I don’t fall into any particular political party and I largely think the idea of political parties is crap. It’s one of the big things wrong with politics today. Politicians are more interested in serving their own party or their largest supporters than the people they govern. Here’s a quick summary of my beliefs along with some specific points:
If you take the two extremes (Democrats and Republicans), I’d be more left than right. Ultimately, I believe in freedom with the government looking after the interests of the majority. Corporations should not have more rights or benefits than people. The government’s job is to take care of the people, but not baby them. That means the government should provide the basics to children when necessary (education, health care, etc.), but if the parents want to send the child to private school, they can. The idea is to give everyone the basic footing necessary to be successful. It’s neither fair nor good for society to have children grow up without education and their health if we expect them to succeed. The government should be able to provide for people up until a certain age (18? 20?), and, after that, they should pay for a smaller and smaller portion (for instance, only pay 80% of healthcare or education that next year, then 60% the year after). That would give the younger population the necessities for success while weaning them from over-reliance on the government.
Budget
The government should be required to balance the budget every single year. We are spending about seven times more on paying interest on our debt than we are on education.
Tax Breaks
If tax breaks are given they should be given with future benefit in mind. For instance, we should not give tax breaks to oil companies; we should give tax breaks to companies that specifically research alternative energy sources (and much of that research is done in public universities…)
Election
The president should be elected based on the popular vote using a Borda Count. The electoral college unfairly makes the vote of a person in Wyoming worth far more than the vote of a person in California (almost four times as much). The president and vice president should not be chosen together and should not be allowed to run together.
Gun Control
Guns need to be controlled in the sense that felons and mentally unfit people should not be allowed to own them, but other of-age citizens should be allowed to have pistols, shotguns, etc. for defense (still maintaining a system of registration). Assault rifles and armor-piercing rounds should not be legal for the general public.
Affirmative Action
This is just racism/sexism against white males. Your gender and your race should not be considered for any job unless it is truly necessary (such as if an airport has to hire a female security officer, because they need to have one for same-sex pat-downs).
Military Action
The military is called the Department of Defense; that means no starting wars without the complete backing of the UN. That doesn’t mean we should keep troops just sitting around in the US; we can send them on humanitarian missions, providing relief from the increasing number of natural disasters. That way we actually have people who like us, possibly preventing future terrorist attacks from happening, and we will have more support (economic and political) from the rest of the world.
Appearance of Officials
The president, vice president, and all of the department secretaries should look and sound professional. Presentation is very important in a leader and can make a significant difference in the international community.
(Note: This page will be updated from time to time. If I make posts on any specific issues listed here, I will create links to them from this page.)