Well, folks, with the distaste for the political system in 2012, there are more people than ever filing with the FEC to run for President against President Obama in next year’s election. Thirteen candidates for President that have filed with the FEC are from Texas, with a couple of them almost always in the headlines.
Out of the thirteen candidates, there are six Republicans, one Democrat, three Independents, two Libertarians, and one member of the Eco-Green Party.
All candidates share a view of a distrust of our politicians and our current political system.
William Felix Carter, a deeply-religious candidate from Fort Worth, says that he had a vision of himself in a car in front of the White House in 1988, and thought God was calling him to run for President. He has now run campaigns as a Democrat in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and now 2012. He also says that if this isn’t his year, 2016 is.
“God promised to help me, and he promised to send people to help me,” Carter said. “If the Lord had not inspired me to run for president, I would not be involved,” he said.
He admitted that if elected president, it would be difficult to work with people who do not follow his ideals of Christianity.
Roger Lee Wrights, a 53-year old Libertarian and anti-war advocate from Burnet, is running on a platform of ending all wars. He has said that he is an ordinary person like everyone else, and that there’s nothing special about him.
He enlisted in the Air Force after high school, but he requested a nursing post so he wouldn’t have to “kill a soul.”
“There is a war on everything,” he said. “As I grew up, there was a war on poverty. People are still poor. Then there was a war on drugs, but people are still using drugs.”
He is a former bartender and also a former carpenter. He has also been active in the Libertarian Party since 2000, and with his $1000 donation to the LP, he is now a lifetime member of the party.
John “Green” Ferguson, a cattle ranch owner in Azle and the only member of the Eco-Green Party, is running a thoroughly green campaign for the presidency.
The 57-year old says his campaign will push through a green perspective. Most of his positions on the issues fall back on his green views.
“With the world falling apart, with the rain forest being cut down, the ozone going away and the animals going extinct,” he said, “we need to make changes to live here with each other peacefully.”
He jokingly said that he is assured his party’s nomination. He spent most of his life living in Arizona before buying a cattle ranch in Azle.
If elected president, Ferguson says he would immediately work to put Americans back to work by mandating nation-wide recycling for all waste. He would also raise the tax incentives on solar power from 30 to 40 percent, and ban the use of all fossil fuels within five years of taking office. I disagree with almost all of his positions, especially the fossil fuel ban.
Roger V. Gary, a history buff and Libertarian candidate from San Antonio, says that history could repeat itself as Abraham Lincoln was elected as the nation’s first Republican president in 1860, and he predicted that he himself would be the first Libertarian president (you have to be kidding me….).
“I started asking around, looking for good Libertarians who would want to run for president and I couldn’t find anyone else to do it,” he said. “So then I decided, ‘Hey, if no one else will do it, I’ll do.'”
He says his campaign will reach out of dissatisfied Libertarians, Democrats, and Republicans, and Independents.
He says he can lead the nation also because of his political experience. He was director of the San Antonio River Authority and chairman of the Texas Libertarian Party.
He says his first move as president would be to shrink the government by 40 to 50%.
(Will be continued in PART 2) (Credit to the Houston Chronicle for the info)
