The Lesser of Two Evils

It’s All Relative

By Brent Daggett
End The Lie
July 21, 2012

In the classic tome Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, the
slogan of “The Party” is, WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,
and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.

And over the past several years, it seems as though the traditional-
two party system (democrats and republicans) have adopted this
mantra, which, in essence, has allowed the surrendering of much
of our Constitutional rights.

Unless the delegates and unbound delegates for Ron Paul at the
Republican National Convention in August pull off a miracle, it
appears as though former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney
will become the nominee.

So with the aforementioned in mind, let’s take a look at President
Barack Obama’s term and what a Romney presidency might look
like.

Obama’s Tenure

In the article Obama’s Accomplishments, by David Boaz, the
executive vice president of the Cato Institute, which appeared in
the Huffington Post on July 6, Boaz evaluates Obama’s first term.

Here is some of what Boaz addresses.

Most Deportations

While Obama supports the DREAM Act, he has been deporting
about 400,000 illegal immigrants a year.

Most Troops In Afghanistan

In the last year of President Bush’s term, The United States had
approximately 30,000 troops in Afghanistan.

By the end of 2010, President Obama had the number increased
to roughly 100,000.

Currently, there are around 88,000, which this might come as
a shock, given his antiwar stance while campaigning in 2008.

Most Medical Marijuana Raids

Despite how Attorney General Eric Holder in March 2009 said the
Justice Department would end the previous administrations agenda
on raiding medical marijuana distributors, if distributors were in
compliance with state laws (even though state laws violate federal
statutes), no such thing has occurred.

Similarly, attempts in the legislature have been a failure as well.

Lucia Graves reported for The Huffington Post:

“The administration has unleashed an interagency cannabis
crackdown that goes beyond anything seen under the Bush
administration, with more than 100 raids, primarily on California
pot dispensaries, many of them operating in full compliance
with state laws. Since October 2009, the Justice Department has
conducted more than 170 aggressive SWAT-style raids in 9 medical
marijuana states, resulting in at least 61 federal indictments.”

Most Drone Strikes

During Obama’s tenure, the administration has carried out 308
covert drone strikes in Pakistan.

While Boaz put together a decent list, Obama also signed the
extension of the PATRIOT Act, signed the National Defense
Authorization Act (with the indefinite detention provisions) into
law, while his administration also supports the Arms Trade Treaty,
has left Guantanamo Bay open with no signs of closing down soon
and has even ordered raids on establishments selling raw milk.

Lastly, in March, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in front of the
Armed Services Committee basically said we seek international
permission to go to war instead of going to Congress as the U.S.
Constitution demands.

Knowing that Obama has been evaluated, we shall turn our focus
on what a Romney presidency might bring.

Mitt Romney Presidency

First and foremost, we must realize Romney supports the PATRIOT
Act, Guantanamo Bay (and wanted to actually enlarge it when
he was running in 2008), as well as the NDAA (with the indefinite
detention provisions of course) and the so-called War on Terror.

Also, Romney supports the Hyde Amendment, which would end
federal funding of abortions and basically eliminate Planned
Parenthood.

Romney also has advocated for a Federal Marriage Amendment
(which would be a Constitutional Amendment), which would
define marriage as one man and one women.

In regards to Syria, the New York Times reported in May that
Romney supports arming Syrian rebels.

While his stance on civil liberties is really nothing to brag about,
his economic record probably leaves a little bit to be desired.

While Romney’s economic policies have been called into question
by Obama through his television ads, Michael Tomasky of Newsweek
and the Daily Beast compared the two candidates on this issue in
the article, Mitt Romney’s Economic Failure in Massachusetts.

Tomasky points out that by using a method developed by political
scientist Larry Bartels in his work Unequal Democracy, one would
find, “Obama has created a net 3.635 million jobs.

Applying the same rules to Romney’s numbers through the same
time period—that is, through April of his fourth year in office,
2006—we credit Romney with 64,500 jobs.

So he grew jobs by 1.9 percent. Obama’s job-growth rate is 2.35
percent.”

For more of Romney’s flip-flops and unconstitutional stances, I
encourage all to do their own research.

This is one subject where documentation really is not difficult
to find.

Contributors

We should now take a look at some of the main contributors to the
Obama and Romney campaigns for this election cycle, according to
Open Secrets.

Obama’s top contributors include: Microsoft Corp ($387,395),
University of California ($330,258), DLA Piper ($306,727),
Google Inc. ($271,300) and Sidley Austin LLP ($257,296).

Romney’s main supporters include: Goldman Sachs ($593,080),
JPMorgan Chase & Co ($467,089), Bank of America ($425,100)
and Morgan Stanley ($399,850).

Also, it is important to realize Obama’s major donors in the 2008
elections were Goldman Sachs, Microsoft Corp, JP Morgan Chase
& Co, Time Warner and Morgan Stanley.

Do we really want major corporations and bankers determining the
outcome of the election and thus putting more politicians in power
who cater to those institutions?

As Thomas Jefferson once opined:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our
liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow
private banks to control their currency, first by inflation, then by
deflation, then banks and corporations that will grow up around
[the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their
children wake-up on the continent their fathers conquered. The
issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the
people, to whom it properly belongs.”

The axiom, “the lesser of two evils is still evil” only applies if
relativity is taken out of the equation, since one person’s evil
maybe another person’s alleged savior.

Whether Obama will be reelected or Romney getting a victory
remains uncertain.

But a recent HuffPost Pollster charts and analysis projects
Obama receiving 268 electoral votes with Romney gathering 191.

In an article, appearing in U.S. News and World Report,
“Libertarians Unite: Gary Johnson Courting Ron Paul
Supporters” Johnson said:

“Take as many votes as possible away from the people in both
parties keeping us in a state of perpetual war, increasing
unsustainable debt, record joblessness, and a bipartisan
economic death wish ruining America for 330 million of us.”


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all-relative/#axzz21GjMKWyD