I'm With Stupid

I read any number of libertarian writers on a given day and occasionally one will make a point that just resonates with me. Well, noted libertarian and entertainer Penn Jillette has penned an article that just sums it all up for me. We don't need a saviour or a Great Leader. Nope. We really need someone dumb and lazy. Get thee hence and read it.

They all seem to think we need to get a smarter guy in the White House fast, and Bush is so stupid, that task shouldn't be too hard.

Not me.

I'd like to say that I believe every president in United States history, including the stupid one we have now, is smarter than me. My alma mater is Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth Clown College, so I'm damning with faint praise, but I'm stupider than this here stupid president.

Maybe I'm less stupider than Bush than I'm stupider than Jefferson. But I'm stupider than all the stupid in both of them put together.

The idea, especially from the Democrats that I know, is, we just get a smarter guy in the White House, and all the problems will go away. We'll have smart speeches, smart high gas prices, smart bad economy, smart war on terrorism, smart war on drugs, smart hurricanes, smart global warming, smart war in Georgia -- smart, smart, smart.

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But I don't think our next president being a great leader is a good thing.

I'm worried about someone smarter than Bush taking over that tremendous power. Charisma and ambition increase my fear exponentially, and a great leader scares me to death.

We need someone stupid enough to understand that the president of the United States can't solve many problems without taking away freedom and therefore shouldn't try. The only reason John McCain scares me a little less is because I think he's a little less likely to win. They both promise a government that will watch over us, and I don't like that.

I don't want anyone as president who promises to take care of me. I may be stupid, but I want a chance to try to be a grown-up and take care of my family. Freedom means the freedom to be stupid, and that's what I want. I don't want anyone to feel my pain or tell me to ask what we can do for our country, or give us all money and take care of us.

That's what most of us libertarians want. A chance to run our own lives without a big government helicopter parent getting in the way. We just want everyone to run their own lives, free of interference as adults ought to. Unfortunately, we are unlikely to get anyone, from any party who is liable to let us do this. None of them really believe that our lives belong to us. That's the peril of the system that politicians have created. Penn does sum it up well.

So remember, the only way to waste your vote is to vote!

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Libertarian, Penn Jillette, Election 2008, Obama, McCain