Here are my opinions on the issues after a quick rant. Doesn't this look epic? I expect several "Too long didn't read," comments.
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I'm confused, why do people call others uneducated if they don't agree with you? I've seen several Republicans and Democrats use the phrase, it's rubbish.
Does education level mean anything with whom you decide to vote for? No, you guys are referring to being educated about the issues. Many voters are actually educated about the issues. People care about different issues more strongly. If one party is more in line with your beliefs and worries then chances are you'll stick to that party. I trust that everyone is intelligent if they choose to use that intelligence to vote for the other guy that is great! at least they voted.
I disagree strongly with most of the Democrats platform. The issues that I worry the most about are Health Care, Taxes, Government Spending and Abortion rights. My views aren't that of the Republicans or of the Democrats but my views align more closely with Republicans so I am forced to vote for the better of the two choices. If I had my way we'd have a Libertarian representative in office, less government and more personal responsibility ftw.
Here is a list of the issues from ontheissues.org and my personal thoughts:
Abortion - I am pro-choice . . . Wear a condom! Take some personal responsibility before you get pregnant. Everyone can get birth control regardless of their income. I'd rather see people taking responsibility for their own mistakes rather than getting an abortion after they were irresponsible. In cases of rape or the life and welfare of the mother . . . this is where I am truly pro-choice (you didn't have a choice beforehand so you get a choice after).
Budget & Economy - The government needs money for only a few things. Protection (weapons), public service maintenance (roads, police, jails, infrastructure organizations, etc.) Administrative costs.
Civil Rights - This is the place where more gay people think I should care a lot, but I'm happy with my lot in life. I know most states won't let me get married. There are rules and laws elsewhere that I use to compensate for that. This makes me a more educated and prepared individual. I will have a Living Will, and a trust fund leaving stuff to my chosen partner. I will have legal rights given to them in case of injury. My family will know not to mess with any of my choices. I will be able to have all the same responsibilities but at a greater cost. This will help the relationship last because more is at stake. A marriage license gives me all of these other things at a smaller cost but that is okay, I can live without it. Who wants to be married? 50% of married people get divorced. If I don't get married I can't get divorced. Much cleaner breakups IMHO. "All men are created equal," just because others people don't agree doesn't diminish the truth in the statement. I don't need validation from the government, I only need a tolerance and loop hole in the laws.
Corporations - "No you are too big, time to split up into smaller companies. There you go now go have some fun with competition I need something better than the Iphone next year." Here again local governments can handle everything until appealed to higher courts.
Crime - Not much to argue with here. This is a problem that can be solved by dealing with other social issues.
Death Penalty - I added this topic. On average, it costs more than 2 million dollars to kill someone. It is far far cheaper to keep them imprisoned for the rest of their lives. From an economical standpoint we can spend government money better by simply imprisoning people instead of killing them. If you get enough violent people in jail the people will die younger anyway, right?
Drugs - The best control is legalizing drugs then the government can control the production, transportation and sales of everything like they do in many states with alcohol.
Education - I'd like to see more education privatized. The cost of government administration is too high. School districts don't need more than 6 administrative staff in most cases. We can invest less Administrative money into education and see better results. (Its been a long time belief of Democrats to toss more money at things and hope they go away. Toss people that invest their own time and money in something like a private business and you'll see the improvement).
Energy & Oil - Stop with the green energy, well not all at once now. Most "green" energy is fiscally economical because it is already subsidized by the government, without that all you see is windmills dotting mountainsides with very little energy production and no profit to be had. Windmills cause an unreasonable amount of forest clearcutting. Trees are a wind suppressant and when you build a windmill the forest next door needs to go. Oops, this new wind energy is now taking up thousands upon thousands of acres for less reliability and less power output.
When the sun doesn't shine solar power needs more coal plants to back it up. We need more nuclear energy for the electrical grid and the rest can supplement that. Too bad the environmentalists messed up there, not to mention an accident at 5 mile island. Technology for nuclear power is very advanced now, the safety on a modern nuclear power plant rivals the safety locks on Susy's Chastity belt.
We can run anything at lower capacity during windy, overcast days. That is a great supplement to peak hours during the day. With nuclear power we can worry less about carbon emissions, land consumption (our most limited resource on earth, land) and oil dependancy.
Wind and Solar plants often need to be built in remote areas which makes transmitting the power a nightmare. This takes up more land and we may lose energy along the way due to various issues with the electrical grid.
For Oil concerns please research the effects of supply and demand. The tree hugging hippies are helping us there, with the lack of oil refineries being built over the last couple decades we have seen higher demands without an increase in supplies. We are being forced to follow the "green" initiatives throughout the country in order to compensate for the lack of supplies and increase in prices. Too bad the "war for oil" never panned out. I was promised cheaper gas you Dems, where is it?
Environment - We make a difference and we should reduce, reuse, and recycle. I'm looking for a candidate that will not focus on this issue as much as the media is today. We have larger fish to fry! The larger corporations have been regulated and continue to be. I think we have gone far enough on this front to be comfortable and tackle other issues.
Families & Children - I have lots of good, cheap ideas here. Personal responsibility is a good place to start and with that comes a flat tax, no more tax breaks for people who decide to have kids.
Foreign Policy - Protect our Country. Follow the Geneva convention, help our allies. Make good friends.
Free Trade - Protect our country from the evil Chinese lead based paint on toys and I think we are good there. Less taxes are always a nice incentive to have babies. Perhaps they are helping other countries make babies with the USA (the visual is funnier in my head).
Government Reform - Less is more! Stop making programs for programs for programs. That's irresponsible spending. Consolidate like any other company would. Layoffs and discipline for bad spending behavior is part of every company the government should hold itself to the same standards. Have we thought of outsourcing more of our government jobs to private companies? To stop scandals all we have to do is stop politicians from doing anything with the contracted companies. Separating them should be simple enough
Gun Control - Yes control guns, know who has them, who buys them and who can use them. Take the rest away, if you aren't getting a gun legally you aren't getting it for the right reasons.
Health Care - Better health care plans start in the work place. We live in a society that spends money competitively. We shop for cheaper prices in everything we do but not for health care. We have an insurance based system where you, the consumer, put money into a fund and then IF something happens to you (something will happen to you) then you petition with forms to that fund to withdraw money to pay the doctors.
This is ludicrous, I can invest all those insurance premiums and have a nice fat nest egg of medical coverage when I finally need it at age 60. On top of that I can still invest in an insurance program and a significantly lower rate to cover the major medical problems I might run across. Fewer people will use that insurance so I will be covered hoping I'll never need to use it. The rest of my health care will come from the money I saved and invested properly for my own health. The real kicker is, I am more worried about my investment in health. Chances are most people will be more conscientious about there health and will lead healthier lives.
Homeland Security - More legalized immigration, the caps for immigration are too low, the requirements are too high. We can document everyone and collect more in taxes if we make more people productive members of our society. Basically we have too many Americans on probation and the CL (called America) promotes them way too late in the game. We need to be better organized to have better security. If we document everyone then we can control the people who are breaking the rules more effectively.
Immigration - This goes with documenting our people in the USA. If we allow more people to come in and better documentation of those people then we can become more secure in our country. When police receive an illegal alien into their system then that person should be deported or reported to the Homeland Security (INS, Immigration and Naturalization Service)
Infrastructure & Technology - This is a place where I've seen the private sector fail. They charge us, the consumer, for progress in the communication infrastructure. We have seen very small strides in increasing bandwidth for information. I am unaware of any way to solve this and I'm interested in hearing of a fresh idea to help out. I know that some community leaders have invested local monies to improve the information infrastructure to offer true 100mbs connections to businesses and residents at substantially cheaper ($10-15/month) rates than most of our 1.5-5mbs (max) connections. All of our electricity and transmission is pretty much privatized and we are seeing more regulation for it (which is a good thing in that industry, less power outages is nice. Remember New York a few years ago? That problem could have been prevented if they were following the rules and regulations of the voluntary regulation programs set up by the electrical industry). Road construction I know little about and from what I see we could probably shop around for better construction times and more effective maintenance.
Jobs - Layoff more government employees. Make them find useful, productive jobs. Create a flat tax so the country can stop wasting 1/3 of its time on paying taxes. We need to create more productive jobs and excise the less productive jobs such as tax cleric.
Principles & Values - Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Our values are written in the preamble and it is our job to decide if those values are being betrayed. If they are then that candidate is probably not the best choice. Although, that candidate may still be the best choice, sadly.
Social Security - What a joke! I'd rather be forced to invest this money myself, I'll see all of it when I retire and the government will have people being more responsible with their earnings. I am angered that money I pay in gets payed out the instant it goes in. This is a nationwide scam to take my money (not quite hard earned money, but it's still mine). I'll never see Social Security when I retire and nobody else will.
Tax Reform -
1. Flat Tax
2. Flat Tax
3. Flat Tax
4. Flat Tax
5. Flat Tax
6. Flat Tax
etc.
etc.
War & Peace - War is needed. The world is not mature enough to end it so we must continue to fight until the time is here to end war. I am for peace but it is unrealistic to think that we are done with fighting.
Welfare & Poverty - Support the poor to help them become self sufficient. The welfare system takes away responsibility from the people. This is the peoples problem and the government cannot fix it. If the government has no programs then the people take that responsibility back. Our society needs to lift up our impoverished people and get them to be productive members again. We need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, mend the sick. One thing I admire about Jesus was his immense charity toward the poor. This is one place the government needs to fail or our society will never care about the poor bums down at the local park, the government is taking our money to help them.
