What path you ask?

1988: I am old enough to vote for President in the national election.  I vote for Ron Paul.  Don’t want any part in the Bush Abdication (the only way to characterize his administration in the wake of the Reagan Revolution).

1992: Who cares?  Don’t bother to vote.

1996: Again.

2000: Actually kind of cared about this one since I thought W’s Texas governorship meant he was more of a conservative than his father (I also thought the word, “conservative” entailed a commitment to reduced government).  Somehow, I just couldn’t bother, though.  I did get worked up during the “chad” struggle in FL.  That I regret.

2004: Now I know Bush is evil but the Dems are just as bad (as all the ways they have supported Bush since 2006 prove).  Better things to do in life than feel forced to participate in this sort of choice (language warning).

Now it is 2008, and the Presidential candidate for the GOP is someone I’ve always known I could never vote for.  But everything has changed.  Gotta vote against “The One” and the hard left supermajority.  I am ruled by fear.

Of course, it is always possible that a hard left supermajority would be better for the country in the long run.  Maybe the Dems will self-destruct just like the Republicans have done.  Maybe Palin should go back to Alaska as governor and switch to the Independence Party so that she can protect refugees from the lower 48.  Who knows?

But I’m voting in this one.  Energetically.