I want to write about politics but I'm not sure how to organize my thoughts.
I have a serious question. How do I go about researching the candidates who are currently campaigning to be our next president?
I've googled them all. I've read the articles about them at the news websites. I've tried to read about them on their own websites. I've read the positive stuff and the negative stuff. I watch the news. Even after all of this information, I still feel like I don't know anything about any of the candidates.
I voted for Obama back in 2008 because I liked what he had to say and I liked his ideas. But unfortunately, it seems like he had to spend so much time and energy getting his health-care reforms passed that once it was done, he just lost steam. I know that he's done other things, like finally getting the troops out of Iraq, but it just seems like all of the talk that came before he was elected just noise.
I also know that Obama has had a tough time getting things done because the Republicans and the Democrats don't want to work together. This is nothing new but it seems like the fighting has been worse since he took office. There is all this talk from the politicians about how they all need to work together to solve issues but no one really seems to be doing it. It seems to me that there is even more inner-party fighting than normal.
And truth be told, I don't want to vote for Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum or any of the other Republican candidates. I don't understand what Ron Paul means when he talks about "sound money" although I like the idea of getting rid of the "corporate stranglehold in Washington". I don't think Michele Bachmann or the rest are even worth looking into. And honestly, I don't feel like I should have to read a "statement of faith" on any of their websites. Their religion should have nothing to do with why I vote for them.
So it comes down to voting for Obama again and potentially having another 4 years of nothing or voting for someone that I don't understand or that I feel as if I have to sacrifice some of the things that I think are important for the greater good of the nation. I might feel more comfortable doing something like that if I felt like everyone else made decisions like that, too.
I suggest checking out http://www.google.com/elections/ed/us. At a minimum, it collates all of the political coverage in one place by candidates and topics.
ReplyDeleteI like Ron Paul because he really does stick to his principles. I also like about 70% of his policies. But the 30% I don't like are so batsh-t crazy that I could never vote for him. One of those policies is "sound money", a euphamism for bringing back the gold or silver standard. What does that mean? It means that the dollar is pegged to a specific amount of gold, which prevents the economy from expanding just because the gov't wanted it to (e.g. by printing more money that's backed only by trust in the gov't).
This is a part of the "Austrian" school of economics, which is now largely considered ineffective and very 19th century.