Politics is a difficult subject for me to approach, since it has so many different facets and I had no initial plan in mind. This'll be a very disjointed post with no real overall flow to it, I guess.
Affirmative action. It doesn’t matter if there was racism in the past, "good" racism does not cancel out "bad" racism. Because affirmative action is government sanctioned racism (valuing the education/employment of some ethnicities more then others), it has no place in our society. That being said, there is a program I have in mind similar to affirmative action that is just and allowable in our society. (disclaimer: this wasn’t my idea, somebody else told me about this but I can't remember who, sorry). Instead, we should have affirmative action based solely on income level. This takes race completely out of the equation as it should be, while still giving many minorities (many of whom are poorer due to past injustices) the chance to better education or a better job. Income level is the single greatest factor in determining college acceptance. There's a reason why Ivy leagues are full of kids that have been prepped their whole lives through private educational institutions. Some from lower incomes do manage to make it to elite schools, but those people have to be truly extraordinary, or football players. This is just compared to our current affirmative action, because it seeks to rectify the skewed circumstances that we are brought into the world under (how much our parents make). Race-based affirmative action leads to too many other injustices, like one kid's SAT of 1200 being valued more highly then a score of 1300, when the former is a lower-represented minority, even if the former is from a $200K+ background. Life chances that affirmative action seeks to nullify are income based, not race based. It just so happens that income and race are closely tied together due to historical injustices.
I am for the legalization of all drugs and alcohol within certain restrictions like age limits. On alcohol, the age should be lowered to 18. I'm not saying this because I want to get wasted whenever I can. I'm saying this because I can be drafted into the army, to go off and fight and die defending my country half way around the world, but I can't do it with a drink in my hand.
For drugs, I think it's pretty obvious that prohibiting a substance doesn’t mean that it's users will stop using it. Everything should be legalized. So it can be regulated by the FDA, so that medical care can be given to users without fear of prosecution, so that it will lower our collective tax burden of keeping all the millions of drug users in jail. It will inject billions of dollars and jobs into our economy as a regulate-able industry, while defunding drug cartels in Mexico, Coloumbia, and Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan (opium). Most of all, it should be legalized because the government has no right to tell an adult what they can and can't put into their bodies. They should be warned and informed on what theyre doing, but the ultimate choice is not up to the government.
On abortion I don’t really have anything that exciting to say. I agree with Roe.
On immigration, I think that we should put very stringent measures on illegal immigrants, while at the same time streamlining and expanding the rate at which legal immigrants can come in. I'm totally happy with people immigrating to the US, as long as they do it legally so that we know who they are, and so that they can be taxed just like everyone else. Too often, I think ant-illegal immigrant fervor is kindled by anti-hispanic prejudices, and that’s not right.
The last thing I have to say for now will be about some Republican 2012 Presidential contenders. If John McCain was elected (albeit with a different running mate), or if Mitt Romney was elected, or if Rudy Giuliani was elected, I might hate policies they pose and totally disagree with them on stuff, but at least I could rest assured that the country was under competent leadership. Sarah Palin, and to a certain extent Michelle Bachmann, are simply not competent enough to lead our nation.
Why do you agree with Roe? I'm interested to hear your logic behind it, I usually find that more fascinating than one's actual position.
ReplyDeleteLook into Jon Huntsman. He should be a viable candidate, and a legitimate alternative to Obama, if you're not a fan. It's really too bad that there's such a low chance he makes it out of the Republican primary. And Bachmann might be crazier/dumber/more irresponsible than Palin.
Thanks for commenting. I was just in a moral and political philosophy class last semester where we discussed abortion. Unfortunately, that was last semester so whatever i learned then has slipped from my mind. Hence, my thoughts on abortion are going to be somewhat lacking.
ReplyDeleteI feel that abortion can be an instrument of good, and that the moral value of a mother's life generally outweighs that of the fetus until viability (like in as outlined in Roe). We defined life in 7th grade biology as something that can respirate, excrete, consume, etc. and I still hold onto that as a defining characteristic of human life. Therefore a fetus without the the ability to exercise those faculties unaided isn't subject to the same moral imperatives as an adult human that can. If the fetus would be able to exercise those abilities, then killing it I think would constitute killing a human. Though defining viability itself is a very tricky business.
As to the 2012 election, I'll probably be an obama man though i don't think id be unhappy with a president Huntsman. And who knows? I think that in Obama's election, the cream of the democrats really rose to the top despite some long odds, so maybe Huntsman will too.
Also, I think it's really sad that so many Americans don't see Palin and Bachmann how we do haha
it's kind of a strange issue to be under the purview of the supreme court since it's a very biological/scientific issue if you are not of the binary abortion anytime/any reason club or the never ever ever club (it sounds like you're for no abortion when the fetus is viable unless mother's life is in danger/rape/incest unless im mistaken). like, if you take your stance, it's based on a biological consensus of when a fetus is generally viable, or the length of the pregnancy of the most premature baby to ever survive (and thus constantly moving earlier and earlier). the supreme court can't really rule on biological grounds (and doesn't necessarily have the expertise to do so), and thus their ruling was based on philosophical and moral reasons.
ReplyDeletethat said, i don't know that anyone else could handle it, as an "independent" agency like the CDC or NIH would never be allowed to handle it or would become intensely political, and putting it in the hands of congress or the president would also make it hyper-political, and probably subject to frequent flip-flops. i also feel like they'd spend sooo much of their air time/campaign time talking about abortion, detracting from important debates going on in other areas (national defense, health care, the economy...)
you should take a con law class - i think it's right up your alley. all philosophy/morality/law, but grounded a bit more in policy/reality, as opposed to the uber-ethereal thinkers that can be found in some classes on philo and morality.
Yeah it is. Its very nice of them to make a generally worded ruling, and then leave the specifics of everything for everyone else to deal with. Like how viability is A. very difficult to determine and B. completely relative and thus not encompass-able by one ruling/law.
ReplyDeleteThat being said however, In my limited viewpoint of whats going on in the world of abortions, things seem to be alright despite the shaky ground its rooted in. I don't see/hear stories of abortions being done on street corners, nor do i hear of them being denied to people who really need them. The status quo seems to be working out alright. However my viewpoint is very limited, so then again I may be completely wrong haha
I'll look into a constitutional law class. It does sound interesting and I'm considering majoring in sociology and politics, so it looks like it'd fit in nicely with my course work.