Segments of our culture want to move our society in directions that the vast general public does not want. Often the movements and maneuvering is subtle, and we don’t hear about them or they are part of our world so quickly we simply change our attitudes without thought to how it happened. Sometimes we are made aware of things going on and, despite our best efforts, they happen without the benefit of us being asked if we want them in the first place. Many times, it was intended as such.

I can’t say that I’m pleased with the direction we’re headed. In fact, much of what is going on today is the opposite of what I want for our country. I don’t agree with abortion. I don’t agree with prostitution or pornography. I don’t like infidelity on any level. I don’t agree with drug use. I don’t like to see families decimated by various unseemly influences. I don’t agree with alcohol abuse. I don’t agree with child molestation. I don’t agree with the secularization of our nation. I don’t agree with corruption, racial hatred or being anti-American either. Many of the changes I’m seeing have been seeping into our culture for years, most of which was done stealthily by elements of the fringe liberal left. People behind such organizations as moveon.org, like George Soros, have worked diligently to erase conservatism, Christian doctrines and any fiber of human morality. We see it every day and night blaring on our televisions; we hear it in our music; we watch it in our movies; and we are exposed to it by our work associates, colleagues and others we see throughout our busy days. The evils of society are ubiquitous.

We are inundated with media which direct our thoughts, our actions and our ambitions. We see scantily clad people on television and in movies and decide we need to look like them in order to fit in. We listen as celebrities tell us what products to buy, what we should believe and who we should hate or love. We see advertisements for drugs—varying from anti-depressants to pharmaceuticals for increased erectile function—and decide we can’t exist another day without them. Our friends, relatives, business leaders, politicians and the organizations we belong to are giving us our opinions by the bushel. We acquiesce like sheep being herded to the kill floor and then one day we realize we’ve been had. The big question at the end is always, "Why did this have to happen?" The answer is always this: We allowed it to happen.

Our governmental leaders are simply a reflection of the populace. There are liberals, there are conservatives and a whole lot of them somewhere in between. Our congressmen and senators may start out with idealism, keen ideas and strong stances, but somewhere along the way, money, power, peer pressure and other corruptive influences change their minds for them. Suddenly, saving their fellow man takes second place to insuring they have all the money they could possibly spend in a lifetime. As long as their kids get to go to Harvard then everything is okay with them.

Politics is an odd thing—the whole spectrum of politics causes people to discount common sense and place ethics, principles and morals in a distant second place. It’s inherent in politics to support the party and cast aside any personal ethics. I can’t do that and I refuse to apologize for it.

My principles are not negotiable, my vote is not for sale and my morality is not flexible. There are far too many things compromised than need be in this world today. While I am willing to listen, carefully consider, mull over and even be persuaded in some instances, I refuse to violate my moral stances. Personal morals, principles and ethics are the only quality that I can call my own and do with as I choose. I choose to keep them safe.

Throughout his public life and once very recently, Dr. James Dobson, author, speaker and founder of Focus On The Family, made what some people consider to be a controversial if not an anti-Republican statement. He made it clear that he would not vote for any presidential candidate who supports abortion. Moreover, he specifically pointed out that Rudy Giuliani, who at the time was a presidential candidate, not only supports abortion, but also stands unopposed to gay marriage (or civil unions as the politically correct crowd will contend). Giuliani has appointed liberal judges to the bench while mayor of New York City, and even had the audacity to move his mistress into his family home (certainly much to the humiliation of his wife). Dr. Dobson vehemently averred he would vote for a third-party candidate before he would help elect such an immoral person. I proudly stand beside him and applaud Dr. Dobson for voicing that opinion. While he’s receiving angry responses from far too many self-professed conservatives it, he stands strong in the tumultuous fallout and refuses to back away. We need more people like Dr. Dobson.

I am an unapologetic Christian conservative. I see things as fundamentally right or wrong. There are some issues that I will not step back from regardless of what others say or whatever pressure is applied. If something violates my Christian beliefs and/or my moral stances I simply cannot compromise.

In the last presidential election, we had a choice between George W. Bush and former Vice President Al Gore. Al Gore is a dyed-in-the-wool liberal who has incessantly shoved "global warming"in our faces and more recently wrote a book and produced a documentary about it. Mr. Gore has all but accused corporations of creating global warming as their profits skyrocket. While gluttonous profiteering is a secondary issue, climate cycles were happening long before businesses were letting evil carbon molecules into the atmosphere. That being said, I’m not convinced that the industrial world could affect weather to such an extent.

On the other side of that ballot, President Bush had done nothing to stop the influx of illegal immigrants pouring over our borders. In fact, he has worked hard to permit it. He sought amnesty and alien "worker" programs. He claimed he wanted so-called "comprehensive" immigration reform (in other words, let the present illegal immigrant population stay with our blessing and make only cursory attempts at curbing the border influx). While it may seem compassionate, in reality all it does is provide cheap labor for businesses that give money to political groups, who in turn give money to lobbyists, who in turn pad the pockets of politicians and fatten the coffers of political parties. On top of those bonuses, disingenuous politicians are pandering for the minority vote, illegal or not, while pretending to take action. Compassionate is a very subjective word.

The millions of illegal aliens in this country have unarguably hurt the economy, not helped it. Hospitals in California have closed their doors due to the lack of compensation from illegal aliens for medical services. Social services are stretched thin and entitlement programs are going broke. Additionally, crime has risen considerably in areas infested with illegal immigrants. Thirty percent of inmates in U.S. prisons are illegal aliens.

Because of what was facing us on the ballots, I chose the lesser of the two evils and voted for President Bush. I have many misgivings about that vote today. While I support our president on most of his other policies—fighting terrorism, pro-life issues and strongly supporting our men and women in uniform—his views on the illegal immigration issue were the polar opposite of my own. Al Gore wouldn’t have gotten my vote for sure, but I should’ve checked more carefully into the other candidates and found someone whom I could’ve supported. Remember, when voting for the lesser of two evils you’ve still voted for an evil.

But, back to Dr. Dobson’s unfairly condemned statement. The argument being touted is this: If someone not favorable to Christian conservatives gets the nod as the Republican presidential candidate, the alternative is someone very liberal who’ll likely be the Democratic candidate. The theory is that if a conservative votes for a third party candidate (let’s say, John Q. Anyguy of the Red-Blooded All-American party), you’ve essentially given a vote to the other side (liberals).

Many conservative talk show hosts and political pundits are arguing fanatically that as conservatives we must vote for whomever the Republican National Committee (RNC) puts in front of us. To not do so is betrayal they seem to be insinuating. I disagree wholeheartedly. First of all, I am responsible for my own vote; I don’t need a group, pundit, talk show host, commentator, politician or committee to tell me how to cast it. My vote may very well be wasted on a third-party candidate, but at least I can sleep at night knowing I didn’t help elect a philandering, liberal-judge appointing pro-abortionist. If the Democratic candidate wins—and that is truly a frightening possibility—then I see it as a lesson for the Republican party and all the people who decided to vote for someone whose morality differs from their own. The RNC can either offer up a true conservative candidate who we can all be proud to vote for or they eat crow for another four years.

And then comes the angry argument by the pundits. They cannot seem to understand that some things—like principles—are more important that partisan agendas. Listen up, I understand completely that it could change the political flavor of the Supreme Court, that taxes could double, that government handouts will increase for those deserving it the least, and on and on. I get it, okay? It’s not a matter of me wanting all the bad things that come with liberals being elected to office. It’s a matter of me being true to my convictions. If I betray my own sense of morality, my own principles, my own ethics, then what kind of person am I really? Selling out my personal morality to elect someone who supports or defends core-issues that I don’t and can’t doesn’t seem like a reasonable thing to me. It makes me feel hypocritical and weak.

Roughly one-third of the Republican party are distinctly Christian conservatives. Conservatives of the sort who believe in Jesus Christ as God’s son; they believe in family values and changing our progressive "anything-goes" culture into one in which we can raise our children and keep them safe. Thirty-plus percent of the voters in one party may not be able swing an election, but that many can put an embarrassing dent in the ego of a stubborn party. I am certainly willing to "waste" my vote to show the RNC and others that my vote cannot be swayed by smooth talking pundits, fear or threat tactics. My vote is to be cast for the person who most closely matches my own moral convictions (which isn’t so easy, I assure you). While no candidate is perfect, I like the idea of finding one who believes in strong family values; someone who sees our culture is heading toward a nightmare of the sort dreamed up by militant hippies with an axe to grind. Our culture is progressively pursuing a socialistic 60s free love environment wherein homosexuals are applauded for challenging the ideals of conventional marriage, and, at the same time, Christians are cast aside, condemned and restrained at every turn because of views that liberals see as "stone age." Ruth Graham, the late wife of evangelist Billy Graham, said that if God didn’t punish this country for all the immorality going on then He must surely owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology. I can understand her reasoning in that statement.

Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union want our country to adopt the ultra-liberal values (or lack thereof) of peace-at-any-cost, tolerance and open-mindedness. It’s fair to note that "tolerance" to liberals means tolerating promiscuity, drug use, civil disobedience, opposing authority and defying the law when they disagree with it (which incidently is much of the time). The liberals of today are extremely intolerant of Christian principles. Liberals have infiltrated the media, parts of the government and our public schools and universities. Under the auspices of so-called progressive school staff, our schools are espousing curriculums that distort history, minimize immoral behavior and condemn anything relating to Christianity. Recently, a high school in California took all pork products from its menus because such food items "offended" the growing Islamic population. Liberals use our schools, universities and halls of Congress in hopes of denouncing positive morals and educating our younger generations in relative moralism—the idea that there is nothing absolutely wrong or evil, that everything is relative. I don’t buy it for a moment. Evil exists and all too often it’s been touted as "good" things by the far left. Though they argue their points with catchy axioms like "freedom of religion" or fighting against "the radical right wing government machine," their true objective is to redefine the American culture and establish a flower child saturated Utopia where war never happens and everybody stands around holding hands whistling, "I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony." All too often, we hear liberals arguing their points by repeating (inaccurately, as you will see) Benjamin Franklin’s words, "If a person is willing to give up freedom for security deserves neither." The actual statement was "If a person is willing to give essential freedom for security deserves neither." Essential freedom encompasses things that we do not have to worry about here in the United States. Again, liberals will use whatever they can to make arguments about things they truly do not understand.

The so-called ideals brandished all too prominently during the 60s—burning draft cards, free drug use, no responsibility, uncommitted casual sex, communal living, guiltless abortions, etc.—should be looked upon as the result of pharmaceutically-induced lunacy, not the product of free thinking and good philosophy. A society like that has zero percent possibility of surviving should it ever come to fruition. It cannot sustain itself economically, militarily or culturally. The country would bankrupt itself in overtaxing businesses and honest working people, condemning hard work, and overspending on entitlement programs and government handouts. The military would die a slow, tortured death. Being a member of the military would encompass being ostracized. Every fringe culture in this nation would be vying for special treatment or reparations for some wrong committed by the white male majority sometime in the past. Things will go wrong exponentially. This nation would collapse on itself and be prime pickings for some nearby third world country to move into and take over.

For those persons who choose to vote for a Republican candidate who is not pro-life I do understand why you might do it. I will not castigate you for voting for him or her for the very reasons I choose not to do so. On the other hand, don’t criticize me for voting what my conscience demands. Whether you agree or disagree, my vote is mine and I choose for whom it is cast.