Many people I’ve spoken with have expressed to me that they think Ron Paul is the best candidate, but that he can’t get elected. I’m just going to assume that the best candidate part is obvious, and address the second part of that opinion first.

Ron Paul is THE candidate who, if chosen as the GOP nominee, can easily beat Obama. Paul will draw votes from across party lines (including the hoards of disenchanted Democrats that would never vote for any other Republican), Independents, Libertarians, and others. He won all the NV delegates in 2008 and only failed to be our nominee because the GOP decided that they would ignore the will of the people and nominate their boy anyway. This is a frightening thing, to realize that an out of control government trying to usurp our power has been beaten to it by our own party.

In the end whether or not the vote count will be honest or accurate; I cannot say. It is clear to me that over the many decades leading up to this election we have let things go, just a little bit further every generation, until we now realize that things have gone too far, shockingly, almost irretrievably, too far. We have lost our most basic freedoms, the ones we’ve always taken for granted and thought untouchable. Because we aren’t yet feeling the consequences of these illegal actions on the part of our massive, now all-powerful federal government, doesn’t mean that we won’t. Everyday they go a little further, cross another line.

My point is that we didn’t get here overnight, or over the course of one, or even seven or eight presidential terms. This plan to overtake our freedom has been unfolding, patiently, bit by bit, for much longer. It is simply not enough now to vote for the “party’s man”. It is not enough to go back to where we were with either of the Bushes. It would only keep us very near, and on the path again, to where we find ourselves right now. This nation cannot be saved by a little backtracking. We must demand a return to what made us the greatest nation on earth and because we have allowed ourselves to get so far off course, that will require more than a slight change of direction. It’s not going to be enough to do a little bit better. We must do right; our collective inattention to our duty as a free people has brought us to the point where we can no longer do otherwise and escape paying the price.

Though Romney and Gingrich may have some attractive qualities, both support the Federal Reserve, a corrupt, unconstitutional institution that has looted our treasury, stolen OUR money. We hear it so often, but does it really sink in, what they’ve done to us? These men may say some nice things, but they are still willing to go along with the corrupt system that brought us to where we are: strip searched; surveilled without warrant; detained, indefinitely, without trial; harassed and intimidated; taxed to (and after) death.

We must nominate, via the caucus vote, the one man who has the courage to lead us back to greatness, back to our constitution; the one candidate who can be trusted to keep his word when elected; the only candidate, who because of his unwillingness to accept corporate funds, has the free will to stand up and say that the emperor has no clothes; the candidate who seeks to return our “master” government to its rightful place as “servant”.

At this point our votes will determine who is the GOP nominee for President. We have the choice! If Ron Paul doesn’t win the nomination, then we will have another decision to make. But for now we must choose who we will run against Obama. If Ron Paul doesn’t win the GOP nomination it can never be said that it was because I voted for the wrong man. I will not waste my vote on any candidate who does not see the big picture and who does not have the Public Virtue to put the country before his career. Please, don’t waste yours.

Chloie Leavitt

Overton