Following up my last post I’d like to share a blog article I read from the Carnival of Politics. Bob Barr brings up good points that I have myself made and I think is a good listen, even if you do not agree with Libertarian views. If you’re interested in learning a bit more about the Libertarian party, pay closer attention to the last video clip.
Have you ever thought about why you’re a Democrat, or a Republican, or a Libertarian, or a Green? If someone asked you what party you belonged to and why, out of nowhere, would you be prepared enough to respond, assuming you consider yourself to be of a certain party? If someone asked you if you believe in everything the Democratic party stands for, as an example, would you be able to say yes with absolute certainty? Do you even know all of the platforms that the Democratic party even pursues? What about the Republican party; are you absolutely sure that you know about all of the positions they represent?
Sometimes it’s baffling that someone would pick one or two issues and then go with a party on those issues alone, as if there are no independents or other parties that take the same exact stances on those issues. The reasons that explain these occurrences simply do not satisfy me, such as aligning yourself with the same political party as your parents. You need to take a step back, and analyze your parents’ position carefully. Do you know why they vote for a certain party? Are you of the same alignment because their ideas are firmly engraved into your brain? Maybe. It does not have to be this way, but it happens a lot. Otherwise it’s due to ignorance, I mean how many people can claim that they know all of the party’s platforms and their stances. My guess would be not many, and I would be right.
The two big shots, the Democrats and the Republicans, are backed by the people as well as corporate interest. It’s true. They pull in a lot of money from donations, it’s simply not fair. People often vote for only these two because people feel like voting for anyone else outside of these two parties is a waste of a vote. No one should ever feel like their vote is being wasted, ever. Why should there only ever be two candidates we can vote on and not feel like the other candidates are a waste of time? The world is not in black and white. The world is not one way or the other, it’s simply not true. There are not only two opinions on any matter. Let’s not argue about the different colors within each party; we all know that these two parties are virtually in the center when you look at the grand scheme of political alignments. So the question becomes, will these two parties be from now until forever the only two “choices” that America really has, or is the public eventually going to do its research and vote for their truly best match?
With the advent of the Internet, it’s simply inexcusable not to know what the major party platforms are, as well as the platforms of independent candidates and the minor parties. So many hours of the day are spent, wasted away from surfing the web. Why not do a Google search on Ralph Nader? Don’t take a look at just what you disagree with him on, take a look at his entire platform. His beliefs on all issues is what’s important, because come election time you’re not going to be able to pick just the one or two viewpoints you agree with, you have to take along the entire bag of ideas each candidate carries. If you’re a financial conservative, but disagree with the war, are you willing to forfeit that disagreement to get the financial policies that you’d like? That is the kind of question that everyone should be struggling with.
But, the people hardly ever are torn in this manner. How can that be? How can so many people agree on the exact same ideas on every issue? It’s not probable. I wouldn’t want a country whose population thinks the exact same things anyway, because then there’s no debate, there’s no questions asked, and there’s no criticism. People need feedback, without it, people continue to make the same stupid mistakes or the same sorts of actions that could be corrected or improved. Right now, the Democrats correct the Republicans, and the Republicans correct the Democrats. But what if they’re both wrong? Who’s correcting the both of them?
I urge you to take a look at the different platforms that exist in the United States. Do a Wikipedia search on all of the major political parties and then on some of the other independent candidates. Get to know where you truly stand on the issues and which party satisfies a particular issue the best. Then decide where your alignment truly is. No stupid online quiz is going to be able to tell you what party you belong to, it’s nonsense. It would take a very long time for a quiz to know absolutely how you feel on every possible issue. It’s hard for a quiz to know how you feel about even a single issue! Feelings are hard to use as empirical data. Only you can know where you are on the political spectrum.
Knowledge is power here, and the power to change the political climate in the United States I think should be a powerful motivator for anyone. Why should anyone pick the better of two evils? Why can’t someone pick the best candidate for their own views? Why should two parties influenced heavily by lobbyists control what the American people want? Why do people have such a poor view of government? Could it possibly be because they were forced to choose a candidate they did not much want, because they wanted the other candidate even less?
Anyone care to take a guess as to what these politicians majored in when they went to college? Believe me, it’s usually not economics, usually not business, and usually not foreign policy. George W. Bush was a history major. That means he knows, supposedly, a lot about the past. While at least the major is related, it certainly does not make him an expert in economic issues or how to conduct oneself abroad. Let’s look at most other politicians. They usually all get degrees in law. Law is a perfectly fine degree to pursue, but that’s all it is, legal business. That does not make you an expert in economics, foreign policy, conducting war, technology, or anything of the sort. Let’s look at the two top candidates running for president. Obama has a law degree from Harvard. That’s fine, but again, he’s no expert on how specific industries work. John McCain, I have no idea. He graduated almost bottom of his class from the Naval Academy. So, I suppose he’s an expert at… defending his country? Point is, he too is no expert on economic issues, medical issues, etc. Let’s not also forget that these two live privileged lives at this point. Maybe Obama can relate to a lot of working-class citizens because he’s supposedly been there before. Still, as of now, they are not of the same stature.
This is what advisors are for of course, to fill in the politicians with information about all sectors of America, from health issues to the economy to foreign policy. But then, if that’s all candidates do is consult advisors, who are we really voting for? Are we voting for the person promising all of those ideas, or are we really voting for the group of advisors who will try to get those ideas across to the president?
Both McCain and Obama know very little about economic issues. Obama is young and inexperienced, this would seem to make sense. However he seems bright enough to actually pick it up. What’s McCain’s excuse, after living 72 years and having plenty of experience as a politician, to know very little about the economy? Never have I seen a president back up their economic plans, for example, by economic facts. Most of the speeches seem to influence emotions, and that happens to work. I want numbers though; I want to see charts, I want to hear the facts about economics applied to whatever plans presidents have. You’ll never see the geniuses in certain fields running for president, it just does not happen. They are either disinterested in working for the government or they are simply too good in their field to be able to just leave. But how many people do we need working in Congress or in the White House that majored in law? How many lawyers do we need? Don’t we need people who actually have the schooling background to back up their bills and laws they pass? Yes, there are a few sprinkled in here and there. but they are not the majority.
Realistically, I don’t know if there will ever be a president who’s highly technical in all of the different aspects a president needs to make decisions on. So I guess this is more of a wish list for me than anything else. Still, the day I see a president back up his or her claims with hard facts from academia will be the day I smile for the first time and say, “yes, finally someone who backs up claims with truths.”
Let me be clear with my statement that the Democrats aren’t uniting. It has nothing to do with this election, although this election is actually bringing out the root causes of the problem. I don’t think its a big deal that polls are saying that the race is close, even though the Democrats should be winning by a long shot. This has nothing to do with it. Let’s look at the elections themselves. The Democrats are always annoyed when an independent candidate steals their votes, which is often the case. The other parties largely don’t affect the Republican party. Why is this so?
The Democrats have become this conglomerate of different values and beliefs, that I think they’ve taken on more than they can chew. They have become this machine that believes in so many issues, that some of these issues actually start to conflict. You have environmentalist groups, feminist groups, racial equality groups, and they mostly align with the Democratic party. And sometimes, their interests actually conflict with each other. Let’s take for examples the issues of abortion and the death penalty. There are those who are pro-choice, but at the same time there are those against the death penalty. In my mind this makes little sense. You are willing to disregard an arguably innocent life but save the lives of criminals. I know there are deeper arguments than this, but in essence that’s what it looks like in a nutshell. Another example: I’m sure those in favor of racial equality are stoked about Obama as a candidate, however the feminist groups are largely disappointed that Hillary did not win. A few weeks ago I was listening to a report claiming (although this could be false) that they’re actually beginning to align themselves with McCain, even those he has absolutely no plans for feminists. Why would they turn their backs on the party that actually would try to push their issues forward? Is it because they hate that Obama beat Clinton? Probably.
That is why independent candidates are so attractive to those who would otherwise vote Democrat. They get to vote for a candidate who supports most of what they want instead of a candidate who’s with them on one or two issues and then either disagrees with the other issues or is uninterested in pursuing those other issues. There are those for example who want to vote for a candidate who actually voted against the war. Obama did no such thing because he wasn’t able to (he wasn’t in the Senate at that time), but people even question if he would have if he had been there. Independents and those candidates from other parties have more streamlined agendas, similar to the one of the Republican party. There are very few divisions in that party. The only major one would seem to be the religion versus the socio-economic Republicans. And even then, a lot of the party actually agrees on both camps. Clearly McCain is not the ideal candidate for a lot of Republicans, but they have all rallied behind him, as I have seen few Republicans actually switch because of their choice of candidate. It’s a nicely united party, and it’s going to remain strong, even in a year where the Democrats could have easily stolen the presidential nomination.
You cannot try to appease everyone at once. It’s practically impossible. I’m sure theorists have devised a means of doing so, but a theory is a long way from a workable plan. I think the Democrats’ best course of action is to look at how the party is as a whole and try to redefine what it stands for. For example, unions are now much weaker than they were in years past, and union rights just do not seem to be an issue for the Democrats anymore. Does the party still believe then, in union power? The Democratic party needs to regain its focus and begin to truly unite, or it’s going to be a tough race against the Republicans every single election year from here on out. And of course we’ll see how the Democrats fare this election.
Sometimes people need to just hear it from someone else. If you don’t vote, you have no control over what the government does. Yes, people say how they feel powerless anyway. These people say that no matter what they do, America will do whatever it wants, and the government will do whatever it wants. In fact, people have very little faith in the government these days. People are very cynical and skeptical about our political system. Is it not working? Do people not really have a say?
I think giving up is even worse than feeling powerless. People are creating their own illusion of dis-empowerment. Well of course you’re feeling powerless I’d say, because you no longer vote! People who do not vote and feel powerless are absolutely right. They have no power because they want to have no power. How does not participating help to change anything. Not participating is a conceit. America didn’t become the nation it is today by having people who gave up on what they believe in. Imagine if slaves had given up on trying to gain their freedom. Would they have ever gotten it if they had never tried? It’s hard to say. I’m inclined to say no, because inaction is like agreeing with anything and everything that occurs. Voting is analogous to speaking one’s mind in politics, and if you disagree with something, you need to say it or it will never be heard.
Do you feel comfortable putting your fate in the hands of others? I know I don’t. Why should I? The person who knows best what’s right for me is myself. No one else can tell me what I need or what I desire. Why do people lock their doors at night? Why have a lock at all if you want to put absolute faith in everyone else? Not voting is like leaving your house door wide-open. Not voting is like having the populous tell you what you want and what you need. To some people this is fine, people like being controlled in that manner. However, I cannot live that way, and I can imagine that a lot of you cannot live that way, either. For those who have gone or are currently attending college, remember how incredibly freeing it was to finally get out of the house and live on your own? Didn’t it feel great knowing you were now in almost total control of your own affairs? No one in college tells you what you may or may not do, besides anything that breaks the college’s policies or breaks the law. It is a great feeling to make your own decisions. Voting is a similar deal. You finally get the chance to have your own voice as to how America proceeds in the future. You get a tiny bit of control, for once. I claim a tiny bit of control is better than no control at all. It’s just like my own life. If I had to choose between having no control over my life and a tiny bit of control, I’d take the tiny bit every single time. If you feel the exact same way, and you do not vote, or are not registered to vote, I recommend that you do.
Anyone who does not vote I don’t believe has a say about anything that occurs in this country for the period that officials were elected. They have none. I don’t want to hear criticisms from these people, and I don’t want to hear complaints. They did not vote because they chose that the country proceed in this manner by choosing to do nothing. I have to reiterate that inaction is the same as accepting the status quo, whatever it may be. Thus it is imperative for anyone who has an opinion at all to vote if, for example, I am to take that person seriously and truly pay attention to his/her opinions. As far as I’m concerned, those who choose not to vote have no opinion, or their opinion is that of the majority, whatever majority that may be.
So please, if you care at all to make your own decisions, vote! It’s a painless procedure and it is extremely empowering. What better way to voice your opinion than to tell America itself what you want? If you’re not registered to vote, there’s still time to register! Over on the sidebar you’ll see a banner that takes in voter registrations. All you have to do is click, fill out the form, and you’re done! It’s painless, it’s free, it’s simple, and best, best of all, it’s your ticket to having a voice in America.
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