Been awhile, misc. ramblings

I haven't written in too long. The last few months, I've been extremely busy, but things have settled down now just in time for the presidential election so I hope to be posting more frequently. For the first time in my life, I don't know whom I'm going to vote for. As I discussed in an earlier post, I am still feeling very betrayed by the Republican Party. Before the vice presidential picks, I was quite certain that I would vote for Obama. However, I do not like Biden, and I really like Palin, which is starting to swing me back to possibly voting for McCain. I do feel like John McCain is completely out of touch with the struggles average Americans face on a daily basis, but the same can be said about nearly every politician. Having personally lived at or below the poverty level my entire adult life, I have great empathy for those living there. Contrary to what many believe, I do not think that all those who live in poverty are lazy or choose to stay there. I've seen too many people working multiple jobs, 80-90 hours a week, year after year, and barely manage to make ends meets, to share those views. I guess my internal struggle is based on the question of the role of government in our lives. I have been raised to believe that all government intervention is bad, save the military. However, life experience has taught me otherwise. I literally would not be where I am today without help from the government, in the form of grants, health-care for my children, subsidized student loans, state-subsidized education (both for myself and my children), and many other things. On the other hand, I also know that the government does not have all of the solutions to life's problems. I do believe that a super-strong central government can be very dangerous. So, what am I going to choose? Still not sure. On one side, I am personally very conservative on social issues. Abortion as a form is contraception is evil and will some day be punished by God. So will homosexuality. But, I feel the same way about any sexual relationship outside the bonds of marriage, in addition to drinking alcohol and using tobacco. So, my question to the republicans, where's the constitutional amendment on cohabitation? Why is no one pushing to have alcohol repealed once again? It's this selective moral outrage on issues of political convenience that really bothers me. Which gets me back to another point I made previously - I feel more and more that the government should not legislate religious beliefs. And when I look at the above list of things that I morally disagree with, they are all rooted in my religious beliefs and I want the government as far away from my religion as possible. I also feel very strongly about helping my fellow man. Christ spent his entire life helping to elevate others, both spiritually and temporally. In a perfect world, everyone would be doing there own part to help each other and the government would not need to be involved. But, I personally have benefited immensely from government assistance, allowing me ultimately to move on to a different station in life. So, even though government is not the best possible option, are there any better ones available? To this question, I don't have an answer.