Well, this may be a bit surprising to those who know me, but I'm supporting Mike Gravel for president in 2008.



If you don't know already, I'll fill you in. I'm an anarchist. I'm not the world hating pissed off kind of anarchist though. I'm an optimistic anarchist; I think that people are capable of behaving rationally and that given sufficient information distribution they will act in their own rational self interest. Based on this, I think that government's usefulness is declining to the point where in the not-too-distant future it will be completely unnecessary.

From this political position, I've never voted in the past. It's never made sense to vote in the past because there's never been a serious candidate who had remotely the same vision and trust in people that I do. Now there is such a candidate. Mike Gravel is not some arrogant party hack, he's a thinking person, just like you or me, only he has the balls and the connections to make an earnest run for president.

His biggest 'thing' is the National Initiative, which seeks to give law making power to the people. This is one small step in the direction of both informing and empowering the people. I think that Gravel is right to think that giving this power to the people will encourage us to inform ourselves and to reach new levels of responsibility for our own lives. The end game of that progress is (in my view, of course) the elimination of many government programs and the gradual progression toward true free-market capitalism and eventually true freedom.

Gravel was recently a guest at Google and on This is America. Both of these talks are very interesting and I think go a long way to show what I'm speaking about with regard to his views. It's always refreshing to hear him talk about the president only getting one vote in the National Initiative, especially because I do strongly disagree with some of his positions (most notably national health care, man-made climate change and gun control).

This is the first time and quite possibly the last and only time that you will ever see me supporting a political candidate. Please if you aren't familiar with Mike Gravel or haven't voted in the past for one reason or another, I encourage you to look into what he has to say and offer him your support if you agree with it. This is our chance to change the country for the better and it may not happen again before it's too late.