Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Part 1 of a Politics Series

I'm gonna be doing a little series on how I feel about politics now, and then another one in a year or so when it actually matters...

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Since I usually identify myself as a libertarian, everyone's been saying I should vote for Ron Paul. It's unlikely. My biggest concerns with him are:

1. Against gay marriage and adoption, and in favor of "don't ask, don't tell. Admittedly with a Democratic Congress he wouldn't be able to do a lot of damage. But he could block legislation that could secure rights for homosexuals, even if it doesn't involve federal money. He wouldn't try to ban gay marriage at a federal level, but at the same time he wouldn't allow laws that would prevent states from invading people's private lives. I know it won't happen for a long time, but we really need a constitutional amendment saying that the government cannot discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, same as we needed one that said they couldn't do it on the basis of race (There's not enough discrimination against women any more to warrant making that an amendment).

2. No federal money for schools. The one way in which I am really, truly not libertarian is that I think that we need to provide for children and the mentally handicapped or ill. But again, it's unlikely he would be able as president to decimate the federal school funding system, and on top of that at least he would push to repeal No Child Left Behind.

3. Anti-abortion. But he's agreed to leave the question of abortion to the states, which is something. With a Democratic Congress, which we will most likely have, that wouldn't be too disastrous.

4. He opposes the UN.


However, I agree with his fiscal and international policy ideas, and the concepts of state's rights and minimal intervention at the federal level. I've always felt that the only thing the federal government should enforce on the states are basic human rights and equality, and if necessary, protections for minors and the mentally handicapped/ill. Ideally the states would take care of the minors and mentally ill themselves, but they don't.

But I most likely won't vote for Ron Paul because of his stance on the rights of homosexuals, and I wouldn't vote for him anyway unless it looked like my vote didn't really matter in terms of keeping the religious right out of office.

3 comments:

Vivacia said...

hmmmmm--the other problem I see with him wanting to not fund schools is that the very school we attend may not be able to continue on as there wouldn't be enough money in our state's budget. Secondly, there wouldn't be money for public school. That wouldn't just affect the mentally handicapped, it will affect everyone who couldn't afford public school. And his desire to abolish the IRS? I feel like it would be irresponisble to get rid of taxes. Tax reform and tax code simplification are one thing, but flushing the system would be an issue.

Basiorana said...

The point, though, is that he COULDN'T do those things, he wouldn't have the power as president. He could only veto bills. The president can't exactly say "No taxes" and poof, the taxes are gone. No Congress, Republican or Democrat, is going to let him take away all taxes.

Part of the joy of a president like him would be his utter impotence do do really anything but decrease his own power. I think we really need a ... not WEAK, but certainly severely reduced in power, president. That would be a good way to undo a lot of the damage of recent administrations (not just Bush's, either, this goes back a long way).

Not that I agree with him. We need funding for schools, both state universities and public schools alike. If anything, schools need MORE funding.

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