My Political and Social Viewpoints Primer

I am a white male, a few weeks shy of my 30th birthday. I am married, and have three kids (at the time of this entry, they are ages 7, 6, and 2). I live in Northern Virginia, and have done (except for an ill-fated year of college in Idaho) since I was 2. I work for a small company I.T. department where I do some of everything -- web development, tech support, systems administration, etc. Basically, I'm your typical suburban white middle class guy.

I am a Mormon. As such, I find myself particularly interested in effects of religion and religious people on politics (not that being religious is the only reason to interested in this, it's just why I am). I am particularly interested in the discussion of why Christians tend to vote republican. Also, I am rabidly for the separation of church and state, even to the point of unfairness if necessary to avoid undue influence. I am not particularly offended by the (what I consider to be) more minor religious aspects in my government: that Congress starts with a prayer, 'In God We Trust', etc. I have a lot more to say on this topic, but I'll save it for future entries.

I listen to NPR. There are some who think that public radio is left leaning, but I disagree. There are certainly some individual shows that are left-leaning, but in general I find that the news reporting and stories on NPR (and my local affiliate WAMU) are very balanced, and that they go out of their way to show all sides to a story. But even more important than balance, I feel that they actually try to get to the heart of the story. A lot of the time, news reporters will report equally on both sides of a story to have balance, but by giving equal importance to both sides, they are really robbing the audience of the truth. For example, if you have a story reporting that the sky is blue, but in the interest of balance, they'll find an 'expert' who will argue that the sky is mauve. So, balance is served, but the truth is lost.

I am a Free/Open Source Software user and advocator. You may not think that this affects my politics, but I think that it does any several ways. First, it shows that great things can be done the cooperation of large disparate and disorganized groups of people. It shows that 'the people' can get stuff done without the driving force being the greed of a corporation. Second, it shows that you do not have to compromise your freedom or ethics to get things done. I know to most people that software development and software freedom aren't that big of a deal, and I think that's ok, but I think that it is a microcosm of society in general.

I am not particularly fond of big business, and capitalism in general. I feel that most, if not all, problems with our government stem from too much corporate money in politics. Individual citizen donations are a 1st Amendment protected form of free speech. Corporations are not citizens. Corporations have no right to free speech. The only right that a corporation has is a free, level playing field. I think that government involves itself too much in the affairs of corporations, when all it should be doing is to ensure that everyone's playing by the same rules* and fixing situations where one company has unfair advantage over another. The free market only works when everyone plays fair. Again, this will undoubtedly become a neverending series of entries.

I think that our healthcare system is a disgrace. Since our system is based around private corporations whose sole goal is to make ever increasing amounts of money, the focus is shifted from where it should be (where some misguided people believe it actually is): on the sick and injured. I'm not sure what the solution to this is. When people are dying because they can't afford medicine or treatments, we are failing one of the most basic tenets of this country. In the Declaration of Independence we state that governments are established among men to secure the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. When our healthcare system fails to provide for the uninsured, or even the less-insured, we are failing to secure the first right enumerated above: life.

I am against the idea of, and our current system of, political parties. I am even more against the idea that only two parties could possibly hope to represent even a minority of the viewpoints of the citizens of this country. I have an entry on this topic already in progress; in fact, it was the impetus for this primer. I didn't want to post it without having first established my views. A lot of the problem with parties is how it forces us as a nation to homogenize our many disparate viewpoints into 2 camps, and how it gives some (a lot?) of the power of government to the parties, further abstracting the people from their own governance. Parties are often used as a crutch for the lazy or weak-minded. This is one of my favorite topics, because it opens the door to so much else. Discussions of citizen participation, the Electoral College vs. other electoral systems, pure democracy vs. a repulican system, etc. all can be had from discussing politcal parties, not to mention the actual views of the different parties.

After reading the previous paragraph it is probably needless to say that I don't really consider myself a Democrat or a Republican, although in recent years, I've found my views are generally more consistent with those of the left.

I believe that the government should tread very carefully when deciding to limit anyone's freedom. I think that if there is a shadow of a doubt, we should err on the side of individual freedom, even if that means discomfort to others. All of our freedoms are interconnected, and it is impossible to give any of them up without affecting the others. This paragraph is a little vague, but I can't think of any good examples of what I'm trying to say right now. If I do, I'll update this entry.

I think that government should be more open for inspection by the public. I think that we should avoid secret meetings as much as is possible. I think that if the government funds something (using our taxes), that something should be mad e available to the public. For example, the government funds much of the research that the pharmaceutical industry uses to develop new medicines. Since they are benefitting from the public, the public should in turn benefit from them. This benefit could be in the form of cheaper drugs, for instance.

I think that's all of the large-scale topics that I have strong views on. All of my views on individual issues are based on the foundation layed out above. I feel I should also mention that I am somewhat of an idealist, and that I think that all people should be knowledgable and engaged with their governments. If more people were involved, politicians would be forced to listen to the people instead of the lobbyists, corporations, special interest groups, etc. for fear of being voted out of office. Also, I think that everyone should learn about the history of their country to understand why things are the way they are. I am currently reading several biographies of founding fathers, and it amazes me how much better I understand the issues affecting our country today because of it.

(I was going to go into my views on a few current issues, but have decided against it. I think leaving this entry as it is will make it a little more lasting, while my views of current issues are more likely to change. But now that I've finally got this entry done, I can finally allow myself to start posting entries about political topics. So, I will save my views on current issues for those type entries.)

*There are a few exceptions to the 'same rules rule' such as monopolies, but they are outside the scope of this overview.

UPDATE 7/11: I added the sections about software and NPR. --b