Let me review what I think of the issues that are currently focused on in the American body politic. In order of importance (thining from the perspective of an American History textbook)
- Social Security: The fact that we do not have the money for this is somehow being overshadowed by all the other issues. The proverbial shit will hit the fan only after the "baby boomer" generation hits 65, which is only a decade away. This alone is pretty much the reason for the national debt. It's really not a question of if, but when we will have to restructure the system.
- Tax Code: This is where the government gets it's money so we'd better worry about it. This is also where the government most directly interacts with all citizens. It could easily use this as an opportunity to leave the poor and working class alone and find people who can spare some money to fund government spending. This doesn't happen, and in addition the system is so complicated that entire corporations are sustained by the help that the non-business minded (poor and working class) citizens need to do their taxes. It's a mess and tax cuts or raises are not needed, but instead restructuring of govt spending (i.e., SS) and of the tax code itself.
- "The Economy": Obviously SS ties into this because it determines where a huge part of the money this country has goes to. In fact most of the political discussion about the economy seems to be of the mind that the government can somehow pass laws that will directly fix things. I propose that the most significant factors affecting the state of our economy are actually education and the tax code.
- Iraq: Complex issue that I think most of the world (including many Americans) sees in the context of the war on terror which has taken on some some Islam v. Christianity context. This is probably in part because of epic movies that show things as good v. evil, and most people shape their opinions about foreign affairs based on movies. The U.S. has quite a mess to clean up, and regardless of the rights and wrongs up to this point, no candidate offers much hope of doing that. In the end, whether we follow one plan or another will not significantly affect our position in the years to come. It's pretty much up to the Iraqis now, and we and the UN should ensure they are able to carry out their wishes. This is not an issue to decide between candidates on apparently.
- Gay Marriage: An amendment will not pass, but we should be thinking about civil unions. But if any politician actually sets out to do something other than ban/stop the ban on gay marriages I'd be surprised. This is because the gay crowd hasn't really made it evident that they're an important voting bloc.
Posted by tdupuy at May 13, 2004 3:19 AM