Political parties don't live up to old stereotypes...

3:43 PM | 1 Comments


Ideals that exist within political parties are nothing new.

Democrats are coined liberals and their party is known to support: expanded social welfare spending, cuts in military spending, increased regulation of business, a variety of consumer and environmental programs, minority and working class rights, increases in the power of the federal government, increases in taxes.

Republican party members are called conservatives and they support: high levels of military spending, cuts in social programs, tax relief for middle/upper class voters, tax incentives for businesses, conservitive religous agenda, decreases in the power of the federal government, fiscal conservatism.

It seems like even though the parties are stereotyped into two tidy factions many politicians are going outside their little boxes and moving into the opposite territory. Some examples of this include:



  • Former President Bush (Republican) pushed the limits of presidential power beyond all of it's former standards, increasing federal power to a new high.

  • The mostly Republican nominated Supreme Court has been accused of showing a lot of judicial activism over the past decade, which is generally considered liberal.

  • Both party presidential candidates last election promised to decrease the United States role in the middle east (decreasing military spending), not just the Democratic candidate.

  • Both President Obama and former President Bush, who are from two different political parties, have increased government spending substantially which is something only President Obama's party should have supported under established party values.

  • John McCain, a Republican Senator who has ran for president twice in the last decade, has a track record of siding with liberals more than conservatives. It's almost like he is an under cover agent for the Democratic Party, or maybe by being a Republican but acting like a Democrat he tries to be all things for everyone (which doesn't work).

  • Senator Joe Lieberman, a controversial Democrat, has sided with conservatives on issues like the Iraq War, the death penalty, and gun control. He has infuriated his party by voting unreliably and at one time even ran for senate as an independent candidate.

What does this mean? It means that those of us that check the box on our ballot to vote either all Democratic or all Republican are doing ourselves a disservice. As politicians move further from the principles of the political parties that they belong to we can no longer hope to have our values protected by taking a firm stand on either side of the party divide, which is okay since most people probably don't agree or disagree with each party 100% on issues anyway.

The best thing to do is to look at all the candidates for all the branches of the government and weigh their merit individually; this is the only way to ensure that we are furthering the type of government we want to have.

It sounds time consuming to be that involved in politics, and a lot of people live with the belief that their vote won't make a difference one way or another. Believing that is a self fulfilling prophecy, because if you don't cast a ballot then your vote CAN NOT possibly make a difference.

Why should you stay informed?

6:09 PM | 1 Comments


It seems like in this country everyone has gotten way too comfortable with being oblivious. Yes, we are all busy, overworked, and underpaid. Yes, we all have kids, jobs, school, and mortgages. There are a thousand reasons why people don't stay informed, but the one I find to be the most prominent is fear.

Lets face it, our last leader led through fear. Fox news trys to make us afraid of everything including the water we drink! All around us we are being told to be afraid!

In times like these we need to remember the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Well, that's true, and then again, it's not true. Fear is a property of a much bigger culprit called ignorance, and you should be afraid of that.

Right now our economy is in shambles, yet most people don't care until they lose their job or their house is foreclosed on. They are either too afraid to look at the big picture, too oblivious to know that anything is wrong, or too ignorant to acknowledge that there is a problem.

Every person in this country has something called spending power. Where we spend our money shapes the economy and United States business in general. When you spend half your paycheck on products that are not made in the United States you are hurting the economy and ultimately you are hurting yourself.

In an effort to circumvent labor laws most companies have sent their factories overseas where they can pay workers pennies an hour. This was so successful that companies decided to send other jobs overseas to save money. So back here in America we keep losing jobs.

The companies that have their products made overseas save a lot of money by not having to pay the American minimum wage, because of this they can sell their products for much less than companies that manufacture in the USA.

When you go to Walmart, or anywhere else, and you buy these cheap products you are supporting the loss of American jobs. You are making China and other foreign countries rich while our own country struggles with a 13 billion dollar deficit.

Do you want more proof that where you spend money makes a difference? Remember those economic stimulus checks we got last year? They were the Bush Administration's idea on how to fix the economy. Do you know why we aren't getting them this year? Because they didn't work, the majority of Americans chose to spend them on electronics that were made overseas. The only economy we stimulated was China's; we borrowed the money from them in the first place, and then we sent it right back to them when we bought our new tv, cellphone, and the like. And we still have to pay it back!

Another reason our economy is crap: war profiteering. Want another one? Read the news, stay informed, and don't complain about the economy if you are going to be a passive sheep. Our economy sucks, and it's our own fault.