The Politics of Me

This is a response to Sue who asked me about my politics yesterday, indirectly, while declaring herself my biggest fan. I am flattered, of course, to have such a fan in my corner, though I am clearly nothing to write home about. I happen to agree with Sue's assessment of me. And I can only guess that she is but the first of many who will see me for the wonderful person I've always known that I am. Or... she is a plant. A fake person in the liking of J.T. LeRoy created by a benevolent government conspiracy to distract me from my hard scrabble mental existence and keep me politically sedated. Either way, keep up the good words. Occasionally its nice to take your ego out for a spin.

Andy has declared me a moderate politically, though I suspect that many people outside California would probably call me a liberal with some conservative tendencies. The fact that I'm from California would be enough to convince them of that assessment as most people in this country think we're all hippies. To that I say, picture Arnold Schwarzenegger with blond hair down to his ass, smoking a bong, and saying, "Peace brother!" Okay... maybe we are all hippies.

In general I believe in a very old school idea of democracy. I believe that our leaders govern by consent of the people and that their primary task is to serve the good of the people - all of the people - all of the time. I don't think they have any right to tell us what to think, how to think, or what to do with our own personal lives except where it interferes with their primary task. I don't believe their judgements about the good of the people should be based on anything other than logic and common sense. As common sense and logic are based very much on a current view of the world, there has to be a flexability to the decision making process that allows for changes to the law and to our opinions. When it comes to leadership, I look for good intelligent people who not only have good ideas, but also have the dynamic will to make those ideas a reality.

That being a general statement, I thought I'd give some quick views on more specific issues. These are all complicated issues and so my answers, as needs be, are very generalized.

The biggest hot button issue is abortion and abortion rights. By the definition of those who set the terms, I guess I would be considered Pro-Choice. But I really hate that term. I am, by nature and by religion, pro-life and I think most people are as well. However, logic and common sense tell me that in the real world, not every child will be welcome by every parent and that it might be far better for that child to never be born at all than to suffer in this world for no reason. I don't know that I could ever make that decision. But, being a male, its not my decision to make - not for myself or for anyone else. So while I personally think that abortion is wrong, I'm not qualified to make that decision for anyone else. Until we come up with a system whereby every child born will be taken care of and loved all over the world, I don't think we can force women to have children they don't want.

During Gulf War I, when I was in the Navy, a big issue that came up was Flag Burning. As a veteran and a lover of America, I find the idea of Flag Burning abhorrent - a real slap in the face - and I question the loyalty and honor of any American that burns one. However, my job as a soldier and as a citizen is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America - a constitution that honors the rights of its citizens to freedom of speech and expression. If we truly honor this document then we have to let people burn American flags. We just don't have to like it.

My people came to this country in the early 1800's and came west during the Gold Rush. They are immigrants and I suspect they came here legally, but I can't confirm that. Every generation has had to deal with immigration issues. Really, there are two sides of the problem - Prevention and Support. How do we keep unwanted people out? And what do we do with the illegal immigrants that are already here? Any comprehensive plan needs to address these problems separately. What we don't want to do is create a large underground sub-class of Americans who are hungry, desperate, uneducated, and unknown. That is the quickest path to instability that I know.

When I went to school, they talked of America as being one big melting pot. Apparently that tread on the toes of those people who wanted to embrace their unique cultures. Instead of one nation, under God, we've become one nation of white Americans, one nation of African Americans, one nation of Asian Americans (see sub-classes of Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, etc...) and so on. This nation is never going to go forward until it learns to come together as one. We need to stop being separate Americans and just be Americans. Its time for Affirmative Action to die.

I signed the petition to allow for Medicinal Pot. I wasn't going to at first because I told the petition guy that allowing people free access to marijuana would throw open the flood gates. His response was a classic example of common sense. He said, "If you haven't tried marijuana now, what makes you think you'd try it when it was legal?" Indeed, it has been legal in California, at least, for the past four or five years and there hasn't been a mad rush of people trying to cheat the system to get Pot. Alcohol causes much greater numbers of deaths and accidents, but it hasn't been criminalized in 75 years. Its time we changed our drug policy.

I am a great believer in a proposal made by Robert Heinlein in Starship Troopers - that no one receive the Franchise unless they first do work for their government. In Switzerland, Russia, Israel, and many other places around the world, military service is compulsory. I'm not for that - but I think that should be an option. I think all people should work for the government in one capacity or another for a minimum of one year. It should not be mandatory. But it should be a requirement before receiving the right to vote. When people earn their right to vote, I think they'll take their responsibility much greater.

Many people know my views on the War in Iraq, but I'll take this moment to explain them. This is not a just war. Saddam Hussein is a right bastard - no doubt about it - but he's certainly not the only one (so there goes that justification). The people of Iraq were certainly oppressed, but they're not the only ones either (so there goes that justification). Iraq supported terrorists, but they're not the only ones (so there goes that justification). Iraq may have had weapons of mass destruction, but they're not the only ones (so there goes that justification). And to tick off a few more, they were not a threat to the United States, there was no evidence that they had anything to do with Al Queda or the Taliban or the attacks on 9/11, and they had been cooperating (somewhat) with the United Nations. So, what, exactly, was our justification for going to war? I can't tell you because it keeps changing. It keeps changing because there was never any firm justification in the first place. We went to war with Iraq, quite frankly, because that's what Bush wanted to do from before he was elected. He not only proposed it, he made it a part of his platform when running for office. If elected, He was going to solve the Iraq problem. Well, short sided thinking has caused us to be in the mess that we're in now. Do you think Bush cares? No. Its not his children that are dying over there. I had no problem with the first Gulf War, or really, for any other war the US has ever fought because the reasons were clear for fighting them - whether you agreed with them or not. This war never had a good reason and so we are killing and being killed for no good reason. We are the agressors. We are in the wrong. And that is not a place the people of America should ever be.

This sort of brings me to the next subject, what I think of the current government. I think you all know how I feel about the Weenie in Chief. I won't be getting any Christmas Cards from him anytime soon. But I am not an anarchist, nor do I for once believe that impeaching him would solve any problems. The problems are not with one regime or another being in charge. The problems are with the whole government. Nobody is leading. Everyone is off doing their own little thing. Everyone is reacting. Nobody is in charge. This is clearly evident in Katrina where we had three days of blame before we had one day of relief. If our current government was running NASA when the Apollo 13 problems occurred, those astronauts would still be up there waiting for a fact finding grand jury to be convened to assess what went wrong and who is to blame. Whatever happened to the days when politicians spent more time talking about the issues than about each other? When Phil Angelides political ad begins with, "He fought Governor Schwarzenegger harder than any other politician..." but what the hell did he do for us? Did he fix the levy's? Did he fund the schools? Did he get the roads fixed? Did he actually DO anything? I'm a Democrat by enrollment, but I'm actually pissed off at both sides on just about every issue - not because of the stands the politicians take, but because neither side is willing to do anything about those stands. Its rather depressing.

Recently, the Presbyterian Church gathered conservative and liberal leaders together and told them to come together to discern the will of God on several hot button divisive issues within the church. These people that they threw together were some of the most vocal leaders on either side of the debate. After a year and a half, they finally released their report. And the gist of that report, "It doesn't matter what we think, its God's will that must be done and our discernment of God's will that matters the most - and how can we tell you what God's will is, you must discern that for yourself." Naturally, nobody really liked that answer. But the truth of the matter is, its a completely logical and common sense answer to the tough questions that we face. Our politics, like our religion, are personal and important to us. They are based on our upbringing, background, and our experiences in life. To tell someone else what they must do or think because you say that is what is right is not what this country is all about. The essence of a democracy is that everyone must be allowed their say in the debate in order to discern the will of the governed.

I hope that gives everyone some sort of glimpse into my mind. I didn't do this as a soapbox excercise, but just as an affirmation of what I believe and the way my mind works. I am open to discussion about any of these topics, but please, no arguments. We can all agree to disagree. That's why this country is the greatest on Earth.