Dr. Tim came back for a Pre-Election Post: Vote for Romney!

We are all a bit nervous about Libertarians voting for Gary Johnson and maybe getting 1% of the vote that should go to Romney. I would think most, if not all, Wisconsin Libertarians read Dr. Nerenz's column, so this is welcome news below. We need these most passionate of liberty seekers on our side on 11/6; hoping they take Tim's advice.

--WRD

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MOMENT OF CLARITY by Dr. Tim Nerenz


Vote Your Conscience
Posted: 04 Nov 2012

Regular readers of this column know that I haven’t been blogging for a while; believe it or not there are more important things in life than politics. But with the election just a couple days out, there is one more thing that needs to be said and then I am going back into hibernation.

For those who have already made up your mind who to vote for Tuesday, I congratulate you and respect your choice, whether it is Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Gary Johnson or one of the other candidates who appear on ballots in some states. Every vote is a vote of conscience and no vote is wasted on Tuesday as long as you own it on Wednesday.

I frankly don’t know how anyone could still be undecided after $2 billion of ads and 18 months of campaigning; that is like not knowing if you are gay or straight 3 days before prom after watching porn all winter.

But if you have not yet made up your mind how to vote, may I respectfully suggest that you vote for Mitt Romney.

And I say that not as a Republican, because I am not one; nor as a Romney guy, because I am not one of those either; and not even as a libertarian because he is not one of us. It is the suggestion of a businessperson with a pretty good grasp of what the effects of an Obama re-election will have on small to medium-sized firms – the ones who provide the majority of jobs in this country and whose owners pay the lions’ share of taxes. The big dogs like GE and Goldman Sachs win no matter what; they’d get theirs even if Vlad the Impaler wins on a write-in.

But the rest of us have to earn our way in this world. There is no reason not to believe President Obam when he says he will allow the tax increases on business owners to go into effect January 1, will proceed with the next round of national health care mandates, will further restrict energy production, and will use sequestration as the means to cut DoD procurement. Those policies are the four horses of the economic apocalypse.

And there is also no reason not to believe the brave business owners who have come out and told us how they will be forced to respond to those higher imposed costs - by reducing headcount, cutting back hours, scaling back pension and retirement contributions, paring or eliminating health care benefits altogether, consolidating operations, and shifting capital investment and job creation to countries with more favorable tax and regulatory climates.

It is disgraceful that they have been savaged for telling the truth. If the media was not so obsessed with Big Bird and the fictional Anne Romney’s War on Herself, they might have noticed that 2012 has been a record year for small and mid-size businesses being sold or liquidated. Atlas is already shrugging, people; and it will get much worse under Obama Part Dieux.

Moving investment to a more favorable climate is not a Democrat thing or a Republican thing or a Libertarian thing, it is a rational economic decision that will be made by rational people with a business education and decades of experience. For those who might never have had an economics of business course let me explain the problem in simple terms:

Your boyfriend kicks me in the nuts repeatedly. I tell you that if he keeps it up, I will have to buy a cup to protect myself and then there will be no money for your tiara, Princess. You blame me for ruining your prom, mom tells you I am an insensitive racist jerk and you both vote to keep your boyfriend…and increase your allowance…and buy prophylactics for law students with very expensive purses. Majority wins, he keeps kicking my nuts, so I go buy the cup and you don’t go to prom, pouting like a Kardashian on a budget.

That - well something like it - is what we are trying to avoid, here.

When weatherman Al Roker told us what would happen when Hurricane Sandy made landfall, did anyone go running to the DA to press charges? Did the NAACP sue him for prejudicial remarks? Did any union target his business for retribution or threaten his family? Is anyone blaming Al Roker for the devastation in New York and New Jersey, or clamoring to ban him from speaking ever again?

Well, I’m not Al Roker, I can’t force you to do anything, and I wouldn’t presume to tell you how you should vote; I am merely making a suggestion to those who might still be undecided. And by the way, regardless of who you choose for President, you should look down-ticket to find some outstanding Libertarian candidates for other offices. In Wisconsin, you can send your message with Kexel, Deschler, Maas, and Ehlers, to name a few.

Here’s what won’t change on Tuesday, regardless of who we select as our next President: the European debt crisis, the damage from the hurricane, the global economic downturn, upheaval in the middle east, yawning budget deficits, the unfunded pension and retirement systems around the country, 23 million Americans out of work, the economic ascension of China, and Ben Bernanke devaluating our currency by $40 billion each month. If President Obama was the best person to confront that list, there would be no list…except for the hurricane damage.

As much as it pains me to say it, neither Gary Johnson nor Ron Paul is going to be our next President of the United States. And neither is Milton Friedman, Ayn Rand, Superman, Jesus, Aaron Rodgers, or the Good Witch of the North. Our next President will be either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama – pick one.

And remember who comes along for the ride - Biden, Clinton, Geithner, Holder, Panetta, Salazar, Sebelius, Solis, Duncan, LaHood, Chu, Napolitano (the wrong one), Rice, 2 more Supreme Court Justices likely, dozens of federal judges, and the whole fleet of federal prosecutors. Do you trust your liberty in their hands? Not me.

The libertarian’s second biggest fear is that Romney won’t do what he says; but our biggest fear is that Obama will. Romney wins…by a landslide.

“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.