is the macho of knowledge and wisdom. If I want to see a puffed-up tough-guy type, I just look out my window at one of the peacocks common around my neighborhood. I want to vote for a person of real independent accomplishment, someone who has run a small business outside of government. I want to vote for someone who has read and considered works on history and economics and formed a set of principles to which he or she is committed politically and personally. I want to vote for someone who will enhance the quality of my life and the lives of the billions of other beings on this planet. I want to vote for someone who has a positive vision, that appeals to hopes, not fears, someone who will ratchet the force of tensions down, not up. I want to vote for someone who will preserve out heritage of liberty and loves future generations enough to not bequeath to them the burdens of hate, fear, and debt. I'm supporting the squeaky-voice septuagenarian, a man of integrity, vision, and compassion, Dr. Ron Paul.

The neocons have shown that the only things they are interested in conserving and extending are the wealth and power of the already wealthy and powerful. They have advanced their cause at the expense of everybody else in the world, including traditional conservatives. They are creating an authoritarian state granting favors and privileges to its corporate masters while exploiting and plundering resources, human labor, and human liberty. This cancerous perversion of conservatism must be excised and destroyed.

Certain things need to be conserved, just as the possibilities of innovation need to be allowed and encouraged. The concepts of personal and political liberty first envisioned in the Enlightenment and advanced in the American Revolution need to be conserved. The rule of law under the Constitution has been useful in promoting these into practice and should be respected.

Natural resources need to be conserved. Our lives depend on a complex, planet-wide system of natural relationships that need to be understood, respected, and maintained. Scientists have only become fully aware of the extent of Deep Time within the last 200 years, but our economic system still is geared to exploitation and extraction without recognition of needs in the far future. The economics of corporate capitalism is brash, arrogant, and very destructive. A new economics of sustainability and stewardship needs to be forged to replace it. This would be a very conservative move.

Money needs to be conserved. Its value should be real, not fiat, or based on debt. Accounts should be balanced. The runaway borrowing and spending of the last few decades needs to be stopped, as it burdens future generations with hopeless debt. Our government's spending should not exceed its revenues.

Human health needs to be conserved. A system of medical and dental insurance needs to be created that will help maintain the health of all citizens so they can realize their full potential for pursuing happiness.

Our political and economic independence need to be conserved. Since we have no direct political control over other nations other than by the unethical and ultimately self-defeating means of intimidation and attack, we need to protect the industries and skills of our domestic workers. This means defending our borders against those who would undercut our labor and promoting fair trade policies with other nations that do not restrict our freedom to make adjustments in our own economies.

I'm proud to call myself a conservative because I support and vote for candidates who value conserving that which is good, reasonable, and useful for the long haul ahead.

I think the language used by wearedoomed is a bit harsh, but his point should be well taken by Salon and its readers. It's obvious from my previous posting in relation to this article that I do not agree with Ron Paul on all the issues, but he unquestionably represents the integrity, the analytic mind, the appeal to hope rather than fear that is so lacking in the brass-plated buffoons he is running against. Right now the greatest threat to our political system is the pervasive corruption and subversion brought on by the undue influence of big business. Ron Paul is probably the best candidate for bringing this to a halt, protecting our liberties, and staunching the outflow of money, industries, and skills from our country.

Salon's writers, like the rest of the corporate-controlled mainstream media, seem bent on directing its readers away from supporting those candidates who best represent their true interests and toward selection of either Tweedledee or Tweedledum, both bound to support and defend the interests of their corporate masters.

Andrew Leonard has brilliantly exposed the nefarious network of soulless zomboids to which I belong. I know I should love Big Brother and choose between corporate shill Tweedledee and globalist lackey Tweedledum, but I've got this psychotic attachment to the obsolete and perverted concepts of truth, liberty, responsibility, and independence. I have an irrational compulsion to support Ron Paul, a candidate who I know has no chance and is probably a sicko himself. Why am I spending so much time and money supporting this guy? Why can't I be like a normal person and get behind one of the brass-plated braying monkeys the corporate media tells me is a "serious candidate"? Please help me believe that uncontrolled deficit spending, unwarranted government snooping on citizens, military intimidation and aggression, torture of prisoners, and corporate control of government are all good, right, and just. Then I can get away from my computer and just go shopping, knowing the country is in the best of hands!