On Tuesday night, Feb. 19, 2008, Barack Obama let the cat out of the bag for the first time, when he gave a 45 minute, off the cuff speech after his victory in Wisconsin. For the first time in his campaign, he talked to some extent on substance, rather than in just empty platitudes and feel good rhetoric. For the first time he talked of more than just “hope for change” and “change for hope” and leave the rest to the fantasies of his supporters‘ imaginations.

What he was proposing was pure socialism, correction - communism, straight out of the teachings of Saul Alinsky and Karl Marx. It all centered around government control over everything from the energy industry, to home mortgages subsidized with our tax money, to government run healthcare. Some will say it was just extreme left wing liberalism but I call it what it is - communism. Take money from the rich and give it to the poor, not only within America but internationally, all in the interest of global equality, paid for by the American taxpayers.

Clinton's speech wasn't much different but she was cut off when Obama took the stage. Americans need to realize that what these two charlatans are trying to do is to lead America straight into communism. And they are no longer being subtle about it. Whenever questioned about it, they dance around it and divert the subject to something else, never answering the question, or giving two completely opposite answers in the same statement. Only liberal politicians being interviewed by the liberal media can get away with this. It’s like having a conversation with an automated phone tree.

The communist threat to America has been brewing for decades right here in our own country and now it’s coming to a head. It is now trying to take over the highest office in the land. It’s time we started calling it exactly what it is and stop this political correctness that has us referring to communism as simply “progressive” or harmless “liberalism.” Some call it American socialism but it has it’s roots in pure communism.

Clinton and Obama don't have a clue what America is all about. Their idea of America is everyone living on welfare with their lives supervised by government social workers, and all business regulated by a government that can’t even regulate itself in compliance with the Constitution. They see big government as the solution to America’s problems when, in fact, in most cases the government is the cause of them. When has the government ever solved a problem without creating three more, or solved a problem for one group by taking away the rights of another?

In Oxnard, California we now have 14 year old Brandon McInerney on trial not only for the murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King, but is also being punished for “wrong thinking.” Since King was gay, McInerney has had “hate crime” added to his charges. This is not the first time an American citizen has been charged with “wrong thinking.”

You can now go to jail for your thoughts if you have a problem with one of the left’s pet minority groups. I am not advocating the killing of gays, but what about our American right to freedom of thought and speech? The politically correct, socialists/communists have now taken that away and will punish you for your thoughts. Right thinking will be rewarded, wrong thinking will be punished. The ideal communist plan.

For the first time in my life I realized that as much as I dislike John McCain, I will have to vote for him in November. There has been much discussion between myself and my fellow writers and publishers over this as I contended that a vote for McCain would violate my principles and values, and validate the left turn of the Republican party. But the platforms of both Obama and Clinton make McCain almost look like a conservative. They are even worse than I had thought, once you get past the platitudes and rhetoric. Not that I would ever have considered voting for either one of them, but neither would I have considered voting for McCain.

Tuesday night I realized that nothing, not even McCain, could be as harmful to our country as those two "Democrats" still in the race for president, and perhaps even worse, their respective spouses. I use the term "Democrats" loosely for they are Democrats only in party registration. Philosophically, they are both communists. Obama is a "Chicago Union Mafia" communist while Clinton is a Soviet Marxist communist. Both would destroy American liberty and the free enterprise system, and laugh about it.

When have either of these two candidates ever spoken favorably about the free market, entrepreneurship, or American business and industry? When have they ever paid due respect to the U.S. Constitution, or praised it? To them, these institutions are evil and must be eradicated. All we ever hear from them is how poor Americans really are and how much they need government assistance from Democrats. Aren’t we all getting a little sick of hearing these isolated stories of the misery of the downtrodden, of how Americans are living hand to mouth and unable to pay for both food and medicine, and how they’re losing their homes (that they couldn‘t afford to buy in the first place)?

Do you know anyone who fits these descriptions? I don’t. They attempt to create a false picture of America, then offer their socialist solutions for it. It’s the same old propaganda game of creating a false premise, then a solution to fix it. The only people who relate to this hysteria are the people who show up at Obama and Clinton rallies simply because they have no place better to be, like at a job. In the case of Obama, he seems to be advocating for only the poor black community without actually saying so, but that is where you find the conditions he describes. His solution to the problem is to keep them dependent on big government with the taxpayers’ money and somehow, that will lead them to the American dream.

The fact is that there are some poor people in America. We call them “the homeless.” These people that the Democrats are talking about would be considered middle class in most other countries, even rich in some. In America they are called “poor” because they have only one large screen color TV, one car per family instead of two, perhaps one computer with a dial-up connection to the Internet in their two bedroom household, and their cellphones are not the latest model that include the Internet. They are poor only when compared to the living standards of the Obamas and the Clintons, but they are far from digging in dumpsters for their next meal.

I understand that it’s hard to raise 3 or 4 children on the wages of one unskilled single mother, but who created that problem in the first place? It wasn’t the average American taxpayer. So why should they have to pay for the excesses and indulgences of others so that they can live a lifestyle beyond their means without taking personal responsibility for their own actions and the lives of their own children? People who want to live in America need to learn what it means to be an American, and accept that responsibility, if they want the benefits America offers. There is no “free lunch” in America and the hard working citizens shouldn’t have to pay for it.

On National Defense, Obama proposes the immediate withdrawal of troops from the “war on terror” (which is also improperly named due to political correctness - is actually the “war against Islamic aggression” or the “war on Islamofascism“). He would replace the fight against Islamic terrorist organizations and their sponsors in Iran with “negotiations” and “diplomacy.” He is so ignorant on foreign policy and affairs that he doesn’t even understand that the enemy we face today has no interest in, and nothing to gain from, negotiating with the U.S. other than the forestallment of their own demise.

Negotiations will produce no advantage for the U.S. but only give the enemy more time to conquer us which is their only real interest and objective in this war. What is there to negotiate over? Will Obama offer them one million detached heads instead of 300 million? Will he approve of Iran building nuclear weapons in exchange for their word not to use them on us? Will he sell out Iraq to al Qaeda in exchange for no more threatening videos from bin Laden?

I do not make the decision to poke the hole (or “pull the lever” in some states) next to McCain’s name lightly. I would rather poke him in the eye. At least McCain is not a communist, and fighting this war against communism in America is just as important as fighting the war against Islamofascism.

But in exchange for my vote for McCain, I want something in return. I want McCain's solemn oath to the American people that if elected, he will:

1. Never sign any legislation that grants amnesty, or anything like it, to illegal aliens. That he will not only secure the borders and crack down on employers who would consider employing illegals, but also conduct serious efforts with DHS and ICE to eliminate the illegals already living in our country. That he would support the cutting off of federal funds to "sanctuary cities" for illegals. America has 17 legal guest worker programs that can be used instead of employing illegal aliens. We don’t need them in our country in spite of the pro illegal propaganda some people are promoting.

2. Get his head on straight about "global warming" and learn the facts that disprove the myths he believes in. That he will work toward energy independence for America and promote domestic oil, coal, and nuclear development as a major priority, including drilling in ANWR, and put a stop to this insane biofuel subsidizing with our money. Recognize that corn is needed food, not fuel. We can become energy independent within a decade if we can only find the political will to do it. We have the resources right here in our own country. We need only to exploit them and use them. McCain must not allow the environmental organization to dictate our energy policies and hamper American energy independence. McCain must denounce the socialist “global warming” swindle and expose it for what it is.

3. Work with Republicans in Congress as hard as he has been working with Democrats over the past decade. In one of his victory speeches after "super Tuesday," he said he would reach out to work with Democrats. I want to hear him say he will reach out to work with Republicans. If he doesn’t want to do that, then I would suggest he switch parties right now and run against Obama and the Clintons in the Democrat primaries, and open up the field for a real Republican candidate.

4. Not try to micromanage the Islamic War and let the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff do their jobs. Allow intelligence interrogators to do what is necessary to protect the country from terrorism, including waterboarding, and keep captured terrorists away from our country and out of our civilian courts. Acknowledge that Guantánamo Bay is the best place to keep them and is necessary for the defense of America.

5. Keep his campaign promise to veto any and all pork barrel legislation that may come out of Congress, cut government waste and unconstitutional spending programs, and significantly reduce the size of the federal government. Don’t wait until his second term to find his veto pen as Bush did. He may not get a second term.

These are the conditions I want from McCain in exchange for my vote. Will I get them? Of course not. But these are the things all conservatives should demand from McCain before we enter the voting booth in November if he wants to win the election. Otherwise he risks many of us not showing up at the polls at all.

As I sit here on election night next November watching the election returns come in, there will be no excitement, no anticipation, no pulling for my candidate for president, only a sick and sorrowful feeling in the pit of my stomach. If the Democrat candidate should win, it will be a great loss for the for the country and for Republican party, but they asked for it. If the Republican candidate, John McCain, wins, it will only validate the "big tent" Republicans strategy of moving the party to the left, and will be a great loss to conservatives for years to come. Either way we lose.

If McCain should manage to pull off a win, we can, at least, take comfort in knowing that the road to Communism will have some bumps in it and the fight against Islamofascism will continue rather than end in surrender. I will hold my nose and cast a vote for McCain, but not as a vote “for” McCain, but rather as a vote against communism. It’s time the rest of us who love this country do the same, not only in this election, but in all elections to come because if the country keeps moving in the direction it has been, it won’t be too long before elections will mean nothing at all and, in fact, may no longer exist in America.

With the dissatisfaction that exists today with the candidates on both sides of the aisle, rather than asking whom did you vote for in the election, we will soon be asking each other, “Whom did you vote against?” We can only hope that in the next election, we will have someone to vote “for.”