I used to stay clear of expressing political views on my blog. I didn’t want to alienate potential clients of my companies because of my personal views. But after some thought I realized that was cowardly. I don’t think my political views are beyond the scope of what most people believe, so if someone really takes offense, I probably shouldn’t be associating with them anyway.
After giving some thought to what I could be labeled, I think the closest would be a fiscally conservative liberal. I never thought I would describe myself as a liberal, I was a Reagan fan. But as the Republican party takes more money from big companies, and more votes from religious groups, I find that I’m left in liberal territory. In my opinion, Ronald Reagan is the last president we had that seem to honestly believe he was doing what was right for the country and not just himself.
But I would like to upset both Republicans and Demarcates here, and I’m thinking I will be successful. Republicans have become a group of right-wing, war mongering, greedy, homophobic, Christian Coalition following, gun totting, morons. You need only look at the most outspoken of the group like Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly to see how cliche and cartoon like the party has become. And let’s not forget George W. and his lovable sidekick Dick.
But don’t smile to big Democrats. The democratic party hasn’t changed much. The still don’t think moral character is a requirement in a president. But if the president cannot be honest and faithful with their own wife, who they took an oath to as well, why should we expect any better fidelity to the country. Am I talking about Clinton or Kennedy? That’s the fun of the Democratic party, I could be talking about almost any of them here. Democrats worry more about telling the people what they want to hear than what they need to hear. They are obsessed with partisan politics, and usually get outsmarted by republicans at almost every issue. They want their social programs, but of course don’t want to raise taxes. Why do that when they can just take the money from the military? I obviously don’t consider myself a democrat either.
I’m left without a political party, which in itself is a problem. In reality we are only one party away from a dictatorship.
So who will I vote for? As of right now I’m supporting Barack Obama. He is the only candidate I see who seems to understand the problems with both parties. He also knows that if you want to change things, you need to start by not taking money from the people who will want to prevent change. I’m writing a post about why I support Obama here.
Here is how I feel about a few hot political topics.
Abortion – I’m pro-choice. Clearly no one likes the idea of abortion, but it should be a choice a woman can make. I support Roe v. Wade, but I do wonder if Ron Paul has a point about this really being handled at the state level.
I think if a woman choses to have an abortion, it must be within the first trimester. I also believe that any girl under the age of 16 should be required to have parents permission. And it makes no sense to me why the morning after pill is not easily obtained.
Death Penalty – I’m against it. I haven’t seen anything showing it deters capital offenses, and we have executed too many innocent people in the past. On a moral level I think state sponsored homicide is below us as Americans.
This does not mean that I am “weak on crime†. I believe anyone convicted of a violent offense should not only receive mandatory prison time, but also be monitored on their release for years. And by monitored I mean ankle bracelet and video surveillance. People on parole are not free, they are serving their sentence in their home. I also believe sexual offenders should be monitored for the rest of their lives.
And anyone who commits a sexual offense against a child should face the possibility of spending the rest of their lives in prison. They should never be allowed the opportunity to reoffend and harm another child.
Iraq – We need to leave immediately. President Bush lied to get us in this war, and he is lying to keep us in it. I supported the invasion based on the information the President gave us. Once it became cleat that the information was baseless, we should have scheduled an immediate withdrawal, and the President Bush should have been under investigation.
Our soldiers were asked to make incredible sacrifices for this war. And they have done all that was asked. They invaded and took over the country. They searched for WMD’s. They found Saddam Hussein and brought him to “justice†. They have been taken from their families, lost limbs, and given their lives towards this cause. I can think of no bigger betrayal of an administration.
Global Warming – It’s real, and it’s really, really scary. How I don’t agree with some of the more right-wing conservative thinking, many of the ideas at least have some reason behind it. Obviously many religious people believe that abortion is the taking of a human life. Some people believe that the death penalty is justice; the whole eye for an eye thing. And it’s possible some people even feel that we need to stay in Iraq to “stabilize the region†. But why would any group disagree with every real scientist in the world? I can think of no greater example of a non-partisan issue than imminent global destruction.
The fact is we are producing way to much waste on this planet, and the US and China are responsible for a good amount of that.
Environment – I think it’s safe to say that I am for the environment. I would like our planet to support human life for now. Clearly we are not treating the planet very well, and we need to start doing a better job, or start looking for a new one.
Social Security – Get ready for this…I think we should kill it. I would rather see a mandatory 401(k) plan put in place for working Americans. Now I’m not stupid, I remember the bank bail-outs, and obviously we would never be able to handle the huge amount of problems if we allowed big companies to screw up an entire generation of retirement plans. I’m not saying this could be done overnight, but a plan should be made to allow people to invest part of their income on their own.
Gay Marriage – I don’t care. What business does the federal government have in providing a license to allow people to marry someone. Marriage is more about religion than anything else. I can’t think about this issue without the words “pursuit of happiness†coming to mind. What greater infringement of freedom to the public at large that to restrict who they can spend the rest of their lives with. But that’s not really what laws against gay marriage do. The laws just provide a way of discriminating against people. Federally backed discrimination is obviously wrong. Government has no place in marriage. The government should provide a domestic cohabitation package that includes all the legal forms to make this person your partner. And the government should have no say in who can partner up. Marriage should be up to each individual and their church or other preference institution. End of problem.
Taxes – The tax situation in this country is broken. The U.S. tax code is bigger than the average encyclopedia. The Democrats try to tax the rich, the Republicans create loopholes for the rich, and in the end the middle class get left holding the bag. This is why I like some of the more radical ideas like Steve Forbe’s flat tax idea, or Ron Paul’s suggestion of doing away with income tax all together and have a federal sales tax. Obviously both these ideas have their flaws, but they do have some promising ideas behind them. Either way, we need to figure out something better than the current system.
