Political Leanings

Been a while since my last blog, and for that I apologize. I think I was too caught up in the political circus, as well as with the 'normality' of my everyday life to take the time needed to blab and blog. Thus....

It probably is not a great surprise to many of you that read what I write that I am a fairly liberal person. But, I am really not as far left as many will think. I like to think that I am a "left of center" moderate progressive, in that I have many 'Republican' views to balance out my 'Democrat' views. Indeed, as reading a number of blogs and op-eds of late, I am wondering why I am not an out and out Republican, because I lean towards most, if not all, of their core values (and not talking of the far-right fundamentalist 'Christian' talking points) of the standard GOP platform.

Let me be more specific and take on the top (?) six points: Smaller Government, Lower Taxes, Less Regulation, Individual Liberty, Rule of Law, and Civic Virtue.

Let me start with 'Civic Virtue', because that is the one I understand the least. If one is to say that this has to do with volunteerism, and "compassionate conservatism", then I can go along with that. That means the compassion that Christ talked about in the New Testament of the Bible: Feed and clothe the poor. Do unto others as you would have do unto you. This is a platform that the right often talked about, but that the left usually actually lived and did. Point towards the Democrats for taking this plank from the Republican party and walking the walk, instead of just talking the talk.

Smaller Government. This does not mean NO government. Government is not a dirty word, nor are they always completely unnecessary and/or unneeded. The larger a populace, the more there is need for people who are specially trained in beaurocracy in making sure that things run as smoothly as possible. Who is going to maintain the infrastructure of streets and sewers and other utilities? Public schools and librarys? Public parks and pools? Are we saying that we want no government, and thus either tossing these things to the wayside, or having private companies run them? So, your parks run by Citibank your pools maintained by Alcoa, your schools run by GM? Which leads into ...

Lower Taxes. Of course, this doesn't mean that there should be no taxes, as much as we would like that. Monies for these public works and schools and infrastructures have to come from someplace, no? From property taxes to sales taxes to tolls at bridges, we all pay fees to the government to pay for those things that we all take for granted as "free". Where I am we have faced a number of years where our emergency services have been severely cut and with the cutting of the taxes from license tab fees in Washington State, many services that people have expected are no longer in place. We no longer have the number of officers that we once had, and thus people have longer to wait for help. Many times minutes are added to fire response times because paid companies are now volunteer companies, which mean no longer do fire fighters live at stations, but have to drive there from their homes, thus adding time to the response time. Makes a big difference when someone is having a heart attack, or your house is on fire. But, you saved a couple hundred dollars on your tabs! But we forget that this money went someplace to pay for something. When that money is taken away, those services are taken away as well.

I have often heard about "tax and spend liberals" but it seems that since 1980 I have been seeing more and more "tax cut and spend"(ing) by our government, with larger and larger deficiets, with the exception of the country under the Clinton years. There we ended up with a budget surplus under a "fiscally irresponsible" Democratic government, which was then squandered by a "fiscally responsible" Republican government, under GW Bush. Again, it was the Democrats that took the fiscal responsibility of budget control where you spend less then you make away from the Republicans. Republicans who wanted more and more tax breaks given to large companies and those in the upper class. Democrats wanted to balance out the tax burden, by increasing capital gain taxes on these companies and to tax those in the upper tax brackets more, to give financial relief to the middle class, recognizing after 20 years that 'trickle-down' Reagonomics does not work. But, still government has grown, and buracracy has bloated, regardless of many political promises of less. Again, this just made me take one or two more steps to the left from where I was originally.

Less Regulation. We are seeing what that has led to, especially in the financial and housing markets. Regulation is not always a bad thing. Yes, there are instances of over the top and ridiculous regulation (90% of OSHA, imo), but that doesn't mean that we should just let companies do whatever they want. You like clean air? You like clean drinking water? That comes from regulation. Sure, I think there needs to be a common sense approach taken to such things, and that we do need to find the line between what is best for the financial health of the companies and the well being of the public at large. There can be a middle ground where both benefit. I hope.

One ground where I see this more often is in the gun ownership issue. I have no problem with gun ownership by citizens. I own a number of handguns myself. I have no problem with filling out paperwork and waiting for my handgun. I am never in such a rush where I HAVE TO have my gun RIGHT NOW! (Unless I am getting robbed, or shot at, but we are talking about regular purchases here, not pulling the weapon from a holster or gun safe). With anything that is dangerous, be it a gun or a motor vehicle, there are regulations that we often have to follow. If I have to take a drivers safety class in order to get my vehicle drivers license, I see no reason why I should not also have to take a safety course for handling my weapons. If I have to register and license my Charger, I see no reason why I should not have to do the same with my Kimber. Adversely, I am not going to be driving a Nascar racecar or a pro-fuel dragster on the city streets, nor am I needing to be taking a fully automatic AK-47 or SKS type deer hunting. Sure, they would be fun to drive and fire, but there are places that are dedicated for such activities where the safety of everyone involved (watchers and participants) are taken into account, and the proper fees and licenses are paid. Thus, I am not saying that such things should be "illegal", but there would be lots of hoops to jump through and will not be cheap to own and operate them.

Individual Liberty. I am all for this, to a point. I think that as long as what I do doesn't affect anyone else adversely, then I have that right to do what I would like. However, too often we have those that think that we have the right to do whatever we like in the "pursuit of happiness". Well, what about other people's happiness? If my pursuit interferes with their pursuit, which pursuit wins out? If my pursuit of 1000 watt AC/DC headbanging joy interfers with someone's realm of peace and quiet, who wins? If I am 5 miles from my nearest neighbor, there is probably no issue there. But, if I in the next door apartment, there will be probably lots of issues, as well as lots of calls to the (over worked and under staffed - see above) police department for disturbance of the peace. What about my rights to worship as I like? Will I have a mob of fundamentalist christians beating at my door if I am a muslim, calling me a terrorist or such? We too often forget that these liberties are liberties for all, not just those we agree with, but to those that we disagree with as well. Thus, I have the right to run a website dedicated to a genre that many people would find disturbing, and many would want it to be closed down because it is seen as mysogistic and disrespectful and/or harmful to women. Freedom of speech is seen as a inalieable right of the American public by most, and many will fight and die to make sure that such remains such... as long as they agree with the particular speech.

This is one where I have heard the most dissent with and against others, it seems. The Right complaining about what the Left says about them, and the Left complaining what the Right says about them. Then there is those that think that they can say whatever they want, because they have such "freedom of speech", even if what they say isn't true, and they know that it isn't true. We have seen too much of this in the last several years, and I hope that people will investigate such things more for their own edification and education then just depend on a far left or a far right blogger or "news" source for their "facts". You cannot get a good world view from one or two 6 second sound bites. Too often I have heard people saying that they will vote for this person because of one issue, or not vote for someone else because of that issue, as if there are only one or two issues that affect our lives. We do not live in a black and white world, as much as many people would like us to. We cannot go back to the "good ole days" of 1956, where mom was always in the kitchen, and dad came home every day at 5:30pm in his suit and tie after a day at the office. This is not a white collar society where we can keep our doors unlocked and the keys left in the ignition. Mom now needs to work to help pay the bills, and Dad may stay up till 11:30 at night at the blue collar factory job, neither one seeing each other more then 3 hours a week, coming and going. And certainly not watching Junior, who is now going into those other houses, and taking off with those cars where the keys were left in the ignition, because there was no one home to teach him right from wrong, or to discipline him when he did something wrong (much easier to pass the blame to someone else, anyway).

Needless to say, there really were no "good old days". I am sure that there would be quite a few people that will have a thing to say about civil rights during that time. Just because the times were good for one class of people, doesn't mean that the times were so hot for other folks. This is as true in the 1980s as the 1880s as the 1280s as the 800s, I am sure.

I think that this particular area is a "push" between the Democrat and the Republican platforms. I have seen the book banning from the Right balanced out by the overly cautious PC ineptitudes from the Left. The Lair has been affected more by the 2257 laws which was brought about from the need to "protect the children" by any and every means possible, including those means that are over the top and unnecessary if we were to all just have a modicum of common sense and personal responsility and less regulation and government.

Finally, Rule of Law. In a sense, I just complained about that in the paragraph above. The 2257 is the law that I do have to follow if I were to use images that protray sexual activity between 'real' people. As the regulations are a pain in the ass, I have decided not to go through all the hoops and loops in order to post such material. Now, that is not me dismissing or disrespecting the law, but respecting it enough that instead of disobeying the rules set forth in the 2257, I instead choose to place myself outside of it's parameters by excluding such material.

Too often we hear of others that if they do not agree with they law, that they choose to ignore the law, and thus break it when they perform that activity which is stated, or in a manner which is against the law. Nowadays, there are so many rules and laws, that it is often very hard not to break a rule/law, even accidentally. Indeed there are many "blue laws" on many a law book that have been in place for decades, if not centuries, that are now just ignored by the law enforcement agencies, because the judicial agencies are much too busy with "real" crimes to do what is needed with the legislative agencies to remove those laws from the books. Though, sometimes such laws are taken advantage from time to time when a person is wanted to be arrested by the local police agency, but there is no 'current' crime on which to pursue the subject with.

Anywho, I think this subject is less about rules and regulations, as it is about responsibility of the law and respect of rules. I have been of a mind that we, as a sociality, are becoming more of a social animal, where the whole of society is seen as responsible for the acts of an individual, rather then the individual being responsible for himself and his own acts, as well as for the well being of the society. When someone spills coffee on their laps, no longer do we say that it is our dexterity at fault, but the fault of the server of the coffee, the maker of the coffee cup, and the facility where the coffee was served. We are a society that wants to be paid for the mistakes that we make, rather then to learn from them so that we do not make them again. We are raised in the atmosphere that we can do whatever we want and like, because we have every "right" to be happy. There are no losers in the races we run, only 2nd or 3rd or last "winners". We grow up believing that if the homework is too tough, that we will have our parents do it for us, but even if they don't, that is okay, because we won't flunk anyway. There are only guidelines that we may have to sometimes listen to, but we do not have to follow any sorts of rules or laws while growing up, because that is too restrictive. And, if we do something wrong, the worst thing that may happen to us, is that we are put into "time out" for a few minutes.

There is no longer any "rule of law" as much as there is a "recommendation of advice". Then, when we grow up and join the "real world", we expect the same thing as we received in school or at home. We as a society should really not be surprised when we are faced with people with little or no respect for others, or themselves. When we are forced to clean up behind these new social members who no longer know how to clean up after themselves, let alone clean up after others. I grew up in the "Me me me" generations, and now we are in a world of "We better straighten up and fix this f***ing mess"!

The "rule of law" starts at home and is then transferred to the schools. They are what we grow up with, which molds us and then guides us into the future. We are finding out that our futures are very hazardous now, both financially and morally, because of the decisions that we made in the 60s and 70s, which have now given root to a generation who is wondering how they got where they are, and what is it that they can do about those children that are now social misfits, or worse. Our prisons are full to the brim, and we are looking at younger and younger criminals to put into them.

Why? Because there is no longer the "rule of law" to guide them. On this, I lean more to the Right, because much of this I see as more about the PC "everyone is a winner" type of attitude then anything else.

Well, hope this wasn't too much a mish-mash. I know that there is certainly more I can say on each of these subjects, as I am one that thinks things out, and many times actually changes my viewpoints depending on the information that I am given. Unlike a certain "Decider", I see nothing wrong with admitting when I am wrong, or to change my mind based upon new information. It is said that we, generally, become more conservative as time goes on and we get older. That is not something that I will disagree with, but one must realize how much of this conservative base is set upon a foundation that was built in the 50s 60s and 70s, before there was the day of the internet with the constant flow of ever changing information. The conservative base of today was formed upon the platform of the newspapers where information was at least 12-18 hours old, if not older, and Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in the country, when television news was just that, without the current political colorizing. Of course, then we had the whole of a story, and our populace was better read and better educated, because they did not form any opinion just on a few soundbites that were played over and over and over again, until a statement of fact is formed from it, regardless of truth or context.

But, I like to think of myself as an older dog that can learn new tricks. That before ignored politics, and is now listening more to what is being said, from a number of different sources. And, though I see myself as primarily a Democrat, I do know that politics is politics and there are times when the truth isn't always known, and sometimes even ignored for political purposes by all parties.

Now, I know I can certainly go on and on and on about all this, because reams of books have been written by many folks on each subject, and I am certainly not going to challenge any of them intellectually on any of these matters. But, this is the way that I feel at this time. And I am thankful that I live in a place that allows me to put out such opinions, without (too much) fear of ending up in some gulag!

Happy Thanksgiving !

(Originally posted November 26, 2008 on Yahoo 360)