Time to stop...

Seems that some people are a bit upset at the outcome of the recent Presidential election. Many of those who are upset call themselves "patriots" and "proud Americans" and say they admire our nation's founding fathers. Many of them are also signing petitions in favor of their states seceding from the United States of America. If you are one of those people this post is for you.

You need to stop. I don't mean that you should stop signing crazy petitions because you have the right to do such ignorant things under the 1st amendment of our constitution. No, you need to stop calling yourselves patriots or a proud Americans and you need to stop saying that you admire our founding fathers when it is obvious that you have no respect for their ideals at all.

You see our founding fathers wrote the constitution that lays out the law for how a president is elected. In the recent election we saw the hopes and dreams of our founding fathers come to life. Our country peacefully decided who our next president would be. We made our founding fathers proud by voting, something most people, and even many in the US, couldn't do at the time the constitution was written. We voted for candidates after listening to them discuss how they would deal with the issues facing our country. We weren't coerced into voting one way or the other by government henchmen or by corporate funds. We voted for the candidate that we thought would do the best job. Now you are saying that by following the dreams of our founding fathers that our nation has been destroyed. You are claiming that people being free and exercising that freedom by voting is a terrible thing because you don't like who won. Well tough. In a democracy you don't always get what you want, you have been telling people that for years and when it finally happens to you we get called cheaters and you want to take your ball and go home.

Except you don't want to go home, you want to leave our country and start your own. How can you love America when you want to leave it when things don't go your way? How can you be a patriot when you want to tear our country apart? How can you be an admirer of the people who founded our nation when you don't want freedom for all but only for a few (namely yourselves)?

I don't really care what you do, but you need to stop calling yourselves "Americans" as that is a term that reflects much more than geography. When you try and break up our country you stop being an American and become an anti-American, there is no other way to look at it.

By the way, if you are an elected official and you are not condemning this idiocy in the strongest terms possible then you are aiding and abetting these treasonous crack pots and you are no better than they are and you should relinquish the term "American" as well.

Why you should write me in...

Tennesseans are not faced with a choice in the US Senate election. Bob Corker will win, there is no doubt about it. Corker's Democratic challenger, who the Tennessee Democratic Party doesn't even support, Mark Clayton can't win and I doubt there are many people who would want him to represent them in the Senate. So how should you respond to this lack of choice? By writing my name, Ernest George Oeser IV, in on your ballot. It is easy to do and there are good reasons for doing so.

If you, like me, believe that the idea of "limited government" should include government's influence over our bodies and personal relationships as much as government's influence over our wallets, then say so by voting for me. If you believe that we can fix our economy by looking at how we have fixed our economy in the past, by spurring demand, instead of our representatives simply acting based on ideology and political self interest then vote for me. If you think we should "take our country back" to a time when compromise wasn't a dirty word in politics and our government could actually get things done, then vote for me. If you are more of a pragmatist than strictly a liberal or a conservative, then vote for me.

I can't win this election, plain and simple. But we can all use our votes to make a statement to our elected officials. Things aren't working and we demand that they change the way they are doing things. I can't change things, but your vote can help to get the change we need started.

So write my name in, Ernest George Oeser IV, ask your friends and family to do so as well, lets use our votes in the Tennessee US Senate race to send a loud and clear message. Our elected officials need to work for us, not for themselves.

If you are in Tennessee...

So election day is quickly approaching and voters in Tennessee, at least Tennessee voters who normally vote for democratic candidates, have an odd problem to deal with. You see the Tennessee Democratic Party (TNDP) apparently weren't too concerned with finding a good candidate to challenge Bob Corker for his seat in the US Senate. Who can blame them, a democrat beating Corker is almost unthinkable. But their lack of concern has caused a major problem. You see the candidate who won the democratic primary for Corker's seat was a man named Mark Clayton who is the vice-president of a group called The Public Advocate of the United States. This group has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for their anti-gay and anti-immigrant stances. They also seem to be quite fond of completely irrational conspiracy theories but none of that stopped them from getting their vice-president voted in as the democratic candidate for the US Senate in Tennessee. After realizing the horrible set of events that had resulted from their neglect the TNDP quickly disavowed Clayton and called for voters to vote for anyone but him. So this leaves democratic voters in Tennessee a few choices as to what to do when they head to the polls.

1. Vote for Bob Corker. I know he is a republican, but he isn't the worst republican out there and this is the most obvious course of action.

2. Vote for a third party candidate. This choice will probably hold a lot of appeal for many people, but be very careful and make sure you do your research. That 3rd party candidate you know nothing about could be as crazy as Clayton.

3. Don't vote. I don't mean don't vote at all, just skip the senatorial election and move on. This is probably the easiest course of action, but if you were into taking the easy way out you wouldn't be a liberal living in Tennessee.

or there is always option 4...

4. Vote for me.

So here's the deal. The TNDP is suggesting that voters write in a candidate in the senatorial election and if you are going to follow their suggestion you might as well write my name in. Why would you write in Ernest George Oeser IV on your ballot? Because if enough people do, and it might not take a lot to be "enough" it could have some pretty powerful consequences. Let's face facts, I have zero chances of winning, but if I get enough votes the media will start sniffing around to find out who I am. If you are reading this blog there is a good chance you like what I have been saying and so it couldn't be a bad thing for more people to read it. Secondly if an openly gay man, like myself, were to get enough votes in a statewide election in Tennessee it would certainly cause a lot of consternation for right wing evangelicals in this state and seeing them in a state of consternation is always good for a laugh or two. Thirdly it would show that the people in this state are not all cookie cutter conservatives. Many of us actually care about, not only the middle class, but also the poor. It would show that we don't believe in bigotry aimed at any group and that issues like health care and education are important to us. It would show that we are sick and tired of not being effectively represented in our own state and that if the TNDP can't help us that we are willing to start working on our own behalf's. So, my fellow Tennesseans, when you go to the polls don't vote for Corker and certainly don't vote for Clayton. No, vote for change, very indirect change, vote for me, Ernest George Oeser IV, cause I have no chance of winning. Don't forget to share this with your friends, I want to come in 2nd place!