Its always worthwhile to have backup plans.
Those of us who love liberty and the constitution had hoped to elect Ron Paul president to protect and restore our constitutional rights. Lets call that plan A. Unfortunately that plan seems unlikely now.

As that reality began to sink in, new plans evolved to
elect libertarian minded people to the House and Senate. Call that plan B. We can’t really judge the success of that effort yet, but the amount of money raised for such candidates was perhaps less than hoped for.

While we should continue with plan B, I would like to suggest a plan C, also known as the McCain/Obama Survival Plan. The object of this plan is to develop strategies for preserving our rights under either a McCain or Obama presidency. Of course to do that we must first consider which rights might come under attack. Following is a list of rights which in my opinion are likely to be compromised by either or both of these candidates.

The Second Amendment
Gun Owners of America rated both McCain and Obama for their votes on gun related issues during their terms as senators. Obama received an F and McCain received an F-. http://www.gunowners.org/110srat.htm Though both candidates have backed off from their anti-gun rhetoric recently, it is not unrealistic to expect them to support anti-gun legislation.
(By the way, GOA also provides written opinions on Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr as well as McCain and Obama, http://gunowners.org/pres08/)

Survival strategy- At the moment my suggestion for anyone who supports the 2nd amendment, is to join a pro-gun organization such as GOA or the NRA. These groups have been fairly successful at stopping anti-gun legislation in the past.

Habeas Corpus
If you find yourself thrown in jail without reason, habeas corpus should be your “Get out of Jail Free Card”. It’s an ancient right which dates as far back as the Magna Carta in 1215 and is protected under Article I Section 9 of our constitution.
Unfortunately the Bush administration has shown a serious lack of respect for habeas corpus in both the Jose Padilla and in the treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo. Fortunately the Supreme Court ruled in favor of habeas petitions for Guantanamo prisoners. But I suspect further assaults on that important right by McCain if he is elected. Obama seems more supportive of habeas.

Survival strategy- Join an organization such as Downsize DC.org.

13th amendment

John McCain said “Our armed forces are seriously overstretched and underresourced. As president, I will increase the size of the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps from the currently planned level of roughly 750,000 troops to 900,000 troops. Enhancing recruitment will require more resources and will take time, but it must be done as soon as possible.”
Source http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20071101faessay86602-p10/john-mccain/an-en...

That’s quite a large increase. He has previously stated that it would take a WWIII event to make him reinstate the draft. But would he be able to achieve such a large increase without a draft? And if he attacks Iran, which he seems inclined to do, will he be able to carry on 3 wars without a draft? Some folks might agree with a military draft in a situation like WWII. But would we want a draft available to a man who said he would continue the Iraq war for 100 years, and who goes around singing bomb bomb bomb Iran? Do we want to give him unlimited access to our children to fight his never-ending wars?

Obama seems less likely to get us into more wars but the Democrats are fascinated with promoting community service. Sometimes they speak of this as voluntary service but sometimes they call for mandatory service. John Kerry spoke of mandatory service during his presidential campaign and Charles Rangel has, in the past, introduced a Universal National Service Act which would draft everyone between the ages of 18 and 42, male and female. Some would end up in military service but most would end up in some form of non-military service. Obama has spoken of boosting national service programs, although as far as I know he has generally called for voluntary service. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22117627/ But might he switch to mandatory service in the future?
If an act such as Charles Rangel proposed, were to become law the American people would become servants of the state.

Whether it is a military draft or mandatory civilian service, it amounts to involuntary servitude, something which was banned by the 13th amendment. In my opinion this represent a serious threat to our freedoms. In America the people are supposed to be the masters and the government the servant, not the other way around.

These are a few of the rights which in my estimation could be diminished under either a McCain or Obama presidency. I invite your suggestions on how we can protect those rights as well as your thoughts about any other rights which we could lose in the next administration.