First of all, I’d like to thank everyone that helped with my campaign, donated to my campaign, or voted for me in the recent election. I imagine most people are as happy as I am that the campaign is finally over. As least the ones I’ve talked to are. I’ve run for office a few times in the past, always on the Libertarian ticket, which requires that you really need to be both an optimist and a realist.
At the end of most of those elections, when people asked me how it went, I could honestly say the election went not as well as I had hoped, but better than I expected. This last election I was able to win 6 precincts. They tell me a Libertarian candidate for Congress has never done that before. I also finished second in 6 other precincts. Of course, I finished third in most of them.
Several other Libertarian candidates in Indiana saw significant growth in both numbers and percentages over past elections, but again, not as much as I had hoped, and this time not as much as I expected. I probably let my optimism influence my view of reality a little too much, but I honestly thought that with the government and the country being in the shape they’re in, a few more people might be ready for some limits on their government.
But, when I woke up Wednesday morning, I saw that about 100 million people chose to vote for war over peace, debt over prosperity, regulation over free will, government programs over personal responsibility, and dependency over freedom.
But then I thought, on the other hand, there were about 240 million people that didn’t. That gives me hope.
And while the optimist in me says we’ll get ’em the next time, the realist in me says maybe it will be the time after that.