patrick.net

This may or may not be possible. But let's try something new. As seen on this site on a daily basis, both liberals and conservatives ( I am certainly not innocent of this) go back and forth in a non-ending game of blaming one side or the other for their problems or what they perceive to be the inferior wing ( left or right).

This is totally useless and nonconstructive. All that happens is that one person makes an intentionally inflammatory post to "get back" at the liberals/conservatives and then out come the charts, the catty name-calling, the use of political cliche's and catch phrases with the post eventually simply burning itself out in a big shouting match. Nobody walks away feeling good about it either.

So I'm going to start a new thread and the way this thread will work is that people who wish to participate can in very general terms describe what they feel would be an ideal situation as they envision the government and its inner workings as well as some of their own opinions concerning their core beliefs. Please don't be insulting, demeaning or otherwise simply nasty. If you post a response respectfully then you will receive respect in return. If I see any grossly offensive responses or name calling I will delete those posts.

So I will go first.

No.1, I feel that the vast majority of Americans are good, reasonable, decent people with strong moral compasses. I know for fact that on a daily basis having lived in the South and now Cali that regardless of political leanings most people I know or have met shared the vast majority of my beliefs as well. In most cases the difference of opinion were actually much less severe. Both the Liberal and Conservative positions, as represented in the news and media tend to be the extreme liberal/conservative views since its those people who yell the loudest who get all of the attention.

No.2 to me it seems that both "sides" have good aspects to their ideology. Some of these are similar but different in their execution. As a Southern guy it was almost expected that anyone who you saw broken down on the freeway meant you should pull over the help them- no matter who they were. There is a certain respect for family and in particular family elders as well. Liberals have long held the belief that all people no matter their background deserve the same rights, which in some ways is very similar.

As far as my personal, direct political beliefs I would underline them as follows.

A: To me the biggest issue right now is the effects of outside money influencing politics. There is a huge lobby and political organization/fund raising element to today's politics. Its made running for any office prohibitively expensive meaning no "ordinary" American could hope to run for President let alone even a local government position. This in turn means that our elected officials are perhaps more keen on pleasing their corporate backers than their constituency. I strong oppose outside money influencing the system and it were up to me, all of it would be abolished.

B: I strongly feel that all people, regardless of their race, sex, sexual preferences, religion and background deserve access and treatment via universal civil rights as guaranteed by the 14th amendment.

C: Today's news media is a joke. Since both now make money making news that is intentionally tilted towards either a right or left viewpoint means its no longer real journalism. Its more an unending editorial. The problem with that is viewers mistake this for news and use it as their "knowledge base" of politics. So the population becomes more ignorant and devoted to their one source of "news". This is irresponsible on part of those media companies who would rather make money selling garbage than a quality product.

D: People need to stop blaming each other for what's going on in Washington. The truth is that Congress and the Senate are in a gridlock and seldom is the news about them doing their jobs, which is to pass bills, debate, and otherwise perform the duties they were elected to do. In the meantime their constituency is so busy trying to blame each other ( those liberals! ) or- ( Those conservatives!) that the actual business in Washington is ignored. If there are those who are unhappy with the way things are in Washington, then go vote. Its really that simple.

E: I strongly feel that the financial woes of the country come from weak and ineffective financial strategies. I'm not a fan of taxes like the next guy but this seeming desire to never-ever raise them is in turn crippling the country in many ways from degraded schools and roads as well as non-stop budget shortfalls. I feel very much so that the taxation model we have now is grossly lopsided and benefits a very small minority whom if taxed fairly like the rest of us would drastically improve the overall financial health of the country. If there are some highly privileged citizens whom drive on our roads, use our bridges and send their kids to our schools as well as benefit from the protections of the world's largest military then they too should pay for the use of those at the same equally applied tax standards as the rest of us. To put this one step further, government should avoid attaching ideology to financial concerns. The economy moves at the speed of sound and by holding that process up with legislation that sometimes takes years to enact is impracticable and ineffective.

Anyway... that's all for now.