A friend recently asked me for my take on the U.S. Senate race and the ‘Dino Rossi question.’ They asked “Are the Republicans supporting Rossi?? Who should we be supporting?” In asking “are the Republicans supporting Rossi?” I am confident they were referring to the state Republican Party, or more precisely, the party’s leadership and the establishment power structure within the party. It is quite apparent to me “the Republicans” are indeed supporting Rossi.

Forgive me if I’m wrong, and please provide the evidence to establish that fact, but it appears to me that Mr. Rossi is a moderate who represents the establishment powers that are backing him and is being used by the same to undercut Clint Didier because Didier represents actual Constitutional policies and the grassroots populace. My perception is that the establishment powers are afraid they could loose control of the situation, loose control of the Republican Party, and end up with someone in the U.S. Senate who actually understands the God-given role of civil government, upholds the original intent of the U.S. Constitution, protects the God-given rights of the people, and most frightful of all to the establishment powers, would embolden the grassroots, Tea Partiers and the like, to rise up, shake off the yoke of the establishment powers and take back our country and our liberty.

Even when Rossi was running for governor I really wasn’t all that impressed. Nevertheless, because all the Christians and conservatives seemed to be enamored with him, I looked up his website and did some reading. Sorry if I’m wrong, but I didn’t see anything that indicated to me that he was a true Constitutionalist who understood the God-given role of civil government the way our nation’s founders did. What I saw was conservative sounding rhetoric and proposals of more efficient and cost effective ways to manage the current big government programs. To be honest, I felt like I was reading about the proposals of a quasi socialist to use some free market solutions to make our neo-socialistic state run more efficiently.

Some may point out that in order to win, Mr. Rossi had to (and still does have to) sound more moderate and could not come out with extreme conservatism or actual God honoring Constitutional rhetoric – possibly so. However, in my book that’s all the more reason to not trust someone with my vote. If a candidate lacks the courage to be extreme in his defense of such principles now, how will he suddenly become strong enough to implement truly God honoring principles, strict Constitutional limits and protect my liberty once in office when the real pressure is on.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. Senate race at hand, I initially viewed Mr. Didier as being somewhat weak and as just using ‘conservative rhetoric.’ However, over the course of the campaign, Mr. Didier has come forth with a more and more Constitutionally oriented stand. He has even been called on some issues and been confronted with the Constitutionally correct point of view and having once had it explained to him, he has agreed and indicated a change in his policy. I’m not saying Mr. Didier is the ultimate answer in Constitutionalism, but my observation is that he is sincere, teachable and honestly headed in a very right and Constitutional direction.

Polls were showing that Didier was by far the front runner among Republican candidates and it was apparent that he was gaining the support of the grassroots, Constitutionalists and Tea Party types. It was at that point that out of nowhere, Rossi jumped into the race. Now I can’t prove this, but I see no reason for this to have happened except that the powers that be (the establishment powers that don’t want to loose control of the Republican Party or of Congress) called on Mr. Rossi to jump into the race with the intention that his candidacy would undercut Mr. Didier who they view as a threat – a threat which if elected to the U.S. Senate, they would not be able to control or convince to ‘tow the party line.’

Sorry if I’m a bit cynical, but I’ve already tried being naive and that doesn’t seem to work out very well in a world full of unscrupulous, power hungry individuals who seek to dupe and control the masses.

Mr. Rossi may be a well meaning, reasonably conservative individual – he may be a well meaning, reasonably conservative individual who is unwittingly being used by the establishment – he may be a well meaning, reasonably conservative individual who is knowingly letting himself be used by the establishment – or he may be a neo-con member of the establishment, I can’t say for sure which. What I do know is that I’m done voting for people whose true identity and intentions I have to guess at when people like Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin, State Representative Matt Shea and Constitution Party Congressional candidates Randall Yearout and Mary Ruth Edwards, and I would like to believe that I can now add Clint Didier to the list, have proven that we can field candidates who are ‘True Constitutionalists’ whose identity, intentions, policies and principles we don’t have to guess at.

If the Republican Party wants me to vote for their candidate in the upcoming general election, or in any election, they will have to provide me with a candidate who demonstrates a clear understanding of the God-give role of civil government – that it exists to protect my God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and to preserve for me and posterity the blessings of liberty – a candidate who articulates and demonstrates a strict adherence to the limits placed upon government by the U.S. Constitution as originally intended by its framers – a candidate who does not mince words, leave any room for doubt or leave himself any room to change his policies later – a candidate who lays it all on the line and is clearly doing this for a cause that is bigger than himself and is not just doing and saying what it takes to get elected – a candidate who clearly and obviously is not just serving as a front man for the establishment party powers and who will not be used as a pawn by those who seek ‘a new world order.’

Those who call themselves ‘conservative’ have been duped, deceived, manipulated and used time after time and I for one am not willing to be a party to such anymore – not in this election cycle or any other. Too many times I have watched the conservative populace espouse right principles, then be cooped into supporting the establishment’s chosen man and thus perpetuating the cycle of America’s decline and insuring the continued reign of those who do not have our best interest at heart – by “those who do not have our best interest at heart,” I do not mean Mr. Rossi, but rather those powers which election cycle after election cycle offer the public a choice between those candidates who they themselves have chosen for us to choose between.

The empowering virtue of my vote is far too precious to be bestowed upon anything less than the principles and policies that I know to be right and believe to be necessary. Anytime I give the empowering virtue of my vote to a candidate that represents less than what I believe in, I become responsible for their actions and forfeit all right to complain about their moderate, quasi socialistic policies and programs because I authorized and empowered such with my vote.

Even if the withholding of my vote from a moderate supposedly allows a liberal to win, then so be it. I will not use my vote to tell a lie. The ballot that we cast is one of our greatest forms of freedom of speech and declares to our fellow countrymen what we believe to be right and necessary. Our vote should be a form of positive peer pressure that declares our values to all who are watching and either encourages or discourages certain values, policies and actions. When I vote for a moderate, a neo-con, someone advocating ‘socialism lite’, I tell my fellow countrymen “this is the way to go – this is what I approve of – these are the policies we should adhere to and implement!” Well I won’t do it. I will only use my vote to declare to my fellow countrymen those principles that I believe to be right, necessary and true.

Last I checked, God had not commanded me to win, he had not commanded me to ‘stop the liberals,’ he had not commanded me to ‘pick a winner.’ Last I checked, God was looking for ‘clean hands, a pure heart, those that have not lifted up their soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully’ (Ps 24: 3-5). He is not looking for hearts that are full of the ‘fear of liberals,’ nor hands that support compromise and He certainly is not looking for a people who by their actions (vote) advocate to their fellow man adherence to a standard that they themselves do not believe in.