Unintended Musings

It Began with Cookies

Typically I make a point to stay away from political discussions and debates.  Politics is one of the few areas where I typically don’t voice my opinions.  It’s not that I don’t have opinions, it just seems that it is the most prevalent area where people are extremely stubborn and ignorant.  I have witnessed political discussions quickly erupt into fights at family gatherings, and from experience it seems that is typically the outcome.  But let’s go back to my first exposure to politics.

It was during the election of 1996, that I first encountered the political world.  It was the first presidential election I remember being alive though I don’t think I understood much at that time.  Grown-ups ran the country and that was all that really mattered, it wasn’t my job.

I was in kindergarden at the time, and my teacher decided to teach us how democracy works, she was going to have us vote for the presidential candidates.  The question is, how do you get children to vote other than randomly?  We were still young enough where most of us had not yet been corrupted by our parents.  My teacher had the answer, cookies.

She declared a different type of cookie to be the favorite of each candidate, and the recipe used was his wife’s secret recipe (yes, gender roles were already being enforced, but that is an entirely different story).  And that wasn’t even the best part.  She had plates of cookies there!  All we had to do to vote was take a cookie.  Naturally the vast majority of kids took the chocolate chip cookies, which represented Bill Clinton.  Me, being a strange child who loved vegetables, I picked the unpopular oatmeal raisin cookie, which represented Bob Dole.  I think Ross Perot was a macadamia nut cookie, and I don’t remember if anyone even “voted” for him.  Who would have guessed that a kindergarden class could so accurately predict the election results?

Even as a five year old, I thought it was a stupid process.  But overall I was fine with it.  I was happy.  I had a freaking cookie, what else could I possibly want?

I went on to pass kindergarden (quite the achievement, though I still hold scissors incorrectly) and eventually took some government classes in school.  The Constitution was simple.  Surprisingly simple in fact.  What was there to get?  Balancing of the branches, such simple checks and balances to create a system designed to prevent tyranny and keep the power with the people.  The whole purpose of government is not to restrict, but to protect the freedoms of its citizens.  If the government fails this task, it has failed its primary purpose, and should be overthrown or reformed.  However, somewhere along the way, these ideals were corrupted.

The writers of the constitution warned against creating factions, yet these factions exist, parties as we like to call them.  It seems that the majority of people vote based on party, not on individual candidates.  Though the organizational aspect of aligning people with the same ideas makes sense, can we really claim that each person’s views can be fit into a single party in this two-party system that has taken over our government.  I think the clear answer is no.  Just look at the Republican primaries currently going on.  Even the politicians of the same party don’t agree on some very large issues.  Expand this small sample size to the entire population, and there would be even greater variance. 

Despite this obvious fact, people still vote based on party.  All they care about is keeping the opposing party out of office, many aren’t even aware of the candidate’s stance on issues.  This ignorance gets us nowhere and solves nothing.  Rather than getting the best politicians running, we elect unfit people into office just to try to be the majority party.  Without the dominant two-party system, this would not even be an issue.

It seems that the majority of government officials’ duties involve getting reelected.  The amount of money wasted campaigning is ridiculous in itself, but all the time spent campaigning is time that we, the taxpayers, are paying our representatives to “work” for us.  Congressmen aren’t even required to be present at all sessions of Congress, nor are they required to vote.  That would be like having a job, but being allowed to skip work whenever you felt like it and only do the tasks you felt like doing.  Checks to prevent this aren’t outlined explicitly in the system because they shouldn’t need to be.  If a Congressman fails to do his job, the people should not reelect him.  Yet again, the blame falls to the two-party system that encourages voter ignorance.

The government has drifted so far from the ideals of the Constitution it was built upon.  Overspending and waste are common, and the two-party system leads to stalemate and inefficiencies that are unacceptable.  It is not the job of the government to provide healthcare for everyone, nor is it the government’s job to provide anything except national defense, and the protection of its citizens’ freedoms.  Now this should not be interpreted in the sense that I do not think that we should try to provide for the poor or those in need in any way, but it just isn’t the government’s job to provide, it is ours as fellow human beings.  This should fall upon the responsibility of private organizations and institutions.  In fact, much of what the government currently does is is inefficient and ineffective.  In our capitalistic economic model, competition needs to exist to continually push progress and give power to the consumers.  Privatizing many of the government’s current jobs would be beneficial and help eliminate the waste and corruption.

Typically, I find it frustrating as a voter, when the candidates seem only interested in getting elected, and not genuinely interested in the issues or the responsibilities the job comes with.  Ron Paul is the only politician I know of that is worthy of the office of president (yes this is my endorsement, and probably one of the few that I shall ever give). His entire platform is based on bring the US government back to its Constitutional ideals.  He is the only politician I have seen with an actual concrete plan to reduce debt.  His voting record is one of the most consistent, clearly he is not swayed by trending or popular opinions.  Though he has certain views based on his religion and personal morals, he understands the necessary separation of church and state, and that though he may personally find something like abortion to not be moral, he stands by the view that this is not something that can be enforced by the government and is the choice of the woman, for it is her body, not the government’s.  Obama called for “change” his last election, but what we need is actual change, not the change of the party in power.  Just as the race, religion, and sex of our next president should not matter, neither should the party.  A candidate should be evaluated only on their political record and individual views and platform, not on their aligned party.

The government continues to move further away from Constitutional ideals.  It is about time that it gets back on track, and Ron Paul is the leader who can do that.  Though I would love to see this man become president, hopefully at the very least his ideas will be heard and received.  It is time for people stop complaining about those currently in office.  We put them there.  We are the ones with the actual power, and with that power we can bring forth change.

**Disclaimer: The views in this are entirely mine, and hopefully are explained clearly enough such that they are not misconstrued or understood incorrectly out of context. There are probably typos and errors in this as it is a long piece, so I apologize for any that you may come across.

Also, if you got this far (and scrolling to the bottom to check for length doesn’t count) you are awesome in my book.  I have been told in the past that plaques should be awarded for such an achievement, and though I can’t promise a plaque you can have your choice of a gold star or pat on the back.  Plaques are lame, bow ties are cool.