Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Well, in less than a week we American will head to the polls and send a new Congress to Washington and, here in Georgia, elect a Governor. On the national level, the mid-term elections are about a referendum about the present administration's policies and to judge the buzz, things look tight. Actually, they should look this tight. With the approval ratings of both Congress and the adminstration hovering just about the pathetic levels, one would think that the American people would go on one of their "throw the bums out" binges. You're not really seeing that, which I find surprising and troubling all at the same time.

Why aren't we clamouring to send our representatives (who we seem to fairly universally agree are doing a terrible job running the country) packing? One factor is the level of negative campaigning. Everyone paints everyone else as incompetent, corrupt, power hungry evildoers who are hell bent on destroying America and all it stands for. The level of this campaigning has grown so idiodic that most people view the political ads the same way they view the laundry detergent commercials that claim their soap is better than everyone else's. No one really belives the specifics. Just like everyone knows that laundry soap cleans their clothes and that the claims of the advertizers aren't really more true for one soap than another so too do the voters think that most politicians are vaguely dirty and will use their political office for personal gain at some level. Claims that this guy's worse than that guy are pretty much ignored. The other problem is that a lot of people have decided that parties are affiliated with movements. Evangelical Christians will vote Rebuplican because they've identified that party with their faith (incorrectly I feel...but that's for later). Labor Unions will vote for Democrats for basically the same reasons. It doesn't matter that Republicans have done nothing about issues like abortion and Democrats have been some of the biggest supporters of free trade agreements.

To me, I don't really care much. The big issue right now is the War in Iraq and, like I've said many times, I think it's the wrong issue. What we've learned in the last six years is that war is the worst way to solve a problem. I'll bet that a lot of Americans wish we'd listened when Hans Blix said that there weren't a lot of weapons of mass destruction and that sanctions should be given time to work. I'll bet the Iraqi people really wish we had listened. I support the troops and the near impossible situation they are in (how'd you like to have a ringside seat for a civil war Johnny???) but I don't support the policy (I know that's hard to imagine for some: supporting the troops without supporting the policy). We spend $2 billion a week in Iraq. That's more than twice as much as we spend on cancer research in a year and I'll bet cancer research is a lot more important to a lot more Americans than what we did in Iraq last week. But like I said, that's not the big issue to me.

The big issue is to balance the budget. You want to go to war? OK, great. But it's got to cost you something besides someone else's life. If we're going to spend $2 billion fighting terrorism then let's do that. But we should pay our bills as we go. Cut $100 billion out of the budget in other places. Cut seniors benefits. Cut law enforcement grants. Cut transportation funding. Want to give another tax cut or make the ones we have no permanent? OK, show me where you're going to slash that money from the budget. Cut soldier's salaries? Do less to perserve the historical things of this nation? I don't care so much what a candidate's priorities are as long as he or she lays them out for me to consider and he or she promises to work towards balancing the budget in one year. For me, if you do that right now then you get my vote. If you make that you're number one issue and I'll get out and work your campaign. To me this is why it blows my mind that the Evangelicals think the Republicans are their friends. In my expereince, conservative Christians have a strong desire to be fiscally responsible and yet they continue to vote for a party that has betayed that ideal over and over again in the last six years. The last President to balance the budget was a Democrat and a reviled one at that. Congress had a lot to do with that but somehow that's all changed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again to anyone who will listen. If you're a Presidential candidate for the 2008 election and you promise to make balancing the budget your number 1 priority not only will you get my vote but I'll work for your campaign to get you elected. To me, all the rest is window dressing. If we don't get the deficit erased and start paying back the debt, then this country is headed for a financial crisis of unprecidented proportions.

So there it is.

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