Youth Politics

First of all, I’d like to apologize for my total neglect of this blog. Schoolwork is catching up and as the quarter is ending, all of my projects and work deadlines are coming up, not to mention all of the exams I’ve had to take. It can certainly take its toll. Expect a general slow down of posts from once a day to a few per week. That will be my goal at least.

One of the main topics of discussion that I’ve seen is whether or not the economic stimulus package will do any good. Liberals will praise it. Conservatives condemn it. I asked Twitterers whether or not we even needed this package and if it will work. Here’s how I see it.

The whole point of the stimulus package is to increase government spending into the US’s infrastructure. Investing in infrastructure will help to promote faster economic growth in the future, all the while raising current GDP. Investing in infrastructure should help to bring in more jobs and in the end take us out of the recession with a stronger economic growth plan. It’s a very Keynesian approach to solving the current crisis, an it sounds good on paper.

Conservatives will argue that the economic stimulus package is but a load of crap that will only help to raise the national debt and will provide absolutely no relief because of how the bill will allocate the money. If you take a look at one of the Black Sphere’s latest posts, Education in the Financial Bailout – Pork-A-Palooza II, you’ll see that the author’s concern is that of spending money in education that will mostly go to waste. If you agree that the public education system is mostly ineffective and inefficient, then you can easily agree that investing a lot of deficit money into a system that will make poor use of the funds is a cause for concern.

Democrats are of course complaining that Republicans are taking a party stance on the economic stimulus package and are outright rejecting the bill. Although it’ll most likely pass anyway, I really feel the specifics of the bill need to be worked out between the two parties to make sure that funds aren’t being wasted, because throwing 800+ billion dollars into programs that are ineffective and/or inefficient are not going to help achieve the results we want.

Of course, if you’re a Monetarist, the stimulus package is worthless anyway.

This week’s comment shoutouts are a day late and I apologize. I’ve been sick this weekend and haven’t felt like doing much of anything but sleep. But here they are as promised:

From Seeing Obama’s Inauguration Will Make You A Part Of History:

rampantheart from The Voices Within writes:

While I agree with you one hundred percent about the general characteristics of Politicos aka chameleons, I am rather surprised by your indifference in this regard. I don’t know much about Obama but have heard from people that he’s going to be the man the world (at least the US) badly wants. I guess most citizens’ state of indifference and the who-really-cares attitude have to be looked into, seriously. Like, this cant go on for long. The same state prevails in India as well. We really need someone who can change the world, someone who is ready to make a difference without falling into the deadly clutches of the lethal entity called “Power”.

Bee from The Bee Keeper’s Apprentice writes:

I will be taking a day off from work and watching from the not-so-warm convenience of my own home. I live 2 hours from DC, but just don’t have the gumption to try to brave those crowds.

However, I will be recording on DVD for myself and various friends who will have to work that day. After 8 years of possibly the worst presidency in the history of this nation (and that’s saying a lot – look up Grant and Hoover’s records and you’ll see what I mean), this coming Tuesday around noon we will see not only a historic moment in the first African American to ascend to the highest post in the land, but we will also see the end of the Bush reign.

Tuesday next will be a cathartic moment for many in this country, because it is not cliche to say that African Americans can finally tell their children without lying that they too can grow up to be president someday. Now all we need in 8 years out is a woman to win – and I am most definitely not talking about Palin.

Thanks, btw, for the visit to my site the other day – I’ll place a link on my site to yours.

From Do US Politicians Have To Be Christian?:

Bee from The Bee Keeper’s Apprentice writes:

I will not try to convince you that christianity should be a prerequisite for public office, as I do not believe it should be either.

In fact, those who tout their “christianity” turn me off completely. I don’t care what they believe, as long as they don’t expect me to believe it too, and as long as they don’t try to legislate it. We’ve had way too much of that nonsense for the past couple of decades.

That’s all for this round of comments. Make sure to comment sometime this week if you want in on the week’s shout outs.

I think this question settles most arguments about who would make a good politician and who would not.

The scenario that pops up in my mind is this: take two people. Have one of these people be extremely qualified and actually know a lot about politics and generally makes good decisions. Then take someone else who makes poor decisions and is generally a terrible politician, BUT this person is Christian, whereas the other is not.

My guess is that people would vote against the first person, even if they are the better person for the job. Now, this is just an example, but I think the religious bias that goes into voting for public office figures is too great to ignore.

Last I checked, the United States enforced freedom of religion, not “freedom to practice some form of Christianity”. It’s a lot more general than that. I think for the most part though, that freedom definitely exists and people do get to practice what they will. However, don’t expect to get too far politically if you’re not Christian, as that seems to be a pretty big factor in determining whether you’ll win an election.

I sort of understand the logic. People want someone who shares their values. What better way to judge someone’s values than to look at their religion right? The logic is a bit flawed, but it’s there.

There are religious people out there who still commit crimes. I wouldn’t put a criminal who happens to be a Christian in office simply by looking at his/her faith and saying, “oh you’re Christian, okay you’re good to go”. A person’s individual character really does matter, and I think some people do overlook that. It’s not everyone sure, but I know there are people that do.

I separate religion from politics as much as possible. Why? Because religion serves as a guideline for my life. The Bible certainly couldn’t make judgment calls on how to fix the economy or how to deal with Iran’s building of a nuclear program or how to provide infrastructure for the creation of alternative energy sources. That’s simply not what I feel the Bible is for, and that’s okay.

No one can convince me that American politicians absolutely must be Christian, although anyone may certainly try.

My university is holding an event where a bunch of people can gather to watch Obama’s inauguration on the same screen. I’m not surprised by this, nor will I be attending. The flyer I saw to advertise this event had this as a catch phrase:

“Be A Part Of History”

… because if you don’t, you will cease to exist in time from then on out. I was positive that everyone gets to be a part of history as long as they stay alive, but that’s just my intuition speaking. What do I know anyhow right?

In all seriousness, I will attend no such event. I will be plenty content to watch it on my own in my apartment. If I were not away at college, I may have attended in person as I only live 45 minutes away and well, why the hell not? There’s only so many inaugurations you can attend in a lifetime so, oh well.

I KNOW there are people who will refuse to watch on the grounds that Obama is a liar (ALL politicians are liars), Obama is a socialist (he’s not), Obama is Muslim (he’s not), Obama is a liberal (okay, that he is), etc. I just think it’s funny that people even get that emotional, considering how far the Democratic and Republican parties really are from the center (about ” ” that much apart). Everyone should be glad that true socialist, communist, and anarchist parties (yes, an anarchist party sounds really weird) have no real footing in America and I don’t expect them to ever have one. As for me, I’ll watch any American presidential inaugurations, just for the sake of watching it.

I used a lot of parenthesis this time around….

As you all may or may not know, my blog was down for a few days this week, so there weren’t as many comments as usual. Also, this will be the last time I accept non-English comments, so for the future please try to keep your comments in English and I will gladly put them up. The problem is I don’t want to have to go to Google translate every time, and on top of that I want to make sure the message isn’t spam.

Here are the comments for this week…

From Why Does The US Support Israel:

Дед мороз from Mebelcat writes:

С Новым Годом! Успехов во всех делах в этом году

Праздник from Fuk.co.uk writes:

Поздравляю автора блога и читателей С Рождеством!

NBA from BasketInfo.net writes:

Ну что ж, все праздники позади, пора бы и поработать! Ждем новых постов!

From Socialism Is Evil:

MadStratter from MadStratter.com writes:

Great post; I’ve never understand how people, especially during this past election, can consider “socialism” an insult. Policies were mocked as being “socialist” as if that term, on it’s face, meant that it was an evil and terrible idea and nothing more needed to be said about it, as if shooting down an idea by calling it “socialist” was a reasonable argument.

Although, I noticed that many of the people who did this were the same McMorons who thought that “Muslim” was in insulting and evil term.

Whatever you political and religious views, back them up please. People have every right to hold their own beliefs, but when they are so shallow (yet firmly held) that they consist only of adhering to an adjective and slinging around the names of other, opposing adjectives as the basis for right and wrong, good and evil, well… I become frightened for the state of our nation.

It always cracked me up when people would say that we can’t elect Obama because he would lead us down the road of Socialism… as they support the government which essentially privatized the banks.

fastfret writes:

I agree with the points here, considering how much of our government has socialist ideas incorporated into it. Our public education system, medicare, medicaid, social security, welfare. Some of politics biggest subjects are that of socialist nature. Beleiving socialism as evil would be very hypocritical.

From Should The Government Protect Us From Ourselves:

Some random bum from Mises.org writes:

Your neighbor has no right to protect you from yourself, and thus, how does government? You can’t delegate rights to a government that you don’t have.

Thanks to everyone that commented! I do take the time to read every single one and usually reply to each as well. Remember the earlier comments in general show up first, so comment early!

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