Ok, one person in the electorate. In this very long Presidential campaign season we hear a lot about what the people want. Rather than being told what I want, I thought I would post it. If by some fluke a candidate stumbles upon this post, just know that I know what I want for my country and I don’t need some elitist politician to tell me what direction I want this country to go in.
Here are some of the issues as I see them:
- Immigration – Reform it!
End illegal immigration. Most of us are descendants of immigrants, if not immigrants ourselves. My family all came over from Europe shortly after Lincoln’s War. However, they all did so legally. They got in line and followed the rules. To allow anyone to enter the country in any way they choose would be an insult to my ancestors, and can only serve to damage our country as a whole. People who go through the necessary steps to come here legally are invested in the process and are motivated to become integrated into American culture, and integration is absolutely necessary for the future of America.
Measures should be taken to stop illegal immigration from happening. Those who make it through should be deported as soon as they are discovered. By no means should any of them receive the benefits of our overly-generous social programs. Illegal immigrants should not receive free health care, education, food stamps, welfare, housing, or anything else that this country has to offer. If an illegal immigrant shows up in a hospital, they should not be told that payment for services will be taken care of for them, they should get minimal care to preserve life before being deported to their home countries as soon as is practical.
- Abortion – End it!
In 2007-2008, with the knowledge we have of DNA and Genetics, there should be no question that an embryo/fetus is a distinct human being. Ending the life of that human being for any reason is murder. Rape, incest, and life of the mother are not reasonable exceptions. In the case of rape and incest, no other human being is legally killed for the crime of a parent, and an unborn child should be no exception. In the case of the life of the mother, both lives need to be preserved at all costs. Human life is precious, and killing one to save another is unacceptable. However, if one is to die in the process of attempting to save them both, and its death absolutely cannot be avoided, no crime is committed.
I would prefer that abortion were ended completely and immediately. However, I realize that the only way abortion may be practically wiped out is by employing the same incrementalist approach that my political opponents use. The banning of “partial-birth” abortions recently, and the SCOTUS decision to aphold the ban is one very small step in the right direction. A little at a time is better than nothing at all, and the last thing I want to see in a leader is an all-or-nothing approach that until now has led to nothing.
- Health Care – Release it!
Do not restrict it. The best way to fix the problem is to get out of the way and allow the market to take care of it. In the past half-century, the government’s solution to every health care problem so far has been to replace it with a bigger problem. I’m sorry, you’re fired! No more solutions.
I have read recently of general practitioners opening their own offices and accepting cash only. Business thrives for them because they do not have to spend half of their days filling out paperwork and following the bureaucratic red tape of insurance companies. This allows them to charge rates that all but the poorest people can afford. For those that cannot afford health care, the government should get out of the way of non-profit organizations to fill in the gap. The only intervention that is acceptable from government is to restrict the punitive damages allowed in malpractice lawsuits. The insurance costs that doctors pay is becoming prohibitive, and that is directly related to the fear of being sued.
Stop requiring coverage for any and every infirmity. In my home state of Minnesota, it is illegal for a person to enter into a health care agreement with a provider if that coverage doesn’t include many rare and sometimes cosmetic infirmities such as port-wine stain (made famous by former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gobachev). The government has no business involving itself in private contract law. It needs to get out of the way and allow people to chose what they wish their insurers to cover.
- Frivolous Lawsuits – Eliminate them!
Frivolous lawsuits have done nothing to benefit our great country. Everything sold now has warnings on it to inform the intellectually deficient among us how to avoid harm. Products and services cost more than they should because of the retainers held by companies in anticipation of lawsuits. Our culture has become grossly over-litigious, and it needs to stop before we kill ourselves.
The single best way to do so without needlessly restricting freedom or inhibiting legitimate lawsuits is a loser-pays system. No one should be allowed to sue anyone if they are not willing to pay their opponent’s legal bills if they lose. If a lawsuit is legitimate, the plaintiff will not be afraid to go ahead because the defendant will be required to pay their legal fees, and it would encourage them to hire the best lawyers, regardless of the costs associated with those lawyers. The only reason not to go to loser-pays is to protect the jobs of bad lawyers, whom the market would force out.
- The Electoral System – Fix it!
I am by no means alone in the feeling that the system is badly broken and wrought with fraud. Between dead people voting, districts with more turnout than registered voters, motor-voter laws that encourage non-citizens (and in many cases illegal aliens) to vote, same-day voter registration – which encourages people to vote at multiple precincts, laws that forbid requiring identification to vote, electronic voting machines that leave no paper trail, and whatever else may be going on that we haven’t heard in the news – people like me are giving up on the system in droves. We are constantly told that we need to vote, and that our voices need to be heard, but when my ballot is canceled out by a fraudulent vote, there is no incentive to even show up. Yes Mr./Ms. Politician, it may mean that you are voted out of office because you didn’t get the benefit of fraudulent votes, but if you care more about the good of the Republic than about your own power it will be worth the sacrifice to you.
- Education – Get out of it!
Like so many other issues, this is an area where the federal government is unconstitutionally involved when it shouldn’t be. The federal government has no business funding education in any way, and it has no business regulating it in any way. They have done nothing to benefit the education system in this country. Eliminate the Department of Education, as one party has been promising to do since the 1980’s.
If a politician from my state government sees this, what you need to do is get out of the way. The monopoly that the government has on education would not be allowed for one second if it were any private entity that held such monopoly. If you absolutely must be involved in funding the schools, the least you could do to fix a terrible system is to encourage competition by allowing parents to use the money allocated to their child at the school of their choosing, rather than the use-it-or-lose it that requires them to use the government school or pay twice. There have yet been no arguments for maintaining the status quo that pass muster.
The amount of funding is also ridiculous. In Minnesota, and on the national level, the average per-pupil expenditure is $10,000 per year. The average class size is around 30 +/-. That works out to an average of $300,000 per classroom. Education also amounts to roughly half of the state budget. I am sorry, but there is no excuse for spending that much money, and certainly no logical reason why you would need more. It smacks of abuse and horrible fiscal irresponsibility.
- Welfare – Eliminate it!
There is no reasonable explanation for it. Those who don’t have, want. They cannot take, or they would be thieves, guilty of a crime. Hiring you to do it for them makes them no less a thief, and makes you a party to their crime. If those who have wish to help those who don’t, they will. They will do so in much greater numbers if you would get out of their way, and steal less of their money before they have a chance to give. America has the richest poor people in the world, and it is because their government robs hard-working people blind in order to give them that which they have not earned. It harms those who have, and it disincentivizes those who don’t have from ever working for that which they desire.
- Social Security and Medicare – Phase them out!
They are indentured servitude, plain and simple. Encouraging people not to plan for retirement by promising them to provide them an income after they quit working is nothing but a drain on the economy and a ponzi scheme that is doomed to collapse under it’s own weight. It is also, like most of the things the federal government involves itself in, unconstitutional.
I understand that it would be catastrophic to simply eliminate these programs immediately. Therefore, I am calling for a phase out, or at the very least a gradual transfer to the states. The U.S. Constitution does not allow it, but leaves it to the states. Those who wish to continue this broken system, they are free to do so at the state level. Those of us who wish to see it eliminated can move to states that opt out of socialized retirement plans.
- War –Stop it!
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were never formally declared as is required by the Constitution. Why war wasn’t declared in Afghanistan is beyond me as most of the country supported it, so declare the war. The war in Iraq broke a country, so fix it and get out. I couldn’t care less how their new government is run; whether it’s a “democracy” or benevolent dictatorship, just don’t ask me to pay for a war that is undeclared. I supported going in to remove Saddam after he violated the cease-fire agreement from the first Gulf War, but we never declared it as we should have, and we should never have redefined the mission to include unattainable goals like creating a Utopian democracy in the heart of the dictatorship-riddled Middle East. While we’re at it, don’t we still have troops in Kosovo and Bosnia? Why? We never declared those wars either, and should bring those boys home immediately. From now on, go to war only with those who attack us directly or are threatening imminent attack, and declare it when we do go to war.
- The North American Union – Avoid it!
Any attempt by our politicians to cede any of the sovereignty of the United States to a super-national body is treasonous, and any politician who does not actively work to prevent the creation of a government body above the U.S. Constitution is a traitor. Such traitor should be immediately removed from office and tried for treason. If found guilty, they should be swiftly executed.
The North American Union is nothing more than an end-run around the Constitution. The God-given rights that have been protected by this Constitutional Republic for 231 years will disappear swiftly under another government body. Freedom of Speech will be quickly limited so as to not allow dissent. Freedom of Religion will be strictly limited if not eliminated entirely, and Secular Humanism will become the official State Church (it is unofficially already.) The right to bear arms and the right to self-preservation wouldn’t last five minutes under a super-national government or pseudo-government. The right to private property would be officially eliminated (it has been unofficially for decades to say the least already.) The right not to be searched or have property seized without a warrant would be gone in no time. Kiss trial by a jury of your peers goodbye under an NAU. The only right protected by the Bill of Rights likely to have a chance under the NAU would be that which is protected under the third amendment: the right not to quarter soldiers, though I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I have more if you’re interested, but I think you get the point. Obey and uphold the U.S. Constitution! I know it’s hard, and often unpopular, but if you want my vote you will do it.