Won't get fooled again

I know there are alot of conservative voters in this country who believe in decent values, smaller government, respect for states rights, non-interventionist foreign policies and minimal taxation, because they elected George Bush as President in 2000. His campaign adhered closely to these traditional conservative ideals, but once in office the facade wore off and the true liberal nature of the new president became apparent.

Remember that he refused to take a stand on the California energy crisis because it was a states' rights issue, but as President directed his Justice Department to go after Oregon's Death with Dignity law and California's medical marijuana laws. Remember he looked right into the camera and stated, "I trust the American people," several times, but his administration initiated domestic surveillance activities very soon after he was elected, followed by the Patriot Act and Real ID.

Remember he said that we shouldn't police the world or arrogantly tell other countries what to do, and our government would have a humble foreign policy under his leadership, but as we now see his legacy is firmly built on his defiant plan to convert the entire Middle East into a democracy. And regarding his small government, fiscal responsibility campaign positions, our nation can now boast almost twice the size of federal government than when he first took office, with spending levels to match it. His legacy will also have the added benefit of single-handedly redefining compassionate conservatism to be a policy of torture and denial of habeus corpus.

Now it's time to consider his replacement. The majority of candidates from both parties are offering their own plans to cure what ails us, all of which will continue to grow the government, expand our global empire, increase spending and further degrade our respect for human life. But their campaign rhetoric is designed to sweet talk us into believing that our very existence depends on electing them to the office of president, and they'll say whatever we want to hear to achieve it.

There is one candidate however, who talks the traditional conservative line that George Bush used in 2000, believes strongly in the simplicity of our Constitution, and has a verifiable 30-year record to back it all up. His name is Ron Paul, Congressman from Texas. He made quite a splash in the first three GOP debates, so much so that the organizers of the latest GOP forum in Iowa intentionally omitted him from their June 30 program. The news coming out of that event sure enough reveals that one by one all the other candidates are slowly adopting Paul's message that we need to closely follow the Constitution to guarantee the health and longevity of our faltering nation. Well, they can suddenly start praising the Constitution and speaking in all the small-government rhetoric they like, but this voter won't get fooled again.