Over the last few yrs, a lot of people ask me about politics, who I am going to vote for in such and such election.What Party I am affiliated with and why.

Catholics do not and should never have the opinion that Sunday is for Christ the King, but the rest of the week is for work, play and political questions. Catholic life not divided into little boxes, separated in categories. This compartmentalization is largely the result of the individualism of the “reformation” and the resulting culture, first Protestantized, then through it s natural course, secularism.

As good friend of mine would say, we are the lost children of Luther and the Enlightenment.

It was about this time 5 yrs ago, I really bean to open my eyes and see the “big picture”, that neither major Big Box Parties-Democrats and Republicans-were serious in their rhetoric about economics, social issues or foreign policy. Both had members in the Trilateral Commission, the Council of Foreign Relations, Bilderbergers, etc.

It seemed, as President Kennedy once supposedly said, “I keep seeing the same names and faces”

I actually see now that, terrible as they are, the Democrats are the more honest of the 2, for they do believe and act most of the time as hey present themselves-socialist, anti-life and globalsitic. In the late 90’s and into the 21^st century, Republicans seemed to care little for moral issues, other than a campaign slogan and Democrats seemed to embrace capitalism. Republicans exploded spending (according to GOA, 43% during Bush’s first 4 yrs alone). Both prove they will continue to meddle in other peoples back yards, while ignoring their own.

The present financial crises, exhibit A.

So, by early 2004, I had had enough-enough of Republicans, their psychophantic cheerleaders in radio, TV and the so-called “religious right”. I, though still uninitiated to Distributism, began looking at alternative choices, other than corporate/socialist Party A and B.

Short story, I found the Constitution Party.Though not perfect, I saw a vision of America with little government doing only a few things, nor more.This meant an end to borrow/tax/spend.This meant a Party that was serious about tacking and ending dependency on the Federal Reserve cartel and its long tenderils into US and worldwide governments.

I proudly cast my vote for Michael Peroutka and did not care that the vote was tossed away.

You see, North Carolina, like Texas and Oklahoma have some of the most partisan and monopolist laws in the nation. It takes 80,000+ certifieable signatures to get ballot access in this state. Meaning that one has to talk to and get 102,000 or more pople to sign to get that magic number. I takes more than 500 signatures to get write-in status.

Most people today, despite their “I vote for the man, no the Party” rhetoric, do indeed vote for the “R” or “D”.

None the less, a vote for the righteous candidate is never wasted, it is the only vote not wasted-wasted on more of the same, battered voter syndrome doled out by both Parties, fear, etc. How many times I have heard someone say “I am voting for candidate A to stop B”. They then usually acknowledge A is a poor choice, usually more evil than the last “lesser evil”, but shrug and say “what choice hath I”.

When we are going to final emerge from this coccon and get a worthwhile “R” or “D” no one ever says, or how rewarding poor parties/candidates will accomplish this.

The CP is willing to get this country back to the closest thing we have seen to a subsidiarty model in more than 150 years. Again, not Catholic or perfect, but at least a start.

As I assumed leadership in the Party, a good friend came along and introduced me to Distributism. I spent hours combing sites and reading articles. John Medialle was great, patiently answering my emails and explaining the whole system, really a way of life-inside and out.

One passage struck me, as this was just what I was thinking:

“effective entry to the political system is controlled by the two political parties, which is in itself a extra-constitutional arrangement. Nonetheless, these parties are encoded in law by protections that make third parties difficult or impossible. The yare also the receipiants of vast public subsidies. The subsidies should be ended, and the requirements for getting on the ballot should be lightened so that politics may encompass as wide a range of views as is practical (Distributivism and Catholic Social Teaching, pgs 12-13  http://www.medaille.com/distributivismandcst.pdf).

True, for past bills in our own legislature died in committee or were largely eviscerated when passed, such as HR 88, co-sponsored by conservative Republican Skip Stam and Democrat Jennifer Weiss. To date, do not really know if this bill was a honest part to make it more possible for full participation or as a ploy to hopefully weaken ones opponents. Either way, the bill is largely worthless in its present state and in limbo is the lawsuits of both the Libertarians and Greens.

In order to have any hope to implement distributism and a decentralized society, neither Big Boxers were or are going to achieve this. There is big corporate money, as Roger Ales courted by Hillary and the Republicans simultaneously. Either way, the corporate powers triumph. No one in either Party is in the least a “maverick”, nor will they really bring about “Change”. Obama in his first address, on the crises, promised to work even more closely with the Federal Reserve, the very body the supplies endless fiat currency to the drunken sailor spending spree called Congress. Many movers and shakers in the Fed are unknown, even to Congress.

Ron Paul, in comments made in the documentary America: From Freedom to Fascism, makes a good comment-no one really knows who all the players are, names or who these people are.

Yet, we are to trust them blindly and turn are very existence over to them.

Distributism at its heart incorporates not profit or power, but families, communities, Faith and Christ into is daily lives. At the heart of Christianity is reliance on Him and self sacrifice.

Few today are willing tot sacrifice. They will not even consider thinking outside the “R” or “D”. Even among today’s “traditionalists”, many will not even consider making a move toward another viewpoint. True, some “hold their noses”-as if that were any excuse-but in the end, will give the Republicans one more vote(and likely, another, and another..).

News flash, God judges our actions, not results of an election or leaves it up to us to “stop the boogeyman”,etc. God allows us the freedom to vote and choose our leaders, but our vote and actions in that booth are about obedience, not some triangulation. It is not up to us to stop anyone or elect anyone. God sets up and tears down rulers. See Psalm 2.Fear is not Christian and should never enter into the equation. We do get the people we dserve

It reminds me of a scene from Liar, Liar with Jim Carrey. When speaking to a female client ready to start divorce proceedings, he counsels her to stop being a victim, stop rolling over and saying “hit me again, Ike, and put some stank on it this time”

Continuing to vote “lesser of 2 evils” has given us worse and worse candidates-just look at the GOP lineup, Guiliani and McCain.

In effect, excuse  making and rolling over,  especially by traditionalist that should know better, is the very cowardice Pope Leo XIII spoke of:

Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "(SAPIENTIAE CHRISTIANAE 14)

And:

Therefore, they who cherish the "prudence of the flesh" and who pretend to be unaware that every Christian ought to be a valiant soldier of Christ; they who would fain obtain the rewards owing to conquerors, while they are leading the lives of cowards, untouched in the fight, are so far from thwarting the onward march of the evil-disposed that, on the contrary, they even help it forward. (SC 34)

Continuing to vote “R” or “D” is to continue to operate in the enemies camp. IT is time Catholics get involved in alternative ways, even if not explicity Catholic groups. Someday, possibly, we can convert organizations into Catholic ones or even form our own, but in the meanwhile, work with people of good will outside the matrix, Big Box.

For those wedded to “lesser evils”, than a simple question-who is lesser, GOP or CP? Who will be committed to pushing back the corporate, socialist state?

It is past time to leave both Big Boxers, time to look with courage in other directions and stop the apathy of “it can’t be done”. If you haven’t noticed, there is no longer a Federalist Party or Whig, so, at some time in America’s past, someone had enough.

Moving forward, we Catholics cannot become quietest, sitting in our pews or homes, letting other people make decisions for us and surrendering the fight to the Powers of the World.

Evil thrives when good Catholics do nothing.

While we engage the culture at work, in Church, at home, we fight with the simplicity of a doves, the cunning of serpents. In parting, though I could say much more-and maybe already have, let us remember the words of SOG Dorothy Day:

Catholics throughout the country are again accepting `the lesser of two evils'.... They fail to see the body of Catholic social teaching of such men as Fr. Vincent McNabb, G.K. Chesterton, Belloc, Eric Gill and other Distributists ... and lose all sight of The Little Way."

The little way…certainly not by holding noses, “lesser evils” and continuing to operate in 2 Parties that have, on principle, become one.

Chris Campbell is a former (2004-200 state Chairman of the Constitution Party of NC and current Member-at-Large. He is a Distributist, controversialist and all around fun loving guy that dreams someday of self employment.