My brother Matt writes: >>> Wow. The closest I have ever been to any high ranking political icon is probably sniffing the afterburner fuel from Air One from 30,000 feet. Are we not just voting for the lesser of two evils?<<<
Everyone always thinks that. That’s part of the reason why 50% of the eligible voters don’t vote. I think it comes from the mistaken idea that there will be a candidate who perfectly matches your ideals. If there were such a thing, he wouldn’t be an “evil”. Of course, he’d also get only one vote — yours.
But in America, for better or worse, we have a two-party system. I think it’s genius because it forces American politics to the center. Liberals can’t get too utopian and conservatives can’t get too profiteering.
At least, that’s the way it works when the issues are debated rationally and without spin. Where America has gone wacky is in the rightward tilt promulgated by the extremists among the conservatives. They’ve used excellent marketing techniques, rhetorical devices, and outright lies to mischaracterize the issues before us.
For example, most hard-working Americans believe that healthcare for all Americans is a vital issue. At least couldn’t all American children be covered? But the right-wing spin machine trots out the loaded phrase “socialized medicine” and soon Joe American thinks insuring that all people have access to decent healthcare is a slippery slope to Communism. Joe thinks competition is a good, free-market sort of thing, and the huge pharmaceutical and medical and insurance industries laugh all the way to the bank.
Or take taxation. Most people believe that hard-working families deserve a break, and that the rich are not paying their fair share. But the right dishes out a meaningless $300 tax rebate disguised as a tax cut while allowing 60% of American corporations to not pay one dime in taxes and the wealthiest 1% wallow in extreme tax cuts (Cheney saved $22,000 in taxes this
year, by the way.)
The righties even figured a way to take the wealth with them when they die. There was a tax called the Estate Tax. When a rich old dude dies, 50% of his estate was taken in taxes. Sort of like society’s way of saying, “rich dude, you made the best of the American Dream, thanks to our infrastructure, the protection of our army, our sustenance of a banking industry and trustworthy currency, the social peace and harmony our police provide, the willing laborers to do your work, and so much more provided by America’s taxpayers. Since you’re dead now, you won’t be needing this much money. Time to give back. Besides, 50% of your wealth is more than enough to take care of your kids. Let them have some incentive to go earn more instead of living off your wealth.”
But then they changed the name to “The Death Tax” and suddenly Joe American thought, “they’re gonna tax me when I die?” Even though the Estate Tax only affected a tiny few 1% of the wealthiest in this country, the right got your average lower middle class Joe American to rebel against it.
Anyway, back to the point. Lesser of two evils? Sure. One candidate may support eight issues that are dear to you and fifteen that are reprehensible. Another may support fifteen issues you like and eight you don’t. So you vote for the one who’s closest in the most important issues. That’s the nature of politics: compromise.
>>> I am so glad you are into this political crap cause, as you most likely already know, I can’t stand it. I hate “The Man”, but have been “The Man”. What a dichotomy. There are good “The Man” type business and people out there. Few and far between but out there. One example, Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, until recently caving to pressure and becoming a corporation.<<<
Since you are in the business side of business, did you know that statistically, small business owners record higher profits when Democrats are in charge of things?
Don’t get me started with Corporations. The big mistake was when the Supreme Court granted a Corporation the status of a human being with respect to rights. This was back in 1886, leading to massive government and corporate corruption, the robber barons of the early 1900’s, and eventually the Great Depression. It wasn’t until FDR’s New Deal, essentially a huge government socialism project, that regulation was finally imposed on these renegade corporate profiteers.
Now the neocons of the Bush New World Order are attempting to undo all of the successes of the New Deal. They wanted to end overtime pay!
>>> So what, in a real sense, does the President have to do with my situation? Not that much.<<<
No, I’m sorry, the correct response was “a whole lot.” Here’s the Top Ten ways you could be personally affected by the choice of president this November.
1) A Bush win means more troops in Iraq, potential invasions of Syria or Iran, and the resulting military buildup will require more troops. The selective service is already quietly setting up draft boards. You and I have a brother with exceptional computer skills who just turned 21. The draft bill being floated around now is a “Special Skills Draft”, where college-aged kids with particular skills in short supply — medical, aeronautics, computers — are drafted first.
2) Continued deficit spending is going to raise interest rates, particularly mortgage rates. I guess this leads to more foreclosed homes for you and Bob to fix up, but it’s going to be difficult to sell those houses as average people struggle with 15% interest rates.
3) Bush will no doubt be appointing one or two justices to the Supreme Court, likely to have a Christian Conservative bent. They will rescind the protections established by Roe v. Wade. God forbid that Sammy or Hannah ever became a pregnant young teenager, but if it were to happen, wouldn’t you want all the choices available to help your daughter govern her own reproductive freedom? Or is that something the government should be dictating.
4) Speaking of those justices, they’re also likely to push for a Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Regardless of your stance on matters of the lavender tribe, do you think we should be changing the Constitution about it? Besides, don’t you know any gay people who deserve the right to be as miserable in marriage as we are? ;)
5) Any possible reform in the arena of drug policy will be impossible. Federal agents will continue to resist the will of voters and legislatures in states that have decriminalized medical marijuana. People who’s only crime is choosing to relax after work with cannabis buds instead of a can of Bud will continue to be locked up, which costs the taxpayers $22,000 per year and overcrowds prisons to the point where violent criminals must be released to make room. Besides, you don’t want to hear that 4AM phone call begging you for bail money any more than I want to make it. :(
6) The government will continue to play fast and loose with Social Security funds, and we have parents aged 62 and 57 to think about. After all of the hard-work restaurant jobs mom and dad had, they should be entitled to the share of Social Security they put in.
7) The hypoChristian wackos will continue guilt-mongering over Janet’s Sunday Breast, causing the FCC to continue cracking down on the language and concepts we discuss on the radio and TV airwaves. They’ll start with broadcast TV, and they’ve got a plan to go after cable and satellite (since all studios beam their signals through the air, the FCC argues that’s “airspace” and within their domain of regulation.) Then you’ll have to watch The Sopranos with no cursing or Bada Bing girls. No more G-String Divas. (Maybe this is more of a concern for me…)
8) You drive a really big pickup truck. I drive a gas-chugging Jeep. Those $2.25/gallon gas prices really hurt. How is it that we have oil men in office and yet our gas prices are so high?
9) Bush’s policies of detax-and-spend cause state and local governments to lose revenue, and they make it up by raising sales, income, and property taxes. Between gas prices and higher local taxes, you and I are losing money while Dennis Koslowski buys $60,000 shower curtains. And you have a wife, an ex-wife, two kids, and a big-freakin’ dog to feed!
10) Bush’s policies negatively affect education, health care, and the environment. You have kids, so this is a much bigger concern for you than me.
>>> Most Americans don’t even know how the President gets elected. That alone pisses me off. With all of our outstanding technologies and brilliant minds we can’t come up with a system that actually records the popular vote? Come on! Electoral College? How many people can explain this screwed up system? Not I. <<<
I can! In the formation of the union, remember that we had thirteen colonies that all thought of themselves as separate nations. They had to get together to protect themselves from the British. But a popular vote insured that the most populated colonies, Virginia & New York, would control the country. They thought of a Confederation, where each state would have equal say, but then the coalition of the Southern colonies would rule, even though they had a minority of the population. (Unless you count the blacks. Which they didn’t. Even after the Constitution counted them as 3/5ths of a man.)
So compromises were made. We’d have two legislative bodies. The Senate would be one-state one-vote (actually two). The House would be representative of population. So Congress was equally divided between a Democracy and a Confederation.
But there’s still the matter of picking executives. The Electoral College is another compromise. Each state gets as many votes as the combined number of senators and congressmen it sends to Congress. Idaho has 2 senators and 2 reps, therefore 4 electors. California has 2 senators and 55 reps, therefore 57 electors. So, sure, more populated states get more say, but no small state is completely unrepresented. In fact, on a per-capita basis, small states like Idaho have a disproportionate say in things.
(Here’s the math: Idaho = 1,000,000 people / 4 electors = an elector speaking for 250,000 people. California has 35,000,000 people / 57 electors = an elector speaking for 614,000 people.)
>>> So we elect Kerry and he fights all the Bush-Right-Wing “appointed” congressmen and nothing gets done. While this may be better than re-electing Bush and having more “wrong” things done, it still is a system that is broken. <<<
I can agree with that. Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government on this Earth, except for all the others.” But just because democracy works slowly and inefficiently is no excuse for not participating in it. Electing Kerry is so much better than re-electing Bush. And don’t be so sure that he’ll be fighting a united Repugnican Congress. Democrats may overtake the senate this election, and we’ll get closer in the House (damn that Tom Delay and his Texas redistricting!)
>>> I don’t have the answers nor do I pretend to know the facts. I do know that our current system is so broken and corrupt that we may never know the whole truth. So what does that make me? Republican…no couldn’t say that. I have owned businesses and some Republican economics and fiscal policy makes sense, Democrat…not really. Life is not as easy as Supply and Demand. We are not in a bubble and so many factors affect the “curve”. In any case, I will vote. It is my American privilege to do so and I believe in America. However, I am contemplating Canada cause their medical system rocks! <<<
Did you know that the higher the voter turnout, the more Democrats win? And I’m wondering about the Republican economics and fiscal policy you refer to. Which party was balancing the budget and providing a surplus in the 90’s? Which party presided over the biggest economic boom of our lifetime? Republican economics is trickle-down, which means make things better for
rich people and their greedy efforts will trickle down to make things better for the common man.
I’m not against rich folks. I just believe that wealth should be taxed more than work. I believe that two college-educated parents should be able to provide a decent living standard for their kids. I believe that one parent should be financially-able to stay home and raise a young child. I believe in rising-tide economics. Give work and breaks to poor working people and they will spend, creating demand for the products that rich guys and their businesses can make.
The solution isn’t WalMart’s outsourcing of labor and cheaper prices that poor people can afford. The solution is companies insourcing their labor and making poor people richer so they can afford regular prices.
>>> Keep up on the political front. Someone needs to…just not me. <<< Well, I will. I don’t think someone has to be a news and political junkie like me to have a decent assessment of politics necessary to cast a wise vote. Just look at the scenery around you. Thirteen years ago, we had a Bush in the White House, a recession, high unemployment, a war in Iraq, and high gas prices. We got rid of him after one term and got the best economic period in sixty years. It’s time to repeat the process in 2004. Just look at those photos from Abu Ghraib. Is that the America you want the world to see? Review the administration’s reaction to and stonewalling about 9/11. Is a secret Nixon-like administration what America needs? Read about the Tyco, Enron, Global Crossing corporate crime wave. Is it fair that you work so hard and pay taxes while these multimillionaires lay off thousands and plunder their companies’ wealth? Remember how the world loved us after 9/11 and how Bush has turned that into global hatred of us? “Radical” Russ — went off the road in Laramie, eh? You were near where Matthew Shepard was murdered, then. Great bunch of folks out there in Wyoming. You know Cheney is from Wyoming?… No one should ever bicycle for 150 miles… It’s bad for the gonads… ;)
