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(A guest post by my husband, er, Mike the Actuary)<\/p>\n
We hear it every day: The American people are fed up with politics; they don\u2019t feel properly represented by politicians.<\/p>\n
There are many reasons provided to explain this phenomenon.\u00a0 For me, the main issue is that neither party\u2019s agenda lines ups very well with my own personal belief system.\u00a0 More precisely, I feel that the straight line classification, left vs. right, liberal vs. conservative, Democrat vs. Republican, just doesn\u2019t work for me.\u00a0 There are way too many factors in play and reducing it to a single dimension isn\u2019t doing the trick for me.\u00a0 I wonder if I\u2019m alone, or if that\u2019s part of a broader problem.<\/p>\n
Let me explain.<\/p>\n
First, on fiscal matters. I would happily label myself a \u201cfiscal conservative\u201d in the sense that I strongly believe in maintaining tight controls over government spending.\u00a0 Mainly that\u2019s because I strongly believe that maintaining the long-term fiscal health of a country directly impacts its ability to act and ultimately its relevance. The federal budget deficit is way too high, as is the federal debt.\u00a0 And of course that doesn\u2019t even reflect all the deficits and debt at the state and local level.<\/p>\n
I am appalled when politicians\u2014left or right\u2014spend money as if it grows on trees.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if excessive spending occurs on social programs, on \u201centitlements\u201d\u00a0 or on some fancy high-tech defense system.\u00a0 At the same time, I am equally appalled by Grover Norquist\u2019s Taxpayer Protection Pledge that pretends that taxes are always too high, no matter what, and which limits (or even impedes) the ability to reach important compromises.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t mind if high earners pay high taxes, for as long as the money is truly needed in the sense that the money collected is used in a responsible manner.\u00a0 At the same time, I also believe that spending doesn\u2019t always have to go up.\u00a0 There are times when spending has to come down, and there shouldn\u2019t be any budget items that are declared to be off limits on ideological or populist grounds.<\/p>\n
So where does that put me?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
Next, on social matters.\u00a0 Again, I mostly think of myself as \u201cconservative\u201d.\u00a0 I liked the term \u201ccompassionate conservative\u201d (although I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s been hijacked in some fashion).\u00a0 I\u2019m pro-life, but that includes all life, i.e., encompasses an anti-death-penalty stance.\u00a0 I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, but support gay and lesbian rights.\u00a0 We definitely need to do a lot of work to improve race relationships, but I oppose notions of \u201cwhite privilege\u201d.\u00a0 And while certain types of support for the African American community are in order, I see the decline of family values, and specifically the decline of traditional families, to be a significant contributor to the challenges in those communities.\u00a0 But those aren\u2019t symptoms, those are causes, and we should not hesitate to point that out.<\/p>\n
How about some other policy issues?\u00a0 I\u2019ve generally been supportive of Obamacare, or at least of some form of universal health care.\u00a0 I find it to be mostly a sign of the dysfunction of the current American political climate that so much effort is spent on trying to dismantle Obamacare rather than on improving it.<\/p>\n
Social Security, or pension systems more generally, need to be sustainable. Again, we don\u2019t have the luxury to declare them to be sacrosanct.\u00a0 Better to make tough choices (up to and including cuts) now than to risk apocalypse later.<\/p>\n
Education is a tough one.\u00a0 It\u2019s too easy to constantly advocate \u201cmore investment in education\u201d but I don\u2019t have a good position here.\u00a0 I do know, however, that the trajectory of college cost is not sustainable.\u00a0 I have grave reservations when I see tuition outpace inflation year after year even if financial aid seems to be expanding at the same time.<\/p>\n
Lastly, on foreign policy.\u00a0 Mostly, what I\u2019ve been missing is a position that advocates America consistently occupying the moral high ground.\u00a0 If America wants to be seen as the beacon for Freedom all around the world, then it must act the part.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean going around apologizing which all too often just comes across as a weak plea to \u201cplease love me.\u201d\u00a0 Make no mistake, we should act from a position of strength.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that we should marry our undeniable strength with a lot of compassion.\u00a0 It means having a clear sense of what\u2019s good and right and then implementing a consistent foreign policy that follows that line\u2014even if it means accepting some disadvantages.\u00a0 It means that we need to be very careful before involving our milliary, and that once involved, our military should act with restraint.\u00a0 It also means that we should treat even our enemies with some respect.\u00a0 No water boarding or other \u201cenhanced interrogation techniques\u201d.\u00a0 Ever.\u00a0 It also means that we need to be careful what regimes to support, and how we interact with and talk about regimes that are clearly not aligned with our moral belief system.\u00a0 A perspective of \u201cmy enemy\u2019s enemy is my friends\u201d doesn\u2019t qualify, nor does easy access to oil.\u00a0 Lastly, it means that peaceful measures of foreign aid should be emphasized.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t it be great if America was known around the world more for the Peace Corps than the Marine Corps?<\/p>\n
I hope I\u2019ve made my point.\u00a0 Do you see my dilemma? What\u2019s your perspective?<\/p>\n
Jane here. \u00a0If you want to talk about Americans\u2019 disengagement from politics, consider that you\u2019re generally stuck with few choices \u2014 and the more that Social Issues, well, are issues (who would have considered gay marriage an issue a generation ago, or assisted suicide?), the more difficult this becomes. \u00a0The bottom line: \u00a0politics isn\u2019t a straight line. \u00a0If you expect everyone to just \u00a0find our spots on this line, no wonder\u00a0we\u2019re not cooperating.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (A guest post by my husband, er, Mike the Actuary) We hear it every day: The American people are fed up with politics; they don\u2019t feel properly represented by politicians. There are many reasons provided to explain this phenomenon.\u00a0 For me, the main issue is that neither party\u2019s agenda lines ups very well with my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":2542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n