Why I Won’t Get Involved in Politics Again

I received an e-mail over the weekend from an individual begging me to get involved in the 2016 presidential race. More specifically he wants me to get involved in the Republican Party. Normally I treat e-mails as confidential but I asked permission to post this one and my response publicly. My reason for this is that I’m lazy and want a link I can send anybody else that urges me to return to politics.

Here’s the e-mail:

Chris,

What happened man? You used to be a strong supporter of the second amendment. Now you say you’re out of politics. I urge you to come back. 2016 is going to be the most import election for gun rights. If Hillary gets in she’ll be appointing at least 2 supreme court justices. You know they won’t be progun. They’ll undo everything Heller won. We need everybody working the GOP. It doesn’t matter who they nominate. I don’t like Bush either but he’s better than Hillary. At least he’ll let us keep our guns.

I’m begging you to set your pride aside this one time. Not just for yourself but for all of us gun owners. If you don’t get involved none of us may have any guns after 2016.

My position as an anarchist means I won’t help anybody achieve power over other people. Some may say, “But Chris, there will be a ruler either way!” That’s true but it won’t be by my hand. However, in the spirit of being thorough, I will explain several other reasons why I won’t get involved in the 2016 presidential election.

As a gun owner and an advocate of the right of self-defense one may assume that by not getting involved in the 2016 presidential election, specifically within the Republican Party, I’m throwing gun owners under the bus for my own selfish ideology. Here’s the problem, if I were to help get a Republican president elected I would be throwing many of my other friends and principles under the bus.

Let’s start with my gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender friends. Between the Republican Party’s push to prevent same-sex couples from marrying to it’s push to dictate what bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms transgender individuals can use there’s no way I could involve myself with that party without directly harming those I care about. I’m loyal to my friends and will not actively assist anybody who desires to oppress them.

Republicans also have an obsession with imaginary lines. I don’t believe people who obsess over imaginary things are in a sound enough state of mind to hold a position of authority. But the Republican Party is absolutely obsessed with preventing people born on the wrong side of the border from entering this country, at least without first submitting to an insanely difficult immigration process. What right does the state have to claim ownership over a landmass as large as the United States and go so far as to murder people who cross its stupid imaginary line? None. Yet the Republican Party seems to get its rocks off on the idea of using the state’s capacity for violence to prevent people from crossing its stupid little line in the sand.

Speaking of imaginary lines, the Republican Party not only wants to prevent people from crossing their line but it also wants to murder people on the other side of the line. It’s true that the Democratic Party shares in the Republican Party’s zeal for this, which means there’s no way to get involved with either party and not provide active support for murdering people in the Middle East.

Since the main topic is the Second Amendment let’s talk about the Fourth Amendment for a moment. The Republican Party has a well-earned reputation for being tough on “crime”. I put crime in quotes there because what they really mean is anybody who violates the arbitrary decrees of the state and a real crime requires a victim. This tough on “crime” position has caused the Republican Party to be major advocates of both the police state and surveillance of the citizenry. When you see a story of a cop murdering somebody for no reason chances are somebody high up in the Republican Party will excuse the behavior. They will certainly advocate for giving these violent cops more cell phone interceptors, armored personnel carriers, and other assets they can’t be trusted with. So long as we have an out of control police force there can be no protect against unlawful search and seizure so involving myself in the Republican Party would require me to shit all over the Fourth Amendment.

These are just a few of the reasons I won’t involve myself in Republican politics. You can claim I’m throwing gun owners under the bus but will just turn around and point out all of the people I’d have to throw under the bus to work within that party. If I’m not loyal to my friends then I’m not worth anything. Due to my diverse set of friends I can’t prevent some of them from getting fucked by whoever wins the presidential election but I can say that I didn’t provide material support to their oppressor. Being able to say I didn’t help my friends’ oppressors is the only way I can have a clean conscience.