Two Months of Deciding Time to Go
Now that the conventions are over, and the running mates have been selected, the time has come to decide who I’d like to see more in the White House. It is a problem, since I like both McCain and Obama. They were they two I wanted to see match up, and I got my wish. But now the problem is, who is better?
As far as I can see, I am a social liberal. I am for gay marriage; abortion rights (albeit limited); speech as free as it can be without causing damage (I do think political correctness has gone wacky and I do think flag desecration is irresponsible at best); am for handling criminal matters as proscribed in the Constitution (and yes, even the worst of the worst ought to suffer under our free and fair processes to an extent - they hate that stuff, after all, don’t they?); and generally support affirmative action, though I would like to see it class based rather than race based. However, I also support the Heller decision, with reasonable restrictions (e.g. people with a history of mental illness).
Economically, I seem to be more moderate. I am definitely not for socialism, nor do I think completely free market is the way to go. Generally, businesses should be allowed to operate as they see fit in terms of policies, but there must be restrictions to make sure they’re protecting employees and not harming the environment, and not ripping off customers. Particularly on the latter, there has been too many companies lately scamming people to just “let the free market deal with it.” People need to do their due diligence, of course, but everybody can get scammed. yet, I don’t believe companies are inherently evil and must be regulated beyond belief.
I am kind of undecided on taxes. I can see the merits of both a reformed version of the current income tax system (flat tax or otherwise), or a switch to a sales tax-based system. Both offer pros and cons. As for subsidies, it would be nice to have a system where they’re not needed, but for now, a government/industry partnership system probably works best. Finally, I consider myself something of a hawk on illegal immigration. I call BS on the “they do jobs Americans won’t” argument. They should get in line like everyone else, though I do recognize the problems with sending 20 million people home. Perhaps social benefits should be pulled? I could go on about the economy, but this’ll suffice for now.
Militarily, I am not hawkish, but I see areas where military action is needed. A system more like the one under Clinton, where we go after countries with gross violations of human rights, is probably best in terms of what action is taken when it’s not in direct self-defense (i.e. someone is attacking us head on or there is undeniable proof that they will). For example, if the reason for war in Iraq was always because Saddam is a bad guy who kills his people, it probably would enjoy more support today.
So, it’s on to the issues. Over the next couple months I’ll be looking closely at how each candidate has voted on the issues versus what they say. I hope to do an entry on a major issue once a week until the election. Besides reporting on what they’ve really done versus the stump speech, it may give me an insight as to how I will eventually vote on November 4th.
The era known as the push-over Americans.
And yet I also made mention that going after Saddam for the reason I specified would be perfectly legitimate. That is, after all, why we’re now there, according to the administration.
And if we can prove that someone has bad weapons that are a threat, then great. Lets go get ‘em. But proof is what’s needed. Not the incorrect intelligence we got. Since I seem to remember learning in school: measure twice, cut once. What we got here was measure, cut - oops, you screwed up and cut too far - now go get a new piece of wood and cut again.
So just to be clear Michael you therefore would have supported military intervention in:
-Rwanda in the ’90’s
-Afghanistan in the late ’90’s
- Iraq earlier in this decade
-Sudan/Darfur anytime this decade
-Zimbabwe in the past 3-5 years
-Myanmmar anytime in the past 10 years
Noble, but sustainable?
Who said anything about Iraq? Touchy there Michael.