A Few Shiny Pebbles

I heard about Fred Thompson pulling himself out of the presidential campaign. I admire him and everything he’s written and said in the past year, and I had a true hope that he would somehow get in if we had a brokered convention. So at first when I heard the news I was really depressed.

But I admit that reading the post about it by the Anchoress has cheered me up. The Anchoress is like a wonderful friend who always speaks with wisdom, and who always calms you down so that you can think clearly.

Now I can see the wisdom in Thompson’s move. As long as he stayed in the race, his followers would have hoped for his being the GOP candidate. Since that hope would probably have been futile, it’s better to be free from it now, so that we can seriously put our support behind someone who might actually get the nomination. And, yes, I’m going to vote for the Republican candidate, no matter who he is, but I hope it’s Romney or Guliani. Two of my brothers fought in Viet Nam, and I have a profound admiration for McCain, but McCain-Feingold, the Global Warming Farce, and other political issues leave me with little enthusiasm for his nomination. Still, whoever gets the nod will be far better than the Democrat choice.

More, whoever gets the Republican nomination needs our serious commitment. There can be no sitting this election out, no pouting or intellectual tantrums. Think back on the election in 2000 and how important it turned out to be that Bush beat Gore, how different 9/11 and the Supreme Court would have been had Gore presided in the Oval Office. We are going to make a choice just as momentous—and most probably even more important—as that of 2000. The Anchoress has it right: we can’t stay on the bench.

As I said in my last post, the 21st Century brings with it the greatest danger America has ever faced, because there can be no doubt that some of our enemies have the willingness, the petrodollars, and the ability to inflict devastating damage to our cities and to the technological infrastructure we absolutely depend upon. Other enemies travel with the Leftist ideologies that threaten our vigor and our freedom. Facing these, our votes will determine the world our great-great-grandchildren will inhabit, will call their own.

We are electing a future for America. Every time you think about the inevitable flaws of our candidates, remember that the fate of the greatest country that has ever existed on Earth lies in your hands. With even the worst of the four real possibilities—Romney, Guliani, and McCain (or, reluctantly, Huckabee)—America has a chance, through our determined effort, to continue to be that great country. But with either of the Leftist choices on the Democrat side we will be carried into a path away from the country set in motion by our Founders and toward the defeatist, depressing, attenuated weaknesses of the European Union and other Collectivist mistakes. Not to mention the little matter of Islamist Radical Terrorism and threat of World conquest.

Our incomparably precious country awaits our decisions, in this coming election that will determine so much. In the years to come the generations of the future will judge us for what we do in the next few months. When they look back into their past, when they see our stewardship of America, will they be proud and grateful that we rose to the occasion and chose the best that was available to us given our time and circumstance? Or will they curse us for playing emotional games because we decide that we don’t have the chance to vote for some perfect choice, and we therefore allowed, by our inaction, a future to take hold that would eventually destroy what miracles there could have been?

Some of you might wonder why I have not put Ron Paul’s name in the mix. It’s simple. Although I firmly believe that the level of world travel, communications, and weaponry make it impossible for America to be safe from terrorism and the threat of the Islamist Radicals, no man who seeks to be Commander in Chief has the right to proclaim that he is entitled to sit behind fortified walls, with superior weapons and wealth, while all his neighbors are slowly being slaughtered or enslaved. Even if the United States were to become self-sustaining in all ways including energy, the rest of the world will always be interconnected, and no man can with honor live in the wonder of the Declaration of Independence and at the same time claim its beneficence solely for himself and his followers.

I posted last week about the importance of this election, and I know I’ll post again in the coming months. We should be excited that we have so momentous a task ahead of us. We are Pioneers, making our way into a new Millennium. Most people in the history of the world have seen their lives limited and controlled by forces they had no hope of changing. We Americans have been given such a gift that we should treasure it and work our hearts out for it. We should be proud that we can prove ourselves on these battlefields we face. We should be energized as never before to work for our victory in the November.

Feel the eyes of the Future upon you, and act accordingly.

“Let’s Roll!”

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Is It Just Me?, Mark My Words, Rosemary's Thoughts, Stix Blog, Right Truth, Shadowscope, DragonLady's World, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Adeline and Hazel, third world county, DragonLady's World, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Celebrity Smack, Dumb Ox Daily News, A Newt One, Stageleft, Right Voices, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, 123beta, Big Dog's Weblog, Cao's Blog, Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Allie is Wired, Faultline USA, Nuke Gingrich, InvestorBlogger dot com, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Wolf Pangloss, CORSARI D'ITALIA, and OTB Sports, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.