Craig Dawkins .....Liberty Thoughts

But not like Trump thinks.  In every presidential election year, you know you’re going to hear several things: “This is the most important election in your lifetime.” “If you don’t vote, you’re voting for (fill in the blank.)” “If you vote for (fill in the blank), you are voting for (fill in the blank.) “If you don’t vote, you have no right to complain.” “All third parties do is play spoiler.” “I don’t understand how you can vote for a candidate that has no chance of winning!” “I’m only voting for (fill in the blank) because we have to stop (fill in the blank.)” “Don’t throw away your vote!” “It’s about the Supreme Court! If (fill in the blank) is elected, it’ll be the end of America!” These statements, while not all encompassing, reflect how Americans have bought into the whole structure of the two-party system. Media outlets for the two major parties, polling agents, debate commissions, all reinforce this idea that America can only have two legitimate choices. So wha...

Let's have a Constitutional Convention... Based on the condition of our democracy, the instability of the GOP in particular, we need to make some major amendments to the US Constitution. This country is being torn apart politically as the two-party system disenfranchises third parties. Look at the debates for example. Our economic futures depend on getting this republic put back in order. The Chinese propaganda arm is telling the truth about the US political system in tamping down a desire among their activists to install an American style democracy. The USA is broken politically. Corruption in Congress and at all levels of government has become endemic. We need to either plan for putting it back together or plan for peaceful dissolution. When Bill Clinton left office, the national debt was just over $4 trillion. When Bush left office the national debt was around $10.6 trillion. Today our national debt is at $19.7 trillion. The truth is that this debt can be dealt with over t...

Two-Party Panic Over Third Party Voters is Overdue At this point in the presidential election, some on the left (including President Obama) are starting to panic over the fact that third party candidates like Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Jill Stein are perceptively taking votes from Democrat Hillary Clinton. They couldn’t be more wrong about their analysis, and their methods, in pushing this perspective, are only pushing voters further away from Clinton. First of all, these votes for third party candidates likely reflect under votes if no third party were on the ballot. These votes don’t inherently belong to either of the two major parties. The argument that, ‘look the system is rigged to where either the RNC or DNC candidate will win, so don’t be foolish’ isn’t going to ever sway people who would rather not cast a vote than to cast a vote for either Trump or Clinton. And it’s not like either Trump or Clinton are even reaching out to third party voters in the first place. The...

  The future is in libertarian humanitarianism, not the brutalism found among deplorables today.  A few weeks ago, in a moment of unvarnished truth, Hillary Clinton referred to half of Donald Trump’s supporters as “deplorables,” saying they were “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic – you name it.” The only thing up for debate in her comments is whether her characterization applies to more than half, less than half, or exactly half. But her sentiments are unquestionably true. That seems to be a major problem for those who say they’re tired of the PC culture. The irony is amusing. It is becoming more and more evident that the future of political parties made up of deplorables is bleak, and rightly so. Millennials, as a demographic, have very little tolerance for bigotry. This is a positive sign that the culture, despite the large number of deplorables, has succeeded in conveying virtue to large segments of youth. Deplorables pose a major challenge for the ...

Flawed Logic, False Premise, Outright Falsehood... Bill Maher told a guest that a vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Trump. In Oklahoma, we're told that a vote for Johnson is a vote for Hillary. This mentality is patently absurd, misguided, and spiked with two-party brainwashing and propaganda. Let's lay this out: 1. A vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for the Libertarian Party candidate and a rejection of other nominees. 2. A vote for Gary Johnson CANNOT be a vote for either Trump or Hillary because votes don't inherently belong to the two-party system. 3. People who vote for Gary Johnson are unlikely to cast votes for either Trump or Hillary because both are so utterly flawed as political candidates. 4. The assumption that taking away choices will force people to choose the lesser of two evils is demonstrably false. 5. If someone chooses NOT to vote, this is also NOT a vote for Trump or Hillary. 6. People can and do under-vote the presidential ballot line wheneve...

A story that sounds like fiction but isn’t. Meet Guillermo Torres. Mr. Torres was arrested at his workplace on July 25, 2016 and charged with murder. While being arrested Mr. Torres went into a panic attack so severe it required him to be taken by ambulance to a local hospital. After being treated at the hospital, Mr. Torres was charged with murder and his bail set at $2 million. Mr. Torres sat in jail for 17 days. What happened during those 17 days? The LA Police Department held a press conference celebrating that they had caught the murderer in a cold case crime where the victim was murdered 16 years earlier. The LAPD accused Mr. Torres of leading a double life. They celebrated the work of their investigators in capturing a “Most Wanted” criminal. So what was their evidence? Well you see they had a picture of the killer from 16 years earlier. And after using the FBI’s technology to project what the person would look like today, they found that Mr. Torres looked like the FB...

That makes it Evil and Immoral This November, Oklahomans will be asked to determine whether and how the state will continue to execute those convicted of capital crimes. I’m pretty certain I know the outcome of State Question 776 prior to the election. So what do I say in this brief space and time, knowing the futility of reaching those who are predisposed to cling to our culture of state imposed death, killing, and execution? I’m not sure but bear with me.  I thought I might try the economic angle for those who say they don’t wish to sustain the lives of those who commit capital crimes with their tax money. I thought, maybe they would be persuaded by the fact that it’s less costly to imprison people for life than to execute them because of the legal costs associated with death penalty convictions. But the truth is that there are many who would like to execute people regardless the cost and would actually love for government to kill people for lesser charges. These are th...