Today I voted for Chuck Baldwin for president of the United States. I know him to be a God-fearing, good, honest, and wise man. The first time I met him four years ago I accompanied him on a tour of Welfare Square and Temple Square. He is a Baptist pastor and he and I have some different opinions pertaining to religious matters, but he is spot on when it comes to following the Constitution. That's exactly what we need in a president. How can we possibly expect to thrive as a nation when we deliberately choose to neglect the Constitution?
I don't know who I trust less to defend the Constitution, Obama or McCain. I'm quite certain that in Utah, McCain will overwhelmingly win because he has an "R" next to his name. In the end, that won't make any difference, though, because Obama will take this election.
I had the honor of voting for my good friend, Mike Barron, for Utah House District 56. I'm glad he ran for office because I know he is a good man, and I was so disappointed in Rep. Ken Sumsion's willingness to compromise principle to support Gov. Huntsman's soccer stadium, and that in the last session he ended up siding with the Utah League of Cities and Towns on the legislation to change the forms of municipal government. I believe that legislation violated the Utah Constitution, and I'm pretty sure Rep. Sumsion thought so, too.
I didn't vote for anyone for governor because I don't think any of the candidates are worthy of that distinguished position. Also, none of the proposed amendments to the Utah Constitution are good in my opinion, so I opposed all of them, as well as appointments for judges. Why not rotate them? I just think they get too comfortable. And I have to add that I did NOT vote for Mark Shurtleff, and while I appreciate that Jim Matheson had the guts to oppose the bailout, I still couldn't bring myself to vote for him. If only I could have voted in District 3 for Jim Noorlander; now there's a good man.
Probably the only person I voted for who will actually win is Mark Cluff--for the state school board. Good for him; he's a good man! I don't mind that all of the other people I voted for will lose. If my conscience dictates that I should vote a certain way and I choose not to just because I don't think they would win would be dishonest.
Brigham Young said, "Are we a political people? Yes, very political indeed. But what party do you belong to or would you vote for? I will tell you whom we will vote for: we will vote for the man who will sustain the principles of civil and religious liberty, the man who knows the most and who has the best heart and brain for a statesman; and we do not care a farthing whether he is a whig, a democrat, a barnburner, a republican, a new light or anything else." I concur, and that's why Mike Barron and Chuck Baldwin got my vote!
While I'm on this roll, let me just add that I cannot wait for the coming elections to NOT vote for Orrin Hatch or Bob Bennett. We fired the Cannon, but now we've got to sift the Chaffetz, subtract the Matheson, release the Bishop, close the Hatch, and unsenate the Bennett. That's what I would call an effective "rescue plan" for Utah.
My family and I visited Chuck Baldwin
at his booth at the Freedom Festival in
Provo, Utah on July 4th, 2008.