The 2012 Election- The Issues As I See Them.

This post was originally written on 3/22/2012

Everyone at some time in their life hears that old adage that states that you should never discuss any of these three things when you are in mixed company- politics, religion, or sex.  Well, I've always believed that by not discussing something, you close the door to any kind of a compromise between people who don't see things quite the same way.  With this in mind, I'm going to be spending some time talking about politics, religion, and even a little bit about sex.  Not that I haven't been discussing these topics already, but I plan to try and hit all of the major issues that are being batted around as being integral to the survival of our nation, in this oh so chaotic and sometimes entertaining election cycle.

     In the interest of trying to keep things as simple as possible, I have split all of these issues into seven broad categories, which I will introduce and summarize in this blog, and I will be providing links to other pieces that I have written that delve into these categories in further depth.  

     First is the issue of States Rights versus Federal Rights.  As I see it, for better or worse, ours is one nation.    None of us can realistically expect to secede and become a safe, stable, independent nation.  Knowing and recognizing this, the only thing left to consider about States vs Federal is to recognize that everyone should be held to the same standards (Fed), and the smallest possible government body should be responsible for implementing and maintaining those standards (State or Local).  For more on this issue, please read further here.


     Secondly, we have the Social Issues.  These are those issues where no amount of political wrangling or legislation is ever going to make even the majority of the people happy.  These are the ones that people get all fired up about, and they are the ones that politicians love to use to get people pissed off at the other guy.  Things like Abortion, Gay Rights, Capital Punishment, Religious Freedom, Marijuana Legalization, Stem Cell Research, and Immigration.  All of these are issues that have many gray areas, and the positions that people are compelled to take on them are typically inspired by gut feelings.  You are either for it or against it, or you lean one way or the other.  There is no safe middle ground in these issues, and that is why they come up so frequently during election cycles.  This is the stuff that really makes the Two Party System tick.  These issues have no place in our government at all, because they cannot be "solved" by government.  The best that government can hope to do with these issues is to make everyone conform to one system of belief, and since the beliefs that most people hold on these issues are rooted in their religious beliefs, that is a Constitutionally prohibited practice.  For more on this issue, please read further here.


     Next, we have the Environment.  Fact of the matter is, regardless of what you believe about how the Earth was created, whether global warming is a real problem or not, or if we really need to be worrying about that ozone layer- we still have one big rock that all of us are going to be living out our lifespans on.  Even if space travel and colonizing the moon or the other planets in our solar system becomes a feasible option for future generations, we have to figure that some of our descendants are going to want to hang out here on the old homestead, and we should probably be thinking ahead to what we will be leaving behind for them.  Of primary concern in the Environment category are Energy,  Protecting The Earth, and Not Killing of the Indigenous Species of our planet.  You don't have to be a tree hugger to see that just using up all the non renewable resources probably isn't the most forward thinking plan.  You also don't have to be a genius to recognize that compared to our ancestors of even a few hundred years ago, we're slobs.  For more on this issue, please read further here.


     Moving on, let us discuss Foreign Affairs.  This is all about getting along with our global neighbors.  We don't have to take care of them like we are their parents, we don't have to buy their friendship or their loyalty, we don't even have to like all of them.  We do however need to try and restrain ourselves from treating them like this isn't their planet too, and it would be great if we could treat them decently so that they don't feel inspired to blow our asses up.  As it stands we are, as a nation, currently all worked up to varying degrees about Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Israel, North Korea, and Palestine.  Those are just the ones we're having problems with specifically, in the sense that there are people who feel we should or shouldn't be doing something as it relates to those countries.  We have, at different times in our history, had issues with more countries on this planet than we have had no issues with.  It's time that we stopped acting like just because we think that we've got something really cool going on here in our country that we should be all up in everyone's business trying to help them manage their own affairs.  For more on this issue, please read further here.


     Hot on the heels of Foreign Affairs, we have the issue of National Security.  This is the question of how much Military we need, what that military should be used for, things like Border Security, and how to deal with the results of our military actions, like what to do about Guantanamo Bay.  There doesn't seem to be much evidence in history that offensive military action really pays off in the form of positive long term results.  There are plenty of countries who've had leaders who spent a whole lot of time, money, and lives trying to shove other countries around and take control of different areas of the globe for different reasons.  Sure, some of them were quite successful at it, and they managed to meet their goals.  The problem came in keeping and maintaining what they had gained.  Eventually, just about every conquered nation turns around and gets itself unconquered.  The early settlers of the US were actually the most successful at this type of war game, in that they conquered the indigenous population of this country and pretty much decimated them through a combination of superior force, sheer luck, and diplomacy.  We've already got more land, people, and resources than we can manage so it's probably in our best interest to stick to a plan of a strong defense of we we've got.  For more on this issue, please read further here.


     Definitely important to consider in relation to national security, is our Economy.  Without one, we can't even pay for our military, no matter what we plan to do with it.  We all need to be thinking about things like the Budget, the Deficit, Trade with other countries, and those dreaded Taxes.  A lot of people are mathphobes  like I am, and it's hard to wrap our heads around numbers that include more zeros than we can count on our hands without using our thumbs, but this is one of the most important issues that we really DO have to think about.  As a country, we haven't been debt free since before the Constitution was signed.  Not one administration in our entire history as a country has been able to pay off everything that we owe.  More administrations than not have added to our debt by engaging in deficit spending.  This is something that results from a lot of different contributing factors, such as what we have to spend money on, what the different elected members of our government want to spend money on, and whether any unexpected expenses come up.  Most people can understand that sometimes you end up having more needs and wants that you have money, or that sometimes you bring in less money than you planned, but in order to fix the economic issues like the debt, the deficit, and getting taxes under control, we need to get serious about planning to get ourselves out of debt sometime this century. This can only be done by electing state and federal governments that are serious about not engaging in deficit spending.  We also have to be realistic and admit that the only way that any government has to get money with which to plan budgets and pay debt is to collect taxes and fees.  For more on this issue, please read further here.


     Finally, we're down to the issues that most directly affect our Daily Life.  Bottom line on this issue is that, in the immortal words of Thomas Jefferson, we all have the "unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"  In order to sustain life, we must be able to meet our basic human needs for shelter, water, food, and air.  There is no way to live without those things.  Some among us live in circumstances so impoverished that they cannot meet those needs without some kind of assistance.  This is why we must address the issues of Poverty.  The simplest way to address this issue is to say that each man or woman must work to provide for their own needs, but in order to do that, there must be a means at hand of reaching that goal, which is why we must consider such things as the role of government in regulating Business and Labor, and in addressing a Minimum Wage.  Some people may never be capable of laboring enough to provide even basic necessities for themselves, while still others will face times of difficulty when they are unable to find or meet the demands of an employer.  For these people, we must find a way of meeting their needs through a system of Welfare assistance.  The day will come for each of us that in order to sustain our lives, we will need some form of Health Care or Prescription Drugs.  Upon retirement from working to meet our needs and pursuing whatever happiness we may find in material things, we will need a way to continue to pay for our basic needs, so we have to think about whether or not to keep trying to fix Social Security or not.  In between and amongst all this living and pursuing happiness, we have to find a way to ensure that we are still free and enjoying our liberty, so there must be laws governing the behavior of each of us so that no one infringes on any other persons rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness.  For more on this issue, please read further here


     As you can see, there are a lot of issues faced by voters and the candidates who are trying to appeal to them.  It is past time for those of us who truly believe that ours is a REPRESENTATIVE government to start learning and thinking about all of the issues that we are electing these men and women to represent us about in their various positions within our different levels of government.  I will be using my time while writing this series to share my own personal views about each of these issues, and what I think the response of my local, state, and federal government representatives should be to them.  I encourage all of you to give serious thought to what it is you want your government to be doing to represent your views on these issues.