Americans believe they are special, superior, chosen and blessed by God. All empires promulgated this myth.

There is no limit to the follies and atrocities of a powerful people when they impose their will upon others, as master to slave.

When humanity perceives such a people as a threat, the survival instinct is to kill the rogue tribe.

Our leaders have plunged us into every pit of vipers on the planet, into the poisonous foreign entanglements the founders of this country warned against.

To survive, we must remove the head of the snake.

We need new leaders who are not bent on getting us killed, who will not sacrifice our children and treasure for money interests in Israel, Saudi Arabia or Taiwan.

We can reject the warfare state, the military-industrial death cult, and still defend ourselves. If we do not, no defense will be enough.

We must cease the subjugation of others abroad.

Likewise, we must stop the subjugation of ourselves by turning back the welfare state. We must find honest leaders who will work, not to devise schemes of social engineering and economic waste, but to restore the legitimate function of government to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

A people who employ agents to take and redistribute money or property of others, no matter the worth of the cause, embrace the immorality of theft. It does not stop with one taking, or even two. The organized theft of government does not stop till all is taken, including liberty and life.

The major method of taking has been the banking cartel that has enslaved the nation in debt. The Federal Reserve operates a fraudulent fiat financial system, which lurches from one economic crime to another, followed by the usual shock, recriminations, investigations, prosecutions and regulations.

This is not free-market economics.

It is state-sanctioned, purposeful theft of wealth from working Americans, of their stocks, their pensions and their homes.

Our dollar has been debased by 95 percent in four generations. That means 95 percent of Americans' money has been stolen.

If we do not break it, the cartel will strip the nation bare and leave us all its vassals.

We need a leader who understands that we cannot disarm the people and remain free. We must not leave lethal force only in the hands of agents of the state, who take their orders from an increasingly tyrannical, grasping and intractable political elite who steal the people's property.

Liberty ends where the barrel of the state's hired gun begins.

These are the things choking America. But what do we get from the political class? We get red herrings and sideshows, wasteful and divisive diversions on health care, immigration and war making, an array of schemes to steal and subjugate — not to unite us in freedom, but to pit us in conflict with one another over the loot.

They divide and conquer. That's our road to serfdom.

Who among political candidates even discusses these things? Can you name one?

I can.

It's Ron Paul.

Some people would say a vote for Paul is a vote thrown away. We've heard that sellout before.

Here's throwing away a vote. Pick any Democrat or any other Republican. They differ not a whit in their governance. They champion the welfare/warfare state. They will confiscate your property and liberty to further the growth of freedom-killing government.

For generations, the majority has voted for them, and we see the results.

We have a chance to restore liberty in our republic. It has hung by a thread since the beginning, but it has never died.

We can again fire a shot heard round the world. We can elect Ron Paul.

Phil Lucas is executive editor of The News Herald in Panama City, Fla. Contact him at plucas@pcnh.com. To find out more about Lucas and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.