Candidate Update
I have been busy with other blogs, so I haven’t been as active here on Political Rambling as I would have liked. I did have some ideas to toss out there for discussion today.
TIME magazine has a profile article on John Edwards and his campaign in Iowa. They summarize his stance on many issues as the leftist of the 3 major candidates. They quoted him as describing Hillary’s stance as very mainstream and almost the same as a moderate Republican, Barack Obama as a more liberal and change minded candidate and himself as the most left Democratic stance with the most transformational ideas of all three. I think from what I read about how he would like to provide health care for every American, cut the environmental damage being done in this country and start to find real ways to end poverty sound like all well meaning ideas and positions to have.
What I worry about isn’t how genuine John Edwards is about these ideas. What I worry about is his ability to convince the congress to vote for them when some of them personally have financial motivations to do exactly the opposite and will loose a lot including re-election if they go for these policies and plans in the future. Should we develop more government run programs to try and solve the problems facing Americans at the bottom of the financial ladder? Some feel that it is our duty as humans to help others, and if these government programs can provide a saftey net like medicare and social security and disability pay we have a moral obligation to do so.
Others hate the cost of these programs and feel that lasezz faire is the only way that the economy can be unburdened and run properly, and when it does jobs and money for services are plentiful. What I think is going to be the reality is something in between. No one wants the government to be federally intertwined with our daily lives, but how many homeless people do you have to walk past on a daily basis to know that there is something broken about our country? Why is it ok to some people to leave large numbers behind just because you found a way to exploit society and it’s systems and get rich to protect your own family? Where is the humanity?
Otherwise, we all have heard by now that Fred Thompson has officially declared his run for the Presidency and some are comparing him to Ronald Regan. Which is not a similarity I found outright noticeable. But the crossover between acting and politics is there and apparently Regan declared late in the Primaries too. As far as what he thinks about the issues that the country faces and will determine votes for or his history of how he has voted and made policy aren’t completely known. Well some people may know, but I haven’t read a lot about it yet.
Barack Obama had a big Garden Party this weekend with Oprah at a fund raiser. Some people may indeed vote for him because Oprah is, and others may consider him when they would not have before. Oprah has a strange pull on a certain demographic in America. I would guess it is the less educated group who use TV as a main source of information. But I am not sure that fully describes it either. Colin Powell also has kind words for Barack Obama in a recent GQ article about Iraq and world diplomatic decisions.
Not many people have had kind words for Hillary Clinton lately, although she leads the Democratic primary race in many polls. The John Edwards camp pointed out in TIME that she has accepted $40,000.00 from lobbyists in her campaign and she would continue the same military involvement that the current Bush Administration has started. (even though many people consider it a giant clusterfuck) She also still has issues with her presence on stage and speaking style. Bringing Bill Clinton along to campaign with her has helped, and they are doing a promotion through her site that if you donate you could possibly be drawn to win a lunch in person with her and Bill to atlk about what you want to change in America. (disclosure: I have not donated any money to any candidates now or in the past)
Rudy Giuliani is taking a very pro-Bush continue what we’ve going because terrorists are coming back stance and not really getting into social issues because he isn’t really in the realm that most republicans are on them. It also scares me that TIME magazine reported 2 weeks ago that he uses a bunch of former Bush advisers to get information and form some policy stances for his campaign. That is like electing another Bush. I am not really for any one party or another, but I am definitely not about Bush. Mit Romney is also going the lets do more War stance and he has some scary social views to keep the far right happy.
I was recently reading a book called “One Billion Customers” which is about doing business in China and profiles the societal differences between the U.S. and China. One major difference is the absence of Religion there due to the communist party. They talk about how this makes the society have an absence of guilt and the only thing bad about breaking a law there is getting caught. This brings to light the idea of where religion stands in American Politics for me. It isn’t something that should directly influence policy, or be an arm of government, but it should help guide the moral ideas of the people and the candidates. I hope someday we aren’t like China. We should care about the law for more reasons than getting caught.
I think that the grey area with Religion in politics comes when so many religions coexist and may have different values. But overall the helping of all people and belief that there is something greater than all of us shapes how people act and live and apparently act out. So even though the Democrats are not known for their Religious ties, I think it is important to note the positive effects of their policies in helping those very much in need and that the Republicans pretty much despite their religious ties, don’t care about helping people just businesses. That’s not a lesson from any book of any religion.