I ran across this post over at Pass the Ammo via GunBloggers.com. I made what I thought was a fairly reasonable reply to the posting.

Later in the day I wanted to check out the rest of the site, and noticed that my reply was missing. I was pretty sure I’d done it right, but anything is possible. I happened to have it open on the laptop so I re-posted it this morning. Its gone again. Now, this doesn’t really bug me that much, I don’t have any ‘right’ to have my comment posted, but I do think that silently deleting opposing viewpoints gives the false impression that everyone agrees with you.

update It ends up that my post was the victim of an overzealous Askimet spam filter! Spammers certainly have made it harder to manage comments on blogs these days, and Askimet usually does a reasonable job of things. Sorry to Pass the Ammo for thinking the posts were being dropped on purpose.

So, I give you my original comment:

Please don’t.

I felt the same way in 1992, and by voting for Ross Perot helped hand the country over to Bill Clinton.

All through the primaries I swore I would not vote for McCain this time around.

But I have to act like a grownup now. The economy is sliding into a recession, people wrongly blame the Republicans for that. We WILL have supreme court judges retire in the next 4 years. Congress will likely be under democrat control. Bush has already tipped us over into the nationalization of banks and the use of public funds for private benefit. Obama will only make this worse.

If you vote for anyone but McCain you will be helping to hand the country over to the socialists, and once they reinforce their hold there will be no turning back. This is a turning point in the history of the United States. Can we survive as a nation of Free Men?

I’d better start this off with a disclaimer – I’m glad the Republicans picked her to be the Vice President. She’s a breath of fresh air to the party. But we need to stop treating her like she’s the Conservative incarnation of Barack Obama.

Let us be realistic about this. She’s not running for President. And if elected won’t have much, if any, effect on our lives. John McCain is still the one who will be signing or vetoing the laws. He’s the one who will still be making deals with the Democrats. He’s the one we have to hold accountable for carving away at our rights. Out enthusiasm for Sarah Palin is understandable. Just look at who we had to choose between during the primaries this year. If we’d had someone like Palin running maybe we wouldn’t have to settle for John ‘Lets gut the 1st Amendment’ McCain.

I stand by the slogan of my newest political shirt from We’re Screwed ‘08. No matter who wins this election the US Constitution is still guaranteed to be be on the losing side. McCain has a history of compromise and disrespect for the Constitution. I don’t expect him to give that up just because his running mate is an NRA member and has held an AR-15.

The Palin nomination seems a bit like a magician’s trick of mis-direction. “Don’t mind the white haired man, just look at the pretty lady” as he signs away the rights that our forefathers fought so hard to protect. John McCain is still the one with the real power here. Palin might make a good Presidential candidate some day but that isn’t what this election is about.

What this election is really about is the choice between the lesser of two evils. Who will do less damage to the Constitution during their time in office? That’s who I have to vote for, no matter how unhappy it makes me to do so.