Mississippians will have their chance to go to the polls Tuesday and voice our preferences as to leadership in the office of President of the United States. May I advise that we think long and hard about our choices.

Let me suggest that we should focus on the philosophical substance of the candidates and avoid our lazy tendencies to treat the election of our national leaders as a new edition of American Idol.

If you are excited about running farther and faster down the path of the European-style big government regulatory welfare state, then spin the bottle and pick either of the Democratic Party candidates.

They both look good and sound good. But our founding fathers wisely set our course for freedom, freedom and more freedom. Do we really want to trade that in for the false sense of security that the socialist “nanny state” offers?

On the Republican side it seems that the mainstream media has ordained one favored candidate.

If you don’t mind being told to sit back, don’t think about it, just open up and eat what you are being spoon fed then go ahead and “pull that lever.”

Or better yet, don’t bother going to the polls at all, and you will have endorsed that candidate. See how easy it has been made for you?

Can I make a different suggestion for all Mississippians? Let’s let the world know that we are tired of standing in a position at the end of the line and accepting whatever has been decided for us by others. Let us make sure the rest of the world knows that we can actually read and think for ourselves.

We don’t like the idea of other people in power telling us that we don’t know how to spend and budget our own hard earned money.

In Mississippi, we know how to make important decisions concerning the needs and causes that are important to ourselves, our families, our churches, our friends and needy members of our local communities. Mississippians are not mentally, physically nor morally incompetent to the point of requiring elite “know-it-all” leaders in Washington, D.C., to take over these important decisions.

How can a few people hundreds of miles away making decisions for us be an improvement over thousands of individual Mississippians making the thousands and millions of decisions that have to be made every day; decisions that require the information only available to each individual making the decisions?

We don’t need the national socialism of the Democrats. We don’t need a “Great Father” in Washington taking care of all his (or her) little helpless children in Mississippi. We are not little helpless children!

We also don’t need the unfair and unbalanced mainstream media deciding that our only other choice is a Republican who will keep us in Iraq for another hundred years.

Mississippians have a choice. At least a choice of how we voice our preferences. The only reasonable and thoughtful choice in my opinion is to vote for Ron Paul. He is the 10-term U.S. Congressman from Texas who has never voted for a tax increase, never voted for an unbalanced budget, never voted to raise congressional pay, never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.

This former practicing OB-GYN physician understands that many of the problems with the U.S. healthcare system are the results of previous federal government efforts over many decades to interfere with the free market delivery of healthcare services.

He has never voted to regulate the Internet and has repeatedly been named the “Taxpayer’s Best Friend” in Congress. Ron Paul is the only candidate who has been consistent in protecting the ‘rule of law’ by following his pledge to protect and follow the U.S. Constitution.

Ron Paul believes in letting Mississippians and all Americans keep more of their own money. He believes in stopping the damaging actions of the Federal Reserve that finances unconstitutional federal spending by inflating the money supply and decreasing the value of our money. He understands that the lower and middle class have been severely damaged financially by this hidden “inflation tax.”

Ron Paul believes in protecting our privacy and protecting our constitutional rights. He believes in ending the Patriot Act and blocking efforts for a national I.D. card.

Ron Paul believes in securing our borders and ending illegal immigration. He wants to bring our troops home from where they are stationed in more than one hundred countries around the world and greatly improve our national security by having our troops guarding our homeland.

Ron Paul is on the Republican ticket and has raised more money than any Republican during the primary season.

Ron Paul has been the most searched name on the Internet for the past year. He has a massive following among younger Americans particularly and has received the most donations to any presidential candidate from members of the U.S. armed forces.

In the words of Dr. Paul: “Elections are short term events; revolutions are long term projects.” Be a part of the Revolution and cast your vote this Tuesday March 11 for Ron Paul.

Go to www.RonPaul2008.com to learn more.

Charles D. Borum, M.D., is a Natchez resident.