My First Real Political Post

I'm a dedicated political independent. I abhor the idea of political parties and liken them to joining a sorority or fraternity where a group decides the platform for the individual. I can think of nothing more anti-American. Some issues have me leaning more Left, some more Right and some very much Libertarian.
I usually keep quiet about my vote for President. I made a decision fairly early in this primary race that I would cast my vote for Obama. I held this as a personal decision and didn't necessarily evangelize or campaign or make any kind of public big deal out of it. It was MY preference and MY choice.
Ultimately I have always held the opinion that regardless of who gets into the office, change is on the individual and a president can never truly have any real effect on an individual's quality of life and the life of the community within which that person has direct effect on and so on and so on. It's a ground up approach to change. The effect of a president on an individual's quality of life, from what I generally see in my own conversations, is usually people scapegoating for their own bad decisions.
This all ended last night as I watched excerpts from the Sarah Palin video. I just about had a fit as I witnessed just how adamant Palin and her elk are for Georgia joining NATO and that we, the USA, would subsequently defend any NATO member with force. Are they f***ing nuts? I'm all for picking up arms and fighting when necessary but NOT in defense of Georgia. The only Georgia that I or anyone in my family or community will ever wholeheartedly defend is full of peaches and is in the American south. I bounced this off my neighbors last night to gauge their reaction and theirs was of similar shock and staunch refusal that people would ever voluntarily take on the kind of fight that would be necessary against the likes of Russia just to defend the liberty of Georgia. G_d bless the Georgians and all but they are on their own.
The Republican hollering about Democrats expanding the size of government and my tax burden is a complete smokescreen. Sure, some in tax brackets far above mine will see increased taxes under the Dems but the government size issue comes out a wash. It seems more and more that the government will increase in size and intrusion into the lives of everyday people regardless of the party. It's more about the cosmetics of that intrusion. Would you rather it goes to community programs and entitlements or to the executive branch picking fights that will lead to an endless string of small and/or G_d forbid massive military conflicts.
I can heartily assure our insulated Federal politicians who so comfortably live privileged lives on the East coast that the people of Appalachia and I would presume many other locations throughout "flyover country" don't, and never have seen enough benefit, if any, from our Federal government to send our countrymen out to die for their global experiments in fight picking.