Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.”
–Edmund Burke

What will you stand for? That’s really the question you’re asking yourself on Election Day, in both of its dimensions. What is it, precisely, that you as a person (and by extension we as a nation) stand for and believe in, and what will you ‘stand for’—or tolerate as we attempt to allay (and sometimes) stoke the fears that we collectively face. It’s an important question because ultimately we are what we do and we are (for better or worse) what we allow to happen under our noses.

As for me, I’ve been thinking of that for some time now and to be blunt, I’m mad as hell. I’m a Libertarian so I don’t typically vote for candidates on party lines, but for those who reflect the values of individual autonomy and respect for other’s worldviews and won’t try to force their views on me. I’m mad at the distortions and short sightedness of our politicians both in their advertising and policies, I’m mad about the way we’ve handled ourselves internationally, the stupid pork projects the lack of real defense and most of all I’m mad about what we’ve become and we’re continuing to become.

I mean:

I don’t stand for torture not least because it is ineffective and a violation of our contractual and moral responsibilities but because it weakens us both individually and as a people. You cannot defeat barbarity by adopting it. There are a great many things you can lose, but none so tragic as your moral center.

I don’t stand for pre-emptive wars because it’s virtually impossible to preemptively counter every threat and because they get distorted into the sorts of massive failures we see today and because it violates centuries of Just War criterion.

I don’t stand for monetary policies that provide tax cuts for estates and capital gains (even when I benefit from them) while the alternative minimum tax remains unchanged placing the burden on those who claim children and homes.

I don’t stand for those who would tell me how to live, or how to die, or that their faith must be mine, and I don’t stand for those who trumpet their morality while privately violating their own standards.

I don’t stand for governments that eaves drop on their citizens, abolish their privacy rights and that hold people without legal charges, representation or the right to due process, and in the past, neither did America.

I don’t stand for a parochialism that stipulates that people who hate us are to be viewed without the context of the repercussions of our policies that empower their oppressors.

I don’t stand for the bigotry that willingly harnesses homophobia to hurt people to hold power.

I don’t stand for the rejection of science to accommodate religious views and poorly thought out theology, whether in the classroom, in Africa, in Hospitals or in medical research.

I don’t stand for undermanned and overworked troops sent to do dangerous work in a half-assed effort with no commitment or strategy to protect them—they deserve far better from us than lack of shared sacrifice and ambivalence about how we squander their lives.

I don’t stand for abandoning those we claimed not to leave behind again in Afghanistan or identifying threatening nations and then ignoring them or even refusing to dialogue with them to defuse the threat.

I don’t stand for the fig leaf of security that is really pork barrel funding and an intrusion into the private lives of citizens.

I don’t stand for lack of transparency in policy making or the costs of our actions.

I don’t stand for hysteria that is nothing more than sleight of hand about our real policies in our politics.

I’m not sure what this administration and majority stands for, but they don’t stand for the conservative values people like me used to support—they don’t stand for liberty or autonomy or truth and they don’t stand for values, and they cannot and do not protect you.

I don’t say this out of malice, but disappointment, and truth be told I am not certain that the opposition is clear on what to fix first or how, but I cannot stand for what is happening today. I won’t stand for the incompetence, the misdirection, the lack of remorse and the thoughtlessness that has become our national face and character.

Make no mistake—there is more than just the House and Senate at stake this Election Day, and more than just policy on Iraq, North Korea, Iran and gay marriage. What it means to be an American and what it will mean to the world for the foreseeable future is being determined.

I’m going to vote (and pray) for change on Election Day because I can no longer stand for what we have become… and because we have an obligation to stand for something better than what we’ve become. Merely standing there while these things continue to occur is both ineffective and moral cowardice.

The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
–William Blake

To die for faction is a common evil, but to be hanged for nonsense is the Devil.
–John Dryden

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