For those of you who read The World According to Nick regularly, this endorsement should come as no surprise.  I began the presidential election season by supporting Ron Paul, who was running in the Republican primary.  Paul is a truly principled Republican, who's views on government size, and especially on monetary policy and the economy seem scary accurate given the current state of the economy and the housing sector.  But because of his views on the war, he was treated as a traitor to the party, and never given a serious chance despite setting some amazing records with online fundraising during the primary.

Instead, John McCain squeaked out a primary victory, and is now facing Barack Obama.  As I have written before in various locations, neither man will take this country in a good direction.  As Walter Williams said during this 20/20 episode I blogged, the President cannot fix the economy, and does not run our lives.  He has very little power to do good, and enormous power to do damage.  We the people, through hundreds of daily decisions and desires, through small businesses and our jobs, run the economy.  In fact, I think it's fair to say that most people spend their time trying to do what they want, in spite of government pressures, not because of them.  This is important to keep in mind when listening to both major party candidates.

John McCain has rightly been criticizing Barack Obama for wanting to redistribute wealth.  The problem is that John McCain would also like to redistribute wealth.  While Obama would prefer to do this via increased taxes for some, and tax credits for others, McCain would prefer to do this through handouts to home owners who made poor decisions, and bought homes they could not afford at the expense of home owners who made responsible decisions.  While there is fear that an Obama administration, backed by a Democratic Congress, will bring back the fairness doctrine, John McCain has already done much to silence free speech with the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance reform law.

The reality is, John McCain stopped running as Republican who believes in small government and personal responsibility (if he every believed in those things), and instead has run left.  He calls for greater government control over energy, despite the failings of those policies in the past.  He suspended his campaign to help pass a pork-laden bailout bill, despite his campaign promises to veto pork bills once President, and despite the fact that there is little evidence such a massive bailout was necessary.  The more you examine the promises of both candidates, the more you realize how similar they both are.  Both Republicans and Democrats seek to increase the size of government influence over your daily lives... they just seek to exercise that power in different ways.  Both will result in less freedom for you.

Many people simply aren't aware that there are alternatives to the two major parties, that don't include not voting.  Bob Barr is running for the Libertarian Party, Chuck Baldwin is running for the Constitution Party.  Ralph Nader is running as an Independent this year (I've blogged about his platform here), and Cynthia McKinney is running on the Green Party ticket.  I encourage you to educate yourself about all the candidates who are running this year.  I have blogged previously about how voting for a third party candidate is not throwing your vote away, but is rather an investment in the future, despite the calls by some that the stakes are too great in this election.  Congress' approval rating right now is below 20 percent, yet more than 90% of them will be re-elected this year because they've gamed the system to keep out others.

The current two party system that we have now is simply not healthy for our country.  For Republicans, it is especially damaging since the party of "small government and personal responsibility" vastly increased the size and budget of the Federal government while it was in total control for six years of the Bush Administration.  Most Republicans now simply vote for McCain, not because they believe he is a good Republican, but rather because they are voting against Obama.  For me, Bob Barr has the greatest chance to send a statement that change is truly needed in this country, though others have made a good argument for Chuck Baldwin.

For Republicans in Wisconsin who are worried about throwing away their vote, please stop to consider this.  The McCain campaign has given up on the state, because it is realistically no longer in play.  Wisconsin will go to Obama.  For those Republicans who never really liked McCain to begin with, and are unhappy with the direction of the Republican Party, is it more important to send a message against Obama which won't be heard, or to send a message to the Republican Party regarding its direction for the next four years?  There is no better way to send that message than to vote for someone who believes strongly in small government, and personal responsibility.

Please consider a vote for Bob Barr.