As a Republican, I voted for Barack Obama, and when re-election comes around again, my vote will be cast for Obama. The sad part is that, as a Republican, many will label me as a liberal and as a traitor to the United States.

Just look at the nation's recent past, however, and there will be major stumbling blocks to overcome: the war in Iraq; dissension after the Reagan administration; and outright cowardice in axis of evil claims. All that while the stock market tumbled and conservative-supported deregulation took place. The old guard of Reagan crusaders are considered much too liberal for their newer conservative counterparts.

Instead of embracing the same standards of Republicans and Democrats working together, conservatives took the people for chattel and then treated them like cattle, all the while expecting to be embraced. We cannot be Republicans without voting along the party standards.

As an American, I am never going to vote the party lines. I have my voice and my right to vote, and it is as an American that I decide which candidates to vote for.

Neither Democrat nor Green, I am a Republican, and I vote for whom I want, not for propagandists.

Joseph Ziehm, Lewiston