I don’t usually get political, but seeing as the presidential elections are soon nigh, I figured why not. A little about me. I’m currently registered as a democrat, but the libertarians seem to find my sympathy lately. I’m probably socially liberal, but fiscally conservative. Perhaps those are contradictory, but it is what it is. Just some random thoughts:
Elections
Between bailouts and escalating excitement in the elections, it’s been a pretty wild week. I’m honestly not too excited about either of the two main candidates, but until we have an opposition party or a third party picks up steam its what we have to work with.
I watched some of the Republican/Democratic National Conventions. There seemed to be a lot of meaningless rhetoric on each side…things that were supposed to sound good (which did to the audience), but I couldn’t understand what they meant. “Drill, baby, drill!” was chanted at the RNC. Seriously? I can’t think of any funny chants at the DNC, but I’m sure they were there, too.
They both want to reduce taxes on certain portions of people and reduce/enlarge different parts of the government. Seems either way we pay more to have more government. Yay!!
Bailouts
Along with probably most people in the country, I don’t feel smart enough to know what’s going on economically or how a bailout can help or not help us. At first I was opposed (as a fiscal conservative), but if it means keeping the economy from a complete collapse, well, then, ya, I’m for it. But how do you or I know whether or not we are on the verge of a collapse?
However, when they say $700 billion, its not the same as saying I have $700 billion lying here on my desk, lets go spend it. It comes in a form similiar to a loan, which can hopefully be repaid when the economy recovers. I believe the large amount is just meant to encourage confidence in our economy internationally, as much of our debt is held by other countries because they perceive it to be of value. I believe it has value, and it probably does, but perception doesn’t always mirror reality.
Biden and Roosevelt
I guess Joe Biden said something off the cuff in an interview about “when the stock market crashed, Roosevelt got on television…” Ya, I can see why that’s bad. Herbert Hoover was president in 1929 and TV didn’t really get going until the late 30s. It would probably have been better had he said “after the stock market crash, Roosevelt got on the radio…” I tried for 15 minutes to try and find the context of this statement and what Biden was saying, but could only repeatedly find this sound bite. Who needs context when we can feel superior by making fun of someone who in reality is probably smarter than you or me. He might’ve actually had something interesting to say, but because of his gaffe, I’ll never know. But as he didn’t say what I think he intended to say, I’ll have to leave Biden to fend for himself. Fortunately, none of the other candidates have to worry about having ever made misstatements…
Other Thoughts
I do hope we have a presidential debate tomorrow night. I’ve actually been looking forward to watching that for a while. Seems silly not to, and maybe almost rude to those who go through all the trouble of preparing for and financing the debates.
Man, I wish we could get a smaller government. I really need to change my party affiliation to libertarian. I’m just sayin’.