends here at BYU have all been saving and proselytizing for Ron Paul. None of us donated on the 5th and only I have signed up at teaparty07. Looking at this tonight, I believe that is the way we are going to see all the records broken tomorrow.

When people take a minute and look past Ron Paul’s unpolitical image, they see truth and the correct principles of freedom. In Ron Paul I feel as though I can visualize the kind of men who founded this country. Just yesterday I showed my friend from Brazil a video on Ron Paul. When it got done he said, “I would vote for this man!” To bad he is not American.

Here is another video to leave you with:

Donate on the 16th, Tomorrow!

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