Background - Corben Barnett

Hello, my name is Corben Barnett.  Before I say anything, I should probably state my political affiliation.

For the longest time, I considered myself to be a conservative, and I followed everything that my family had told me when it came to how I perceived the world of politics, and then I started to find out that you are supposed to challenge the beliefs that exist in your immediate circle.  My parents (and their parents) have all been right wing conservatives since they were born, and have voted Republican in every election that they were allowed to vote in.

When I started to hear some of the things that conservatives were saying on (where else?) Fox News, I began to think about what I really wanted to affiliate myself with.  I didn't want to align myself with guys like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck because of their radical and narrow minded thinking.

Then some things happened in my life, and they started to really shape the way that I viewed the world and the people in it.  I started to think differently about a lot of different topics.  Today, I consider myself to be....(drum roll).....a libertarian.  I have realized that government intervention almost always makes something more cumbersome and prone to failure.  That doesn't mean that I'm going to go Ron Paul on your ass and say that the Federal Reserve should be abolished, but it means that from a conservative viewpoint, I believe that the national government should be as small as possible and should stay out of the lives of the people that it is governing.

Life, liberty, and property should be protected.  John Locke said that.  Jefferson loved Locke.  When he wrote the Constitution along with the others at the Convention, a lot of his language and wordings came from Locke.  Jefferson was one of the first leaders of the Anti-Federalist party, which would one day become the Republican Party that we know today.  I believe that Jefferson was right in saying that the government should stay out of the lives of the people whenever possible.

So now that you know who I will vote for (or do you?), I'll give you some background on my life.

I was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1993 and lived there for the first 2 years of my life.  I then made rapid fire moves to Atlanta, Georgia; Round Rock, Texas; Allen, Texas; and then Carlsbad, California, where I spent the next 9 years of my life.  In 2009, we moved to Pleasanton, California.  In 2011, we moved to Plano, Texas.  And now, in about four weeks after writing this, I will be in Manchester, New Hampshire studying Politics with a minor (hopefully) in International Relations at Saint Anselm College.  Sound like a politician in the making?

Some of my hobbies include lacrosse, collecting music, and pretending to play the guitar.  I have a Twitter account (@iamthorben), but don't follow me if you think that people who tweet too much are annoying because I tweet A LOT.  Some people say that I look like Thor.

I have lived in basically every area of the country and have experienced almost every type of political atmosphere at one time or another.  I believe that I will be able to give you a well rounded and straightforward report of political happenings, as well as stating my opinion.  The rest is up to you.

Thanks for reading.

CB