An Open Letter To My Republican Friends

Back in my younger days, I had the pleasure of working with a man named Jay Johnson. Jay, who was about the same age as my father, was a fine man. He and I saw many things the same way but one area where we disagreed was on football. Jay was an Alabama fan; I am an Auburn fan. This was during a time when Alabama's football fortunes were particularly high. In the years when Alabama was doing real well, Jay would tell me that I should be pulling for Alabama to beat Auburn, as Alabama had a chance at a national championship. If they won a national championship, it would reflect well on the state. That went on for several years. Then one year, Auburn had some success and Alabama had an off year. Around Mid November, it was obvious that Auburn had a chance to contend nationally, while Alabama would not be in the hunt for the national championship that year. I went into Jay's office and pretty well parroted back to him the speech he had given to me so often over the years, except I switched Auburn and Alabama. He grimaced and shook his head. He would not pull for Auburn.

During my lifetime I have been fortunate to have many friends and friendly acquaintances. Many of them were and are Republicans. Every time there was an election, at least one of them would chastise me telling me that I was wasting my vote by voting for a libertarian, who had no chance to win. After all, "America has a two party system, third parties never win." I would point out to them that the libertarian candidate had views that much more closely represented their own, but they insisted on holding their nose and voting for the lesser of two evils.

In politics, just as in football, fortunes turn. This year, there is a major party candidate that would make any libertarian proud. He is Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. To my Republican friends, I offer this challenge. Read what Ron Paul has to say. Listen to his speeches. See if you don't agree that he is the person that you should support for president. Or, you can grimace, shake your head, hold your nose and vote for a better-known candidate with more money and name recognition who might have a better chance of winning.