Who Owns You ?

Actually, I think it’s more a case of self-delusion, if you want my honest opinion.

Earlier I asked the following:

If you can’t square your position on First Principles (ed: who owns you in a physical sense) with your political affiliations, I would argue that it is time for you to re-think those affiliations, and that it is impossible to take the first position as a matter of First Principle and still call yourself either Republican or Democrat.

And what I got in nearly all cases of response was someone arguing that they weren’t going to start shooting because the government had bigger guns, or it was futile, or whatever.

That’s not what I asked — the question is right there in the box up above.

Often we hear that “third parties can’t win” and that you “have to vote for one of the parties who can win.”

Are you really going to tell me that the majority of the people in this nation actually believe and accept that they are literal slaves — that someone other than themselves own their person?

You aren’t really going to attempt to claim that, are you?

Do you believe it?

Here’s my challenge to you for the morning.  Ask the first five people who you run into that you actually know (and thus who won’t think you’re an outright kook for asking a stranger a question like this) the following:

“Who owns you?” 

If you get a look of bewilderment, follow it up: “Is it you, personally, or someone else?”

Tally it up.

If the light hasn’t come on by the time you’ve performed this exercise that there is no barrier at all to putting a stop to the “two party names, one actual party that you consent to enslave and screw you” then I question your sentience.

Folks, there is nothing stopping you — stopping us — stopping the nation — from electing a third party candidate to any office.  House, Senate, even The White House.  A candidate, or group of candidates, that promise above all else to honor the fact that you — and not anyone else — own yourself.

This means respect for the Rule of Law, because the only legitimate purpose of Law is to extend punishment for those who violate the rights of others within a framework of justice rather than vigilantism.

This means respect for personal autonomy, choice and freedom — life, liberty and pursuit (but not a guarantee) of happiness.

There is nothing, my friends, that prevents actual political change and the correction of what is destroying our nation, save one thing: Recognition of who it is that actually owns you, and a refusal to vote for any candidate, in any race, irrespective of party affiliation, that either has a history of denying this basic fact or, if they have no legislative history, will not swear on their sacred honor (and upon pain of losing their job) that they will uphold the most-fundamental of all rights.