US Political Issues for the 2008 Election

I was perusing youtube a great deal in the past few weeks and have been amazed by the amount of support that certain Republican candidates have on the web (Ron Paul). For some reason Ron Paul has a large following consisting of many different people. Most are good, hard working Americans, but at times it seems he attracts many bigots, that might be too harsh a word but the sentiment is generally true. Some of what Ron Paul says is true, his stance on non-intervention seems to me to be somewhat on the right course, although it smacks of Isolationism and we've seen how well that worked. However, most of his views I disagree with, see his stance on taxes. This post will actually be about the state of politics in the US and what I think should be the major issues. I will also attempt to give answers or ways to deal with these issues, as I see them.

The first issue that I have seen in the debates and what I have read is that people are supporting certain candidates because they want a departure from politics as usual. This is not a bad sentiment, however, this sentiment is naïve. To think that certain politicians are more righteous than others is just plain naïve. All these politicians will lie, will misrepresent themselves in order to get elected. Politics has always been a mud-slinging industry, and it always will be. No politician is above exploiting his/her opponents weaknesses or flaws.

Issue two is the issue of immigration. Many people want stricter immigration standards, not a big problem there for me at least. My problem comes in the rationale for these stricter immigration standards. Many people rationalize this stance by saying illegals are taking our jobs or coming here and taking welfare or are abusing our healthcare system. This is false. Illegals are taking jobs that not many people are signing up to do. When was the last time you applied for a job picking avocados or corn? Chances are you never have and never will. Americans aren't losing jobs to illegals, they are losing jobs to their own companies. These companies find it more cost effective to ship American jobs out to places like India. Another issue that I have with this argument is that at its heart is bigotry. Why is it that Americans are more worried about illegals who come up from Mexico then say who come from Canada or even Europe? Like it or not illegal immigration does very little to the American economy. I know, but they are sending money to their family back home. Well, that might be true but they are sending home less than what they are spending here. Think about it, these immigrants have bills to pay, cell phones, credit cards, rent, groceries, clothes, cars, etc. The fact of the matter is that they are spending more money in America than they are sending home. This helps the economy, but I digress. During the summer between High School and College (the summer of 2001) I worked at a sleep away camp – Camp Towanda – in Honesdale, PA. The kitchen staff of this camp was made up of mostly Eastern Europeans, at the start of the summer there were maybe 10-15 of them by the end there were roughly 5 or so. Nobody got really bent out of shape about this; it was the price of doing business. If these people were of a brown skin color people would have been all over this. Other people like to invoke National Security in their stance. If immigration is so important to them then why do they not realize that the 9/11 conspirators/attackers came in not from Mexico but from Canada? Surely the porous border with Canada is of greater concern for National Security then the one with Mexico. The fact of the matter is that neither Jobs nor National Security are greatly impacted by immigration, this is just a scare tactic.

A possible way to keep American Jobs in America would be to give incentives to companies who keep plants in the US. US companies don't pay the taxes that they should so why not give them tax breaks for keeping jobs here. I mean if they aren't paying their proper taxes why should the rest of the country suffer while they make more money? Part of the problem is the very system of economy that we have. A Free Market Economy (FME) only aids in the departure of jobs. In a FME the main objective is to maximize profit, this is the main objective of every business. When businesses look at the cost of doing business; labor, sales, advertising, etc., in the US it is only too apparent that the way to maximize profit is to ship the jobs to other places where labor is cheaper. That's the nature of the beast. What has to happen is the development of new industry. New Industries are always being developed; these industries sometimes aren't even new but rather just an evolution of an existing industry. Take for example the energy industry; the US has plenty of natural resources that can be tapped for industry. We grow so much corn in this country that right now we are paying people not to grow corn, I kid you not. Why not develop an industry that uses corn for power or develop vast windmill farms to generate power? These are just things that have already been started but I am sure that there are many untapped ideas for industry. Maintenance of such industries would surely create jobs.

The third issue that I think is major is the perception abroad of US Imperialism. We need to wean ourselves off our reliance on oil, this would – I think – cut down on part of this perception. This must be done for a number of reasons the most significant of which is that our oil interests foster ideas of American Imperialism abroad. This perception (held by the international community) is more detrimental to US security than immigration. The attacks of 9/11 did not occur because of immigration but because of perceived US Imperialism. Not to mention that a movement away from foreign oil would strengthen our economy. We would be able to develop alternate forms of energy that would benefit the environment and all Americans. The US must stop acting as the world police; we should not be interfering in matters of national self-determination of foreign nations. A prime example is the aftermath of the Benazir Bhutto assassination in Pakistan. So far the only thing the US has done is issue a statement from our eloquent President saying "Assassination, bad." THIS IS ALL WE SHOULD DO! I have put this all in caps for a reason. We have no right to tell another country what to do as long as they are not committing mass genocide or something else of that nature. Propping up leaders in nations does nothing but foster the sentiments that allowed for the ascendancy of Osama Bin Laden. I fear, however, that the US will interfere in some way in the aftermath of the Bhutto assassination. This is something we should not do. Just because you the ability to interfere doesn't mean you should, Mr. President.

There are a number of issues that I think have no place being discussed in politics. The two most important ones are global warming and gay marriage. The one that unfortunately with carry the most weight is gay marriage. The government has no standing to legislate marriage, for it is a religious institution. The government has no jurisdiction to legislate religious institutions, at least in my mind. This is a moral judgment for the parties involved and nobody else. This issue will be a moot point anyway in twenty years so just let it be. The fact of the matter is this is an issue for the states not the federal government. I'm not even going to talk about global warming because the Earth has been warming and cooling for millennia, are we, humans, advancing things more rapidly, probably. Either way it's not a major political issue facing this nation, it is an issue of personal consumption.