Expect more stuff along these lines, which hopefully will get better over time as I write more. If you don't care about America's politics because you don't live there, good for you. If you do live there and you don't care, then I ask of you: get off your apathetic behind and start giving a shit, this is important.
Issues with America's Political System 1 by Mac Clevinger - January 16, 2016
The viewing of the State of the Union address followed by reading some quotes from the recent GOP debate has left me wanting to reflect on the state of America’s political system. Primarily upon the two political parties, how black and white they seem to be in comparison to one another, and in each party’s usefulness to the government and its people.
The GOP debate is the meeting of Republican nominees to discuss issues and promote their image sufficiently to advance along the ranks in the hope of eventually becoming the one Republican nominee for Presidency, where they will meet the nominee for the Democratic party and they will duke it out for the people to decide which candidate they want to be president. Technically, this is not narrowed down to one or the other; third party individuals can run as Independent and could, technically, win if they had enough support, but for the past couple centuries it has always come down to one Democrat and one Republican fighting for the throne.
A Republican presidency will typically lead to conflicts with other countries, an increase in America’s debt, and fewer government sponsored programs to help its own citizens in need, as well as ending in progress programs. They have a seemingly arbitrary agenda that does not coincide with helping the country’s people, instead chasing down personal grievances for conflicts they have no real reason to be a part of no matter the cost, both economically and in human life. Their regard for delicate political situations, working with other countries for mutual problems, or getting on board with the rest of the world on a clear crisis doesn’t seem to be as present as it is for more open-minded candidates often found in other parties. This is not to say the Republicans could not put forward a strong nominee that could, potentially, be a better choice than the Democratic choice, but the batch they have this year don’t seem to be in that category.
A Democratic presidency has been in place for the previous eight years, a certain Barack Obama being the one to hold that position. Coupled with my understanding of the presidency held before the most recent George W. Bush’s, I feel that a Democratic Presidency is one that moves a country out of debt, has stronger foreign relations, is abler to address new problems instead of denying their existence, creates more government sponsored/supported programs to help their citizens, and seeks to end conflicts rather than prolong them. The party has its flaws, a certain unwillingness and lack of drive, but the opinions they hold and the goals they seek are for the good of the people, largely. Again, this is not to say the Democrats could not put out a weak or unwanted nominee, I am sure many have issue with how their narrowing down of political choice goes every election year, but looking back on recent history, a Democratic presidency led to far less national debt than the following Republican presidency, and such comparisons could be made in other fields as well.
The third and most important factor in all this would be the people actually voting for either nominee: The citizens of America whose votes decide which man or woman we will see in office after a rigorous period of voting. Complexities arise in this, however, because they do not speak with one voice. They speak with thousands upon thousands, millions of different opinions coming from different backgrounds saying different things and somehow coming to a decision about who is going to lead them all. In a close election, one nominee just barely winning out, only half of the people would get what they wanted. The other half would have to deal with a president they neither wanted nor voted for, controlling the political direction of their country for four years. America is a union of fifty states each made up of its thousands to millions of citizens, each with their own, individual needs and issues to be addressed, that have to come together to find one person to lead all of it along a single path, regardless of how it may affect each individual. This makes the worthiness of a nominee critical to the American people, someone able to satisfy all the needs of the entire country, not just their hometown or home state, and especially not just their own interests and needs.
With an election looming in America, it is important to understand and value the three parts to the coming events: The Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the citizens voting for each. There is an issue in this, however, as the government is bipartisan. Two parties with very different ideas of how to run this country, and yet we had a Democratic presidency followed by a Republican followed by a Democratic. With two parties that so strongly oppose one another’s views, how is it that the voter base is able to swing back and forth so strongly? Why are they limited to only two choices that are set so far on the two extremes?
When it comes election time, often the question is not ‘who are you voting for?’, but instead ‘which party are you voting for?’. The running of a country is such a complicated and delicate thing, how is it that only two options are available for the people to pick between? No Independent candidate has been voted into office in two centuries, meaning that for nearly two hundred years citizens have been presented two opposite extremes between which they had to pick, no matter how they felt about ideas that conflicted with their personal ideology. It will be rare for the narrowing down process to result in a candidate whose views align with any large number of people, so citizens are forced to compromise their own beliefs to get part of what they want.
Due to this bipartisanship of politics, everything comes down to Democrat or Republican with actual ideologies pushed to be a second consideration. It has become so ingrained in the American people, that despite what some people want, they vote for the party they affiliate with as opposed to the candidate they actually believe should lead America. Nominees for the presidency will change their views and not act to their own beliefs to increase their chances of going on to be their party’s candidate, ignoring the needs of the people for what the party wants. Ignoring what is right so that they can get what they want. Compromising their own beliefs in the hopes of getting elected, by which point the change and good intentions they had carried with them will have dissolved and America will have another candidate spat out of the political machine, having forgotten why they ran in the first place.
The government serves the people, not itself. America forgets that very easily, and it leads to greed and self interest in those wielding power. Lobbyists that halt gun-control reform when children are dying; governors that do not give their citizens health care when it is free because of some insane personal belief; useless wars that end in the people dying while politicians use it to support their own careers… The American political system has many, many issues, which can only be fixed by putting the people into office that will do good there. Not just the presidency, but in local positions as well. It is the job of the citizens to ensure that the right people have power, and not to be apathetic towards their country and themselves while allowing corruption to run rampant in their backyard. The system is being abused, but it’s still in place to allow the people to decide who is allowed to do what. The American people need to turn things around before they lose the power given to them by their forebears, before corruption permanently engrains itself into the head of their political system and only a complete restart of the system is able to free them from the greed of misdirected fools.