How could I, as a Christian, have so unhesitatingly supported the warfare State that we have created here in the American Empire?
In looking at our economic crisis, which we are still in and which will only proceed to get worse, we cannot afford another war on yet another front. There is no money. There is only a rapidly increasing national debt and deficit spending that would make Keynes roll over in his grave. It was through all of these economic issues that my political aspirations began to turn. And once I had granted access to the idea of free markets into my political reasoning, soon I was running as far and as fast as I could from the neoconservative doors of the G.O.P.
Morally, Christians are saying next to nothing about neocon warmongering. Recently, I joked with my conservative Republican dad that the RNC was spending millions to get "Blessed are the peacemakers" removed from the Bible, or at least replaced with "warmakers". A year ago I never would have said that. Heck, 9 months ago I was vigorously defending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, thanking Christ for the Surge, and gearing up for an Iran smack-down.
Now, the political upheaval that has happened to me in the past year is incredible, for my political outlook has swung to a whole new vista that I never thought possible. Like my dad, I used to be a very vocal conservative Republican; "used to be" being the operative phrase. But that all changed with the McCain-Obama election.
This past election has driven me from the conservative movement. And yet, the more I learn about politics, economics and history, the more I realize that my turning from contemporary conservativism is really a return to old school conservativism, the Old Right of men like Taft, Hayek and Kirk. It was a flight from the neocons. This past election I discovered a candidate that I was before only marginally aware, Ron Paul, who declared that his policies are the "real conservativism" and the "real Republicanism." It intrigued me, to say the least. I had never really heard of him, except during a primary debate here and there. I had no idea that he was the singly most principled congressman in U.S. history. A man of principle you would think would be lauded in a democracy. Instead, his voting record is mocked as others dismiss him with the label, "Dr. No." If it violates the Constitution, reason, or morality, Dr. Ron Paul always votes "Nay", even if he is the only one doing so.
As I was becoming more of Libertarian, I was finally feeling like I didn't have to check my Christianity at the poll booth door. I could finally be pro-life because I saw clearly how insane and horrendously counter-productive were our country's interventionist military engagements that the GOP championed (unless Clinton led them, then the GOP hated them). I had found a political theory that justified and demanded non-aggression, peace and free trade. Imagine politicians fostering peace and not war! The Jesus inside was getting happier.
And that's what I'm doing. I'm imaging a world of libertarian policies of non-aggression, of voluntary association and of a radically free market. I'm imaging such a world that coexists with my Catholic Christian moral understanding and my desire to see the Kingdom of Heaven lived out radically in every nook and cranny of this world.
These previous elections in November and the subsequent presidency of Barack Obama, has shown me the deepest reality of politics in America: it's all theatre. Before the election (Oh dear, remember how long those Democrat primaries were?), Obama's and Hilary's anti-Bush rhetoric was fierce. They decried his wars, his CIA prisons, his use of torture, and his destruction of civil liberties through Patriot Act I & II. And yet, these two clowns, these two actors, demagogues, puppets- whatever your chosen descriptive label- they have yet to reverse a single policy of Bush's.
Bush was to the liberal Democrats what Obama is to the conservative Republicans: proof that this just is not working, that what we are letting the government get away with is destroying the better part of our country. It is my sincere hope that you learn to turn away from both of them, from the pro-war, military-industrial, interventionist, regulating, super-nanny state federal theatre called the Two Party System.
It is my hope that you turn from this mess and chose your family, your community and your future. Peace and prosperity are not found in central planning. They are found in the inherent dignity of the human person.
So now, I leave behind the neocon whirlwind for scarier waters. I'm an anarchist. I'm a capitalist. I'm a personalist who is also a Catholic. I chose life, peace and freedom every day over murder, war and tyranny. And it is my hope that I'll see you striving for the Second Revolution in America.
Peace be upon you all. Peace especially be upon the Middle East.
God love you,
Michael.
