Since the 2012 campaigns are already seriously ramping up you can expect me to delve into politics a bit more. I have generally tried to keep my writing about politics focused on specifically secularism related topics, but those days are over. Since I neither identify with the Republican nor Democratic party, it seems worthwhile to share a bit of my political values. For my non-American readers who may be tired of hearing about US politics you can feel free to skip these posts.
Anyway, my political values are as follows:
- The United States was founded on the principle of personal liberty. Free speech, the freedom of and from religion, a free press including online sources, control of one’s own life and body, and freedom from discrimination are all fundamental. This includes a woman’s right to an abortion and marriage equality for same sex couples. Morality cannot and must not be legislated.
- The United States was founded as the world’s first secular nation. In as pluralistic of a society as this is, secularism is more critical now than ever before.
- The government cannot sustain long term deficit spending. It’s one thing to take out loans in an emergency, but to go deeper and deeper into debt for all but a few of the last 80 years is ridiculous. The government needs to balance the budget, this means both cutting spending and raising taxes.
- A strong national defense is important. Nation building half way around the world is not.
- Education is absolutely critical for the future and the US has quickly fallen behind the rest of the developed world. This must stop. Serious education reform is an urgent need. However, attempts to privatize education or divert money to the education departments of religious organizations are not the solution to the problem.
- A social safety net is important to protect the weakest in our society. It needs to be efficient and designed to get people back on their feet as soon as is reasonably possible.
These are the key factors I look at when evaluating a candidate’s politics. Unfortunately I have yet to come across my perfect candidate, so it’s just a matter of who best fits, as well as another big factor that I’ll be addressing on Friday.
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This is evidence that there are still some sane voters within the US. I'm glad that you've seen the need to both cut spending AND raise taxes as the best way of cutting the deficit and staying out of debt permanently. Too many people on the left or the right will accept only one and not the other, when it is painfully clear to independents that BOTH tactics are necessary for the USA to cut its debt quickly and remain out of debt forever.
People like you are needed in politics. However, the system is set up so that only the very rich or the very popular can ever enter, which limits the amount of good people who can get in. Don't get me wrong, there are good politicians within the US (on both sides of the fence), but notice how it's usually the corrupt, the greedy, the spineless or the populists who get elected? It's because they have the money or they are willing to tell the people X, Y and Z to get into power.
This isn't a rant against the American system – for all it's troubles, it's better than just about any system out there. Just an acknowledgement of its flaws.
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The American two party system allows for rapid changes of policies to fit public demand and it also allows for greater stability in
the government since there is never a minority coalition
trying desperately to maintain enough support to stay in power.
It's also a great weakness since politicians usually have to subscribe to the entire party platform to gain backing in an election and voters will support, for example, the Democratic party for support position X, then since the Democrats support Y the voter will assume it must be right as well.
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