We herd so much talk about “change” in the just-concluded presidential campaign that I decided I would do just that—vote for change. I voted for Libertarian candidate Bob Barr.
Of course Bob didn’t have a chance. There were 14 Libertarian votes cast in Rio Arriba County last Tuesday and about 2,500 statewide, but after 20 months of verbal battering by the two major party candidates, I was ready for a “change.”
His lost cause was accepted by all, including himself but he makes you think of a couple of other guys who weren’t supposed to win.
The first presidential candidate I was old enough to vote for was Harry S. Truman in 1948. He wasn’t supposed to win, but he did. And about 20 months ago someone named Barrack Obama wasn’t supposed to win, but Tuesday proved everyone wrong.
I was in the Army Air Corps in Texas when the only president I had ever known, Franklin Roosevelt, died. They called us out of the barracks, line us up in formation and the squadron leader announce our commander-in-chief was dead. Our new commander was harry S. Truman.
“Who the hell is Truman?” someone muttered as we returned to barracks. We soon learned. He was the last truly honest, down-to-earth guy with courage and principles to occupy the White House.
When he ran for election in 1948, after completing the remainder of FDR’s term, we didn’t have television. Candidates talked directly to the people and Harry did. He got on a train and toured the country, complaining at every stop about that “Do nothing Republican Congress.” Spontaneous shouts of “Give ‘em hell, Harry’ came form the crowds that thronged to greet his campaign train. And he did just that, pulling the biggest upset in political history.
I knew I voted for the right candidate when he dropped the bomb on Japan, effectively ending World War II. Then when he fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who screwed up the Korean War, I could barely contain my joy.
It seems since harry, however, every president we’ve had has gotten us in a war, or serious trouble abroad. And we never seem to win. Neither of the two major candidates we’ve endured the past 20 months seemed to know how to get out of the one we’re in now. Or if they did, they didn’t share their knowledge with us. They reminded us daily of what we NEEDED to do but never told us HOW to do it.
We don’t know if Bob Barr and the Libertarians have any ideas on getting our troops home but they do believe in less government and protection of individual rights at a time government is expanding and spending, and individual rights are being trampled daily for the “common good.”
Well of course Bob Barr wouldn’t win last Tuesday. But voting for him and his brand of “change” made me feel sort of like I did in 1948 when I cast my absentee ballot for the presidential candidate everyone said was a loser.
It felt good. Really good. And I think that’s important when you vote.