Wheres My Political Home

In today's political climate it appears that you have to be on the far right or far left. Well I am kind of in the middle on most subjects. Full disclosure I was a card carrying member of the GOP until about 2010 when the racial dog whistles started blowing really hard.

Now I know there has to more voters like me who do not blindly just watch the D or R next to a person's name and vote that way. Is there a place for a guy who pro 2nd Amendment but does also believe there should be some type of gun control. I do understand that we have to have taxes to sustain a government but don't think that one person should pay a higher rate based on their success. That being said you should not be able to use all types of loopholes to escape paying your part.

So where do you go when all the candidates seem to sell out any moderate leanings to align themselves with a political base. What is you are not that liberal but not that conservative either. Right now I am classified as an Independent but that does not provide me any real political representation. Apparently America only sees Republicans and Democrats.

The way I see it now is that the two party system is basically like professional wrestling.Basically a contest of good guys vs bad guys. Unlike wrestling where the roles are defined for you, in politics everybody thinks that the side that they are on is the good one. While the opposition are the villains. More real life just like wrestling the winners and losers are probably agreed upon before the match starts and in a backroom bargaining session. If you can not make it as a successful babyface then what do you do? You become a heel and go the other way. Just like in wrestling the tweener who doesn't lean that much either way doesn't inspire the fans hate or love and just has no place.   

Political Hype Machine

As we get deeper in this political season, the hype machines are spinning out of control. There are some ideas that the media and politicians float out there to get you all pumped up and excited. Here is the reality, none of the politicians really care about these issues or have any intention of attempting to change. The idea is that some voters are single issue voters and get really bent out of shape on their particular issue.  They are kind of used as weapons of mass distraction to take your eye off what they will really try to push through.  So of course there should be some examples of these types of issues.

Abortion

No matter what you feel about the abortion debate there will not be many changes to the current abortion laws. Every four years we get into this debate because there is a thought that whoever we elect will either protect or destroy the current abortion laws of the land. Reality both parties use this hot button issue to steal your vote. Basically using your passion against you. Think about it George W. Bush was a strong pro-life advocate and with a Republican led House and Senate he never once mad any moves on the abortion law. The Supreme Court has not made any major changes in its position over the last 40 years despite conservative judges being added to the bench.

 

Roe v Wade

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0410_0113_ZS.html

Same Sex Marriage

The new fire starting political issue is Same Sex Marriage. The reality is that most politicians don't care about the issue and only move based on the polls in their state.  In reality most states will allow the practice of same sex marriage and pass legislation over the next 15 years.  Bad news for supporters of this is that it will probably not happen any sooner.   Marriage is an issue that is traditionally handled by the states and people you elect to national office will not have much effect on the issue.  More conservative states will not pass anything anytime soon but will feel pressure when their more liberal neighbors have jumped on board.  That will probably only happen when these politicians feel some financial pressure from companies that want to ensure they will be able to market to the gay community.

The same way George Bush with his GOP led congress never got that constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.  Do not expect President Obama to propose one that will protect same sex marriage.  Since you all as voters appear to care so much on both sides they will pretend to care but there will be no action done after November. 

Let's Audit Our Schools

As the country gets deep into this year's election cycle, the subject of education has become a hot topic. Very recently the United States as a whole found out that a little myth was not true. We are not one of the top countries in the subjects of math and science. This is another reason why the American public, is increasingly concern about its children's education. Combined with the high dropout rates of high school students, it's obvious that our current system is not working.

The politicians will try to convince us that they have the solution but I will bet that they don't. Most of them probably want to keep the status quo. Their children for the large part don't fall victim to being at an underperforming school and they are beneficiaries on how the system in currently run. There is no magic bullet answer on how to fix the system but there is one solution that would very useful. America needs to do a full scale audit of the school system.

County by county, state by state, the American people need to needle through the records of their school districts. Our country spends about 10000 dollars per year on each student. So before we decide if the schools need more or less money let's find out where all the money is going. At the current spending rate multiplied by the average class size of 23 students that is 230,000 dollars in every classroom. That means less the 50000 average teacher's salary there is about 180000 dollars that we the people do not actually know where it is going.

Don't get me wrong I understand that the schools need building maintenance, desk, and they have to feed the children. That being said how much are we spending on all this stuff and who is getting the contracts. Are those people over charging us because their brother makes the decisions on behalf of the board? Not saying that all school boards are corrupt but like all politics there is a lot of corruption involved. One thing we can do is utilize our right to the records as citizens. It is our duty to make sure our government entities are running the way that they are supposed to.

This is not just an issue for people with children but for all Americans. All of us pay taxes that go to the public school system. When a neighborhood is known for having good schools the property values go up in that area. Also we as society can only benefit from having well trained and educated young people to drive this country forward.

There is already pressure on the instructors to make sure that, the children pass standardized test. Now we need pressure on the administration to utilize our finances the correct way. Maybe we can shrink some of these class sizes, hire more support staff and upgrade our technology. At the end of the day we need to audit our public school systems to get the most bangs for our buck.

MHP’s (powerful) homework assignment

MHP’s (powerful) homework assignment