Where Do You Stand?

The following was written off the cuff, and is designed to provoke thought. We must all be open to debate, discussion, and revision and compromise. We must all seek truth and never deny it, because it is in truth that we grow.
Following this discourse, which may seem long winded but is crafter to flow, even where points are repeated, is factual data that supports the contentions laid out within. It is presented in hope.

When I was growing up, the lines between Republican and Democrat seemed much more simple, but as time has gone by it seems to me that there are just so many causes and opinions that dealing with the steady onslaught of events, circumstances and information has made the politics of finding solutions to our shared problems difficult to an extreme, and reason and logic in how we find solutions seems left by the wayside. People and groups get so entrenched in their own agendas that the truths and facts are often ignored, and so much time, energy and resources are simply wasted in debate or conflict that needed solutions just don't materialize. We have come so far so fast that many of our problems need immediate attention and the cost of failing to reach compromises, finding solutions and/or taking action could have consequences that will make our society and children suffer for years.
I believe we all as citizens have a duty and responsibility to involve ourselves in finding solutions and that we must approach our problems with open minds and hearts, starting from a root understanding that we all want things to get better.
Ignorance, greed, and corruption are our worst faults and compound our shared problems, and our prolonged inaction has devastating consequences, as does our failure to take responsibility for the challenges that we face. Blind adherence to dogma or agendas or beliefs is, to me, evil in nature. Our nation was born in enlightenment, but can easily die in closed mindedness and intolerance. Extremists often hijack debates and knowingly work to undermine even the good works of those they oppose. This hurts us all.
There is nothing wrong with our Constitution, the logic and principles within it are sound, even if a few Amendments are a little outdated. It is how we administer and apply the core of the Constitution that we must give some attention to. This is not something that can be written in a simple outline, the understanding of our Constitution lies in seeing it from an ethical and moral viewpoint, from the enlightenment that crafted it. This can not be done unless the enlightenment comes from a good heart guided by an educated mind. There is no easy formula.
Our core Rights are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. This means that we believe in true freedom for each and every person, the worth of every individual. This is easy when people, fellow citizens, are in the same group and hold beliefs similar to ours, but to be willing to defend the rights of those who live their lives in lifestyles and choices we disagree with or dislike is a test few of us can pass.
I cherish our flag, but am I willing to defend the right of someone else to burn it in protest? I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, but to homosexuals, who have made the choice to live the way they do and pick someone as a lifemate, do I have the right to deny them a union they wish to view and have recognized as a marriage? If I believe in freedom of religion and the worth of each person to seek and worship God in their own way, or not, can I ban a mosque because I don't like where followers of a faith wish to build it?
Freedom stops when one person or group infringes upon the rights of another, period. I have the choice to decide for myself, and if my choices in life do not harm, steal from or hurt another, then nothing in law or practice should stop me from living as I wish, and moreover, I should have an expectation of my government and fellow citizens in defending those rights of mine. In my lifetime, police have allowed crosses to be burned on the front lawns of blacks, women are still paid less than men for the same job, there have been numerous cases of corruption, and class warfare and unfairly and unregulated businesses and corporations have polluted the environment, raided pension funds, sent manufacturing overseas, and sent the middle class into a downward spiral. Drug abuse and crime run wild, we are failing to properly educate our kids, the ongoing list of problems I could fill the page with example after example.
How America responded to Katrina is criminal, and how we extract coal and oil from our homeland ruins the environment and makes people sick, and the corporate socialism of bailing out those Wall Street and corporate pirates who caused our current economic crisis and did the same basic thing in the 80's with the Savings and Loan mess is simply insane. But enough examples for now. It is clear that our problems just keep coming and that we really aren't solving them as fast or well as we should, and we have no excuse as to why we haven't done better.
Sadly, most of our citizens are closed-minded and uneducated about much of what we face. Reactionary ignorance made by choice is the cowards and hateful act of a traitor, and these words are strong but they are a truth.
Back to our Constitution, and why we chose to form it. Our justification is to Insure Domestic Tranquility, Provide for the Common Defense, and Promote the General Welfare. Most people forget that last part. The first two former rely upon the latter. It takes a healthy society to defend itself, and it takes defending ourselves to have that tranquility. That means that we come together as citizens of a nation with a responsibility to do what is best for each other. Our founders mutually pledged their lives and fortunes to make this nation, and many of our current citizens are so entrenched in a hate of government that they don't think they should have to pay any taxes and that everything but the military should be disbanded and set aside.
It would be nice not to need regulation, but our founders knew that the nature of people required that they be governed and regulated, and this was to protect the poor and weak equally with the rich and powerful. Our history is full of examples of how wealthy individuals and businesses have used and abused the poor. We prosper as a nation and make great advancements when our poor and middle class have power or have been a concern. This is a fact. Some of our best national treasures and accomplishments were done as public works during the depression and following World War II. Our interstate system was made in great part to give our military the ability to move swiftly throughout our nation if needed, and it clearly shows that the wealth of our businesses and citizens is greatly improved when our government makes public works that enhance the infrastructure that allows free trade to flower.
Sadly, our roads and bridges are in need of repair, our system of education has declined and we are falling behind on many areas. We need a new electric and energy grid, and need also to turn to and develop the technology and resources to make renewable energy affordable and viable.
Further, beyond the need to fix education, we need to make healthcare free and available to all who need it, and remove a portion of the economic power from energy companies and insurance corporations that have spent money to buy political interest and laws that give them monopolies and a level of control over our citizens that is not justified by their desire to conduct fair business in the light of day for a fair profit. I have no problem, and in fact support fair and free trade, but wealth often buys political favor and many of our elected officials, both Democrat and republican, for years and years, have favored business over the interests and welfare of the people they are sworn to represent and serve.
This deregulation of business meant a blind eye to business practices that in the 80's made many savings and Loans fail, and regular citizens lose their personal wealth, and the rich we bailed out for that, and now we have done the same thing giving giant corporations that made greedy and unsound decisions tax dollars that they used for, in part, continued bonuses to the very people who caused the problems.
This was nothing more than corporate socialism. The same thing happened in the 30's, where Wall Street was allowed to do whatever it wished and too many Americans lost everything when most banks failed.
People fear the term "socialism" as something evil because failed communist dictatorships in Orwellian totalitarian states abused and twisted the ideals of communism into just another way for one group to control another.
There really never has been a communist state, not in practice, and there are a few examples of how some socialism can be applied, but most "socialist" states have done the same thing, using the ideals of socialism to promise fairness and prosperity for everyone then applying military force to rule as twisted dictators and regimes.
So when conservatives claims some progressive program as a step towards socialism I have to laugh. China pretended to be communist, but was simply a totalitarian state and now is perhaps one of the most purely capitalist places on the face of the earth. Money rules there, can buy everything including political favor and exemption from law or responsibility. They subsidize businesses and industries in order to destroy the competition and rule the market for classes of goods and operate at an artificially devalued currency or rate of exchange that has done nothing but hurt free world nations like ours.
The sickening part is that we allow American businesses outsource and import products that are clearly items produced by unfair and unbalanced trade. This is done because of greed. We are so accepting of this greed that we knowingly ignore the problem. This has brought ruin to many regular citizen who have worked for years in specialized trades.
The furniture, textile, and steel industry are clear examples of this.
A nation that doesn't build anything will send all of its wealth to those that do. We borrow money and pay interest to buy goods that hurt our own economy.
One has to be honest enough to look at how political groups approach our shared problems and how they treat the middle class and poor and how they treat the most wealthy of us. It is insane and foolish to think giving those who have more money that they will ever use will create any real growth or prosperity for the rest of us. Growth comes from innovation, extraction of resources, which at this point must be done in a much more responsible manner, and the production and sale of goods. A service based economy cannot be sustained. This means that the middle class and poor must be working and earning enough to buy good, and yes associated services, that keep money cycling. A service economy relies upon the creation of goods, as manufacturing and resource or raw material extraction produce the wealth that the energy industry fuels and service and later the recreation industries draw from.
Government also play a vital role, as it needs to tax and then, yes, spend, on public projects that employ government employees and private contractors and subcontractors, and also play cop in regulating industries and corporations that would use their wealth to wield power that extracts so much from society that their operations become parasitic, and the then allow the bulk of their profits go to a select few instead of fairly distributing them in a manner that gives buying power to the middle and lower class, who drive the demand for goods that made us a power in the first place and are needed to maintain our strength as a nation.
Now onto what party does what for who.
Democrats are far from perfect. Some are greedy and stupid and the party for a long time allowed every sad sap cause to get a platform in an effort to be overly all-inclusive and seem politically correct. But on the whole, it is a far cry better than the republican party, which has been so polluted by Libertarians who are anarchists that want to somewhat abolish government and any regulations and allow the quest for wealth allow abuses on those without economic power. The Republican party often seeks to abolish any taxes on corporations, businesses and the top 2% of our citizens. They shift the tax burden to the poor and middle class and sponsor corporate welfare, a diabolical perversion and form of socialism, and promote a "wild west" atmosphere in economics.
It is true that there are some members of society that will abuse social programs and live for a handout, but that is where education and a truly free capitalist society must be married to pragmatic socialism to insure that the numbers of those types of people stay low and don't drag the rest of society down. Education, especially one rich in civics and liberal arts, foster a sense of self worth and a desire to create a better life, which also drives innovation and production and growth.
Education creates conscience, that self worth spoken of, and a sense of responsibility, and provides hope for a better life and the opportunity to reach it. They rich conservative base that believes the republican platform fail to realize that if the middle and lower class don't have the disposable income to purchase goods and services that the money cycle stops and the economy goes sour. It happens every time they get in power. They de-regulate business, cut taxes on the rich, run the nation into debt, which must be borrowed up at interest, and cause recessions. then the Democrats come in, tax a little, spend and re-invest it, and start a recovery, but Democrats usually inherit a mess that they also have to borrow to get underway, which also adds to the debt. By the time the recovery starts to bring down the debt and pay it off, conservatives and republicans jump on social platforms and spout lies and mistruths and paint the Democrats as destructive socialists that will destroy the world and steal liberty and freedom, and they sell by fear mongering and lies, and start the cycle all over again.
This isn't opinion, it is fact, and the proof has a record for anyone to discern from a view of the record. The biggest affront to personal liberty and freedom was the Patriot Act, which was crafted by republicans, and the current size and economic problems of the government and society were made by those Republicans. Democrats may have made Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac, but it was Republican deregulation and their allowance of bad fiscal practices that perverted that system and allowed it to be brought down. It was runaway home building which produced more home than there was a demand for and made more supply than demand, and allowed people to borrow on inflated values of those homes, and all derivatives that caused this nightmare that now needs to be fixed and recovered from.
The filthy rich who mad vast fortunes from the abuse of unregulated systems get away like thieves escorted from a burglary by police, who do so with a payoff. The taxpayers foot the bill, and social programs that go to education, roads, fixing poverty, and more are what get cut and suffer. When the rich are asked to pay a fair share after being allowed to profit in this immoral manner are asked to pay a fair share fixing it they cry foul and blame others as scapegoats.
They most revolting part is how Republicans attempt to sabotage everything Democrats do, and so many of our people are so brainwashed that they refuse to even discuss that the Republican platform and practices may be at fault. There is no discussion or compromise of their part. Maybe the logic is that if they keep telling the same lies and blaming Democrats for the problems they caused and derailing good works and efforts that they can hurt society enough to create a self-fulfilling prophecy and create more followers and true-believers.
And again this goes back to real responsibility to follow the Constitution, to understand and enforce it. Republicans will fight for gun ownership rights, but did our founders mean that radical crackpots should be allowed to have heavy assault weapons with hollow-point bullets? Does a developer have the right to bulldoze the wetlands where which act as the nursery to fish populations, or that the energy bill passed under Republicans and Bush should allow provisions of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts to be set aside so energy companies could mine natural gas by fracing and polluting waters and lands of private citizens? Does it mean coal companies can be allowed to cut safety standards and mine coal by removing tops of mountains, polluting waters and killing streams and rivers? The oil spill in the Gulf happened in great part due to deregulation and an all too cozy relationship between oil companies and the arms of government that were duty bound to regulate them.
While America suffered gas prices over $4.00 a gallon oil companies made record profits. We entered Iraq, under "misinformation", which was not justified, but failed to catch Bin Laden, gave fat contracts to Halliburton and companies like it, allowed America to commit torture, then when we had a chance to support moderates in Iran virtually created another threat ourselves.
It isn't hare to see the logic in the points I've made or find the proof that support my arguments. I consider myself "conservative" because I wish to insure that I want moral and family and Constitutional values to prevail, but I don't think the Republican party has or will support American ideals as they are set out in the Constitution. They seem more like Nazis in the 1930's, with fascist and pig-headed ideas forged in greed, ignorance, and hate. Nazis waved flags, too.
Democrats need to grow a spine and stand fast and explain their logic better, and both parties need to have their middle-minded members who understand these things are are centrist stand up and be counted. It seems as if crackpots with hateful agendas, like the Tea Party people, can scream and chant and get a hearing, while those of us who are a little more sane are ignored.
I wish our people and political people could be fair and pragmatic, and call a thing what it is, and act from a center of conscience and duty rather than whim and hate. Maybe I'm asking for too much, but the stakes are too high.