With Mitt Romney bowing out of the presidential race, it seems John McCain will be the Republican nominee (unless Mitt throws his support and delegates behind Huckabee, which seems unlikely). Assuming it's a choice between McCain and Clinton/Obama, I guess this will be another lesser-of-two-evils presidential election. All conspiracy theories aside, for better or for worse, we will end up with yet another Council on Foreign Relations president.

Personally, I'll probably "throw my vote away" by voting third party or simply writing in Ron Paul even if he isn't running. Speaking to those who consider a vote for Ron Paul a wasted vote (even before the primaries started), why bother voting at all if all you're going to do is elect whoever the mainstream media tells you to elect? Do you honestly believe the "scientific" polls are unbiased? Do you get some sort of satisfaction from picking the winner, even if you don't agree with the person you voted for? Isn't the idea to vote for whoever you think is the best candidate? If you say that voting for the person you think would do the best job is a wasted vote, then you have no concept of what it is to be an American.

I had a great time waving signs with other Ron Paul supporters here in town. We usually managed to get between 10-15 people together on Friday afternoons for sign wavings. What other candidate had supporters so loyal that they would give up their Friday afternoons to show their support? None. Not a single candidate. In fact, up until the 2 weeks before the election in my state, there was no sign that any candidate OTHER than Ron Paul was even running. No signs, nothing. And even then, the 2 or 3 people the other candidates had out waving signs on election day looked pathetic when compared to any given sign waving we'd had for the past, what... 6 months? 3-4 wavings each month? But I digress...

What point was I going to make with this? Oh yes... Trolls! Both on the internet and in real life. I can't tell you how many times, while standing on a street corner supporting my candidate, people have rolled down their windows and shouted obscenities at me and/or flipped me off. How can you interpret these displays? "Screw you for supporting your candidate! even though I'm too lazy to show support for my own!" "I'm not going to enter into intelligent debate with you; so screw you!" This is one messed up country.

The same goes for the internet trolls. Each time I posted a topic for debate, there always seemed to be one or more people who, instead of debating whatever topic I was addressing, simply wanted to say "Ron Paul sucks!" or wanted to change the topic entirely. To those of you who fit this category, feel free to go to Hell at the earliest possible convenience.

To those of you who joined in the debate, whether for or against Ron Paul's positions, thanks for taking part. People will always have differences in opinion, but it's better to talk about the differences and debate the pros and cons of each than to simply defame whatever you don't agree with.

Two good things have come out of the Ron Paul campaign. First, nationally, we're now talking seriously about real conservative issues (like reduction in the size of government) and people have begun to realize that neo-conservatives are not actually conservative at all. Second, on a personal level, I've begun to pay attention to politics and take part in the political process. 4 years ago I didn't even bother to vote. I didn't follow the presidential campaigns at all, and I didn't care who won. But now I can say, like thousands of others, that Dr. Ron Paul cured my apathy.

--- Gakumerasara