I recently rediscovered my love of political research. A few candidates in the current primaries give me the willies, and a few candidates make me inexplicably happy. It occurred to me that I've never bothered to sit down and define my political views. Tonight this changes. This is a draft work in progress, because obviously covering all of one's views in a single blog entry is going to be difficult. It's also late and I'm very tired, expect this to be revised, even this entry, several times in the near future.
I am not going to focus on a lot of the typical issues that people find fascinating and let define their overall political outlook. I am not today, nor have I ever been, a single-issue voter. The number of issues on the political table at any given time are too numerous to list. People tend to obsess over issues that, fundamentally, really don't matter on the national scene. Coincidentally, a hell of a lot of politicians do the exact same thing to both win votes, and to essentially ruin our country.
I am of the opinion that our country has already been effectively ruined by mass media and our poor public education system. If not for our educational system's lack of focus on critical thinking skills and our media's incessant lowering of standards to meet shorter and shorter attention spans--that the same media is most likely creating--we could have informed voters and logical political discourse. I, however, have digressed. It's time to get to the meat of the original theme of this post, what I believe.
I am not a liberal. I am not a conservative. I am not a Democrat. I am not a Republican. I am not a Libertarian. I am not Fair and Balanced. I am an American.
My Positions
I. System of Government
I believe in the Republic. The great system of government laid down by the founders of the United States is not without its faults. It is, however, one of the greatest systems of government ever devised. The core principles of checks and balances, as well as giving both states and individuals the freedoms they need to innovate was amazing. The idea that every citizen is guaranteed certain rights was, and is, revolutionary. The idea that a document would explicitly state not only what the government was allowed to do, but what it would absolutely not be allowed to do, was also kind of new.
Unfortunately, sometime during the administration of a war-time president, a lot of these things went out the window. Come to think of it, these things have been consistently going out the window with each consecutive wartime president since the days of Lincoln.
Since I'm a firm believer in the constitution, I'm a firm believer in individual freedom and the rights of the States.
The federal system, at its conception, was beautiful. Any number of states were allowed in the union, and they were allowed to self-regulate entirely, with the exception of issues relating to other states. The state of the union today is that most of the rights of the states in the union are no longer granted these rights. Almost all of the divisive issues in modern political debates, in congress, in the courts, are issues that would be more or less moot if the states had the rights that they should. The Red vs. Blue debates would be crushed and destroyed under the formidable system of States being granted the rights the constitution affords them. Abortion, Drug, Marriage and other Laws should never have become federal issues in the first place.
With states given proper freedoms, there would be places that were conservative, and places that were liberal. We would see very quickly which system worked best.
I'm a big believer in the bill of rights, and seeing it get trounced upon by the Patriot Act infuriates me to no degree. The US Constitution was written by people who would agree with the statement "that government is best which governs least."
They are all rolling in their graves. We don't allow our people basic rights under the second and fourth amendments any longer. The first amendment is raped more with each passing day. The basic Articles of the constitution are being crushed by Presidents using signing statements, pushing preemptive military interventions on foreign soil, and Congress's continued tax policies. We give out billions in aid to states that we tax just as heavily. We've declared War on intangibles, like Drugs and Terror. We punish states that defy the will of the federal government on issues unrelated to interstate commerce or national defense.
It's impossible for any sane person to like where this country is going.
2. Economics
I am a capitalist. I believe in the power of the market, and I believe in the de-centralization of the economy. We've discovered that distributed systems are superior to monolithic ones in every other field, why should economics prove to be any different?
The biggest problem with capitalism is the exploitation of the poor. I do believe it is the job of the government to ensure that all workers receive a fair standard of living, and it is for this reason, among others, that I support government regulation of business in a limited fashion. We've established a work week, we've established minimum wages, but we have so far failed to curtail the expanding trend of globalization. Exploitation of the poor in other nations is just as criminal as exploiting them in our own. Uniting economies is bad for competition, and is bad for the only one class, the upper class.
If we are to maintain a promise our forefathers once made--that our nation believed in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness--those things which decrease the capability of class mobility should be looked down upon strongly. There are many reasons to oppose the trend of globalization, as is such, I have only actively participated in direct action (protesting) for three different issues, one of them being globalization.
I don't believe in the greenback. I don't believe in a national bank. The Federal Reserve is terribly frightening to anyone who reads up upon it. Admittedly, my knowledge of economics is not as extensive as someone who might have a degree in the subject, but I find it hard to believe that the Federal Reserve and the lack of any standard to regulate inflation presents a wealth of problems that we could resolve by simply getting rid of those organizations.
I believe that public services should not be provided by the federal government, making exception only for services deemed essential and not likely to be better served by free-market competition. Fire and Police services come to mind as essentials that would not be well-served by competition. I don't believe in government contracts, low-bid, high-bid or no-bid policies. I think that the government should deal with vendors in the same way companies themselves do.
I don't believe in income taxes. Taxation is required to fund any government, but the income tax has proven to be more trouble than it's worth. Repeal the 16th amendment.
3. Role of Government
The government exists to protect the people from other governments, to help the people who are incapable of helping themselves, and to protect the rights of individuals.
Government should serve no other purpose.
In summary:
- Small government good.
- Globalization bad.
- Capitalism good.
- Individual rights good.
- State's rights good.
- War bad.
- Social services generally good.
I am not an inch a socialist.
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