The Presidential Campaign

Posted by melodieshouse on October 10, 2008

Politics is a very touchy area for me that I’ve avoided for the life of this blog for several reasons:

1) I don’t want a highly polarized flame war in the comments section.

2) The real issues at stake in this country are always ignored in the face of all the “politicking” going on, what’s the point of bringing this up again for the six millionth time?

3) I was raised Pentecostal and Pentecostals are aligned with the Christian Right – those who choose a candidate on the sole basis of moral issues that I’ve never felt government should be involved in – you know: abortion, school prayer, creationism taught as science, gay rights/marriage. That means they vote Republican almost without exception and I’ve had more than my fill of hearing pastors and evangelists issuing condemnation from the pulpit on anyone who votes for a Democrat or any pro-choice candidate. I mean outright saying you’re not a Christian. I’m still trying to live down this part of my upbringing. The Republican party has capitulated to their demands (anyone remember the influence of the Moral Majority in the 80′s and the Christian Coalition in the 90′s on politics?) but is really only giving lip service to “family values” to get their votes.

However, I find that this time around I have to go ahead and speak my mind, because I’m going to have a chronic case of nausea and vomiting that will last until Election Day if I hold it in any longer.

Both of my parents grew up during the Depression and Roosevelt era, so their personal politics was based on venerance of FDR. They were also both from North Carolina. Therefore, they voted Democrat. My dad didn’t go to church, but my mom and I did. However, my mom still chafed at the strong Republican slant in church and both my parents felt politics shoud be kept out of the pulpit. Therefore, even my mom still voted Democrat, and when I was old enough to vote, I did too. My parents were of the feeling that the Democratic Party is the party of the common man, and the Republican Party is the party of corporations and big business. They thought (mostly my dad) that Republicans get all the big lobby money and contributions from big business. Growing up I really didn’t know what conservative or liberal means, though the terms were batted around a lot by broadcast media and even more in church. All I knew was Liberal=Democrat=Evil, and Conservative=Republican=Good and Holy.

It was in my AP (Advanced Placement) U.S. History class while preparing for the AP History exam (I was a HS junior) that I learned conservativism and liberalism are philosophies on how to interpret and apply the Constitution. They have NOTHING to do with abortion or gay rights. Conservatism is the belief that the letter of the Constitution should be interpreted literally; it is a document for all time. Liberalism is the belief that the Constitution is a flexible document; its meaning changes with the times and can be interepreted and applied less literally. (Replace Constitution with Bible and you get conservatism vs. liberation theology in the churches.) Liberalism in politics keeps turning more and more power and responsibility over to the government that was not defined in our Constitution. Conservatism wants to return these additional powers and responsibilities to the states and to the citizens. For instance, the Constitution does NOT provide for a Department of Education or No Child Left Behind policy. Aaron Monts asked what the difference is between conservative and liberal in his blog //re:generate and got the same answer from the first commenter, Adam Lehman, who also posed the same question in his blog Ramblings of Passion.

So, based on the explanation above of what conservative and liberal is, I have to say that our current President is liberal, even if he is a Republican, and so is John McCain. There’s no question Barack Obama is a liberal. I would even have to say most Republican congressmen and women, senators, and state legislators are liberal too. Actually, they may be defined as neoconservatives, which are big government conservatives, or conservatives influenced and informed by liberalism. To me, a politician who supports big government (more spending, creating more bureaucracies) cannot call themselves a conservative.

Which brings me to the issue of the big financial bailout bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. This legislation should have never become law because:

1) the Constitution doesn’t allow for it.
2) it’s counter-capitalist – it interferes with free markets forces.
3) we the taxpayers are paying for this in addition to adding to our deficit which means our children will still be paying for this many years later.
4) it teaches the businesses that got themselves into this mess nothing positive – they can practice business anyway they want and when it backfires instead of being allowed to collapse, they can just get help from Uncle Sam and do the same thing over again a few years later.
5) the additional $150 BILLION in pork-barrel spending added on that had NOTHING to do with the bailout whatsoever in the second version of the legislation, that of course we all have to pay for.
6) after the Fed. Govt. buys up all those bad mortgages, then what? Do they really think this will “cure” all those defaults? This is only a good deal if most all of these loans are repaid. Otherwise, the losses are just being passed from the banks to the taxpayers.

This all really makes me sick to my stomach. But what makes me even sicker is that John McCain voted FOR both versions of the bailout bill. If I vote for him next month, it’s only because voting for the Libertarian candidate is giving a vote to Obama. However, if Ron Paul was on the ballot, it wouldn’t make any difference, I’d vote for him.