Opinion 6
Abstract
This is an overview of the issues I think are important to the preservation of our democracy. My comments are intended to point out what I think needs to change in our country to be compliant with the Preamble of the United States Constitution. In a sense, here is my political platform.
Lady Liberty is a Humanist
The last part of the inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Art modified from a piece by TheDigitalArtist (pixabay.com/en/statue-of-liberty-monument-landmark-2501264/)
Preamble of the Constitution of the United States
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Preferred Definition of Humanist
Most definitions of humanism turn toward anti-religion, the person over community values. To me:
A humanist is a person who has adopted a personal code of ethics which emphasizes understanding principles of nature and seeks to live in accordance with that understanding to the benefit of self and others in a cooperative community.
My Voter Profile
First and foremost, I seek to understand and live in accordance with the Organizing Principles of Nature. As they apply to this essay, the understanding I have gained can be described with these terms:
Balance – Always seek moderation in the consumption of resources. Take what is needed but not more than is earned and certainly not more than is sustainable.
Community – This is all about citizenship. We share this world with the rest of humanity. As one person suffers, so do we all. As one person prospers, so do we all.
Rule of Law – Rules are written to assure that the safety and dignity of an individual are protected. Laws bring order that might otherwise be shattered by self-serving individuals.
Personal Responsibility – We are responsible for our actions. I like to explain this with the Personal Code of Ethics described below.
Personal Code of Ethics
In Ethics as a Personal Code for Mindfulness, I suggest that developing a personal code of ethics will help a person begin following the Mindful Way. My personal code begins with advice from Jane Robert’s Seth.
To me, humanism is furthered when people follow such a code. I seek to associate with people who follow a similar code of ethics. I seek to teach others about the usefulness of developing a personal code.
All of this can be summarized as Just because I can, does not mean I should and Believe what you wish but understand the implications of what you believe.
Party Platforms
In my view, the Ship of State is floundering and in danger of turning toward a totalitarian government. Of course, there are more than just two political parties. From what I have seen over the years, a liberal’s vote for other than the Democrats comes out as a vote for the Republicans. I want my vote to count, and even though I might prefer an Independent Candidate, I will vote for a Democrat to assure maximum effect.
The Democrat and Republican parties wrote their platforms in different ways so that it is difficult to compare them like-to-like. I have taken the major points from their preambles that influence my decision. Items in the platform are written as a call for action in support of the intentions expressed in the preambles, so I will just quote the important parts. It is interesting to note that the title of individual planks of both party’s platform are very similar but written from different ideological points of view.
2016 Democratic Party Platform
From the Preamble:
Democrats believe we are stronger when we have an economy that works for everyone—an economy that grows incomes for working people, creates good-paying jobs, and puts a middleclass life within reach for more Americans. Democrats believe we can spur more sustainable economic growth, which will create good-paying jobs and raise wages. And we can have more economic fairness, so the rewards are shared broadly, not just with those at the top. We need an economy that prioritizes long-term investment over short-term profit-seeking, rewards the common interest over self-interest, and promotes innovation and entrepreneurship. (Paragraph 14)
2016 Republican Party Platform
From the Preamble:
We believe our constitutional system — limited government, separation of powers, federalism, and the rights of the people — must be preserved uncompromised for future generations. (Paragraph 7)
We believe that people are the ultimate resource — and that the people, not the government, are the best stewards of our country’s God-given natural resources. (Paragraph 10)
This means relieving the burden and expense of punishing government regulations. (Paragraph 28)
And this means returning to the people and the states the control that belongs to them. It is the control and the power to make their own decisions about what’s best for themselves and their families and communities. (Paragraph 29)
Notable Difference
The Democrat’s platform is focused on promoting the welfare of the country by promoting the welfare of the average person. In contrast, the Republican platform seems to focus on the welfare of the individual, but their terminology turns government away from the regulations necessary to protect individuals from capitalism.
My view of the two:
Democrats turn toward the ideology that a strong country must also be a humane country.
Republicans turn toward the ideology that a strong country is one that puts God and capitalism above human needs.
The Issues
These are the issues I will consider when voting.
Checks and Balances
Gerrymandering
The checks and balances written into the Constitution are designed to protect democracy. But, as we can see in the way voting districts are drawn in many states, a dominating minority can take over the government using constitutional rules. See A primer on gerrymandering and political polarization and North Carolina is no longer classified as a democracy
Presidency
The president did not win the popular vote, but possibly because of gerrymandered voting districts, he won the Electoral College Vote. We are now learning the extent to which foreign governments may have influenced voters. It is unavoidable to speculate about the legitimacy of our present government.
Supreme Court
From Kavanaugh Debuts On Supreme Court, Pledging To Be A ‘Team Player’
“The Supreme Court is an institution of law. It is not a partisan or political institution,” Kavanaugh said. “The justices do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle. We do not caucus in separate rooms. The Supreme Court is a team of nine, and I will always be a team player on the team of nine.” (Paragraph 3)
“For as long as Kavanaugh sits on the court, he will remain a symbol of partisan anger, a haunting reminder that behind the smiling face of judicial benevolence lies the force of an urgent will to power,” Yale law professor Robert Post wrote in Politico. “No one who felt the force of that anger could possibly believe that Kavanaugh might actually be a detached and impartial judge.” (Paragraph 14)
In fact, the Supreme Court is not a team. It is now hard-right and predicted to gut many hard-won social reforms. It cannot be considered a check on abuse by other parts of the government.
Senate
The Republican-majority Senate have not made an effort to balance the excesses of the President. As a practical matter, the Senate is not functioning as a check on governmental excess and appears to ignore the Russian threat.
Lobbyists
The influence corporations, the very rich and other countries have on our government is another way in which the Constitutionally required checks and balances have failed. For instance, see How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy
Voting Rights
The news is full of reports about states making it harder for some people to vote. The struggle of minorities to execute the right to vote has been an ongoing demonstration of the extremes to which some people will go to maintain power. See The Supreme Court Gutted the Voting Rights Act. What Happened Next in These 8 States Will Not Shock You .
Individual Liberties
The bottom line for this section is that it is unacceptable for our country to leave people behind. The idea that everyone has equal opportunity, and it is up to them to take advantage of it, is simple conservative BS. We must no longer tell our elders to take their blanket and go off somewhere to die. We must no longer tell our youth that they are on their own. Failure to care for our citizens assures overfilled prisons and people sleeping in back alleys. As we have seen in the past, that is a formula for riots.
Amendment 14 of the US Constitution begins with:
Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Part of the conservative ideology is that states should be self-governing. As such, it is their desire to reduce the size of the national government by returning as much power as possible to the states and the individual. I agree that an individual’s constitutional rights must be protected. My concern is about what are considered individual rights. It gets back to Seth’s admonition not to violate others.
Personal dignity and wellbeing are liberties that do not infringe on the needs of the community. They are internal to the individual. By comparison, some individual acts claimed as liberties have a potentially negative effect on others.
Consider the claim that the Second Amendment of the Constitution allows the individual unlimited access to any kind of gun, and to regulate that access in any way violates the Constitution. In fact, target shooting is the second major cause of forest fires. See Guns blamed for sparking some wildfires in West In that sense, the right to own and shoot a gun infringes on others peoples liberties.
Hunting is one of those liberties gun owners claim that begins to clash with the growing unarmed use of the wilderness. The bullet from a hunting rifle can kill at better than a mile. In many places which were once considered “in the woods” it is difficult to shoot in any direction without finding people less than a mile away … often out of the hunter’s vision.
Wood burning heaters in regions prone to Winter temperature inversion compound health problems for citizens. Reno, Nevada is a good example. The code allowing wood burning remains green well beyond the point at which we can smell the air. People claim the liberty to use fire for heat at the expense of other people’s health. (Probably their own, as well.) See Air pollutants from fireplaces and wood-burning stoves raise health concerns
Social Justice
Women’s rights, freedom of sexual orientation and minority rights are issues that seem always under attack by people who put religious ideology above social justice. I agree with Seth’s admonition that we should not violate by imposing our will on others.
Governmental decisions based on religious belief violates the concept of separation between church and state.
Equal treatment under the law
There is compelling evidence that the law is not evenly enforced across income levels, age, gender and race. See Supermajority of Americans Believe that Fair and Equal Treatment Under the Law Trumps Individual Beliefs, Poll Finds.
Equal Opportunity
With a limited amount of financial energy, a balance must be found that is fair to citizens no matter their economic status. As it stands today, the disparity between the average citizen and the very rich is such that 1% of our populations holds 40% of America’s wealth as of 2017. See The richest 1 percent now owns more of the country’s wealth than at any time in the past 50 years
Immigration
Citizens of the USA are no longer reproducing at a sustainable rate to support the job market. Education is part of the answer, but the fact is, we need immigrants. The answer is not an unregulated flow across the border but a reasonable policy that helps to direct people to the places their skills are needed. See The U.S. labor shortage is reaching a critical point.
I am an advocate of the rule of law. If there is a problem with a law, then there is a mechanism to change it. Anarchy at the border for immigration is not the answer. The last thing we want is to have people begin their time in the country by violating our laws. With that said, I oppose the way our country is dealing with immigration. Simply put, their policies appear to be based on prejudice rather than considering the economic interests of our country and if applicants are being inhumanely treated.
Assimilation of immigrants into our society is important. The social diversity we enjoy from people of many different cultures helps to break up old thought patterns about “this is how it is supposed to be done.” Society is much healthier with the new perspectives. Again, immigration laws require a balanced, humane and fair approach to maintain a healthy population of US citizens.
Social Safety Net
To make assimilation work, it is necessary to have a strong social support structure. This is not about welfare as a way of life. It is about assuring that people do not go hungry or without a safe, clean and respectable place to live, while they are guided toward self-sufficiency.
Health
In my memory, the Affordable Care Act really began with Bill Clinton’s effort to reform the health system. That was when conservatives decided they hate Hilary Clinton. (They have been irrationally angry toward her since.) As I understand it, conservative resistance to changes in health care is based mostly on ideological fear of creating a new entitlement. See Why Republicans Hate Obamacare So Much
We all suffer to some extent when people are without health care. The fact is that we all will need it sooner or later and care should not financially ruin the family. If healthcare is an entitlement, the cost is offset by the cost of fixing the social problems that comes from an ailing population.
If conservatives hold control of the government, we can expect more of the healthcare program to be shifted to the states. This will benefit some, but we are citizens of the USA, not of the state we live in. If you doubt that, let your state try to leave the Union. Fair treatment of citizens means a health program that is compliant with a national standard. That can only be accomplished with a national plan. See Conservatives Make New Push to Repeal Affordable Care Act
Education
Our country cannot survive as an economic power without well-educated citizens. While many of our young people are wondering what kind of menial job they will be able to find, we are importing skilled labor from other countries. Even more discouraging for efforts to help citizens find gainful employment, we see companies exporting production to other countries because they cannot find enough skilled labor in the USA.
Government helps fund our educational institutions, including college. Yet, students are forced to pay burdensome tuitions, and often compete on the Bell Curve with foreign students who may be paid to get good grades.
I lived through that, competing with Iranian students who cheated the curve at my expense.
Privatizing schools and school vouchers drain important support away from public school systems. This tends to increase the disparity between the rich and poor in this country. Education must be made more affordable and better targeted toward citizen needs. It should not be used to further isolate special interest groups.
Guns
Guns are intended to kill. There is no getting around that fact. Target practice could be as easily accomplished with a paintball gun, so “guns are fun” is no excuse. Owning a gun means the owner entertains the possibility of killing.
Arguably, people who want a handgun are fearful and fearful people are just the sort of people we don’t want around with a gun. Research shows that people carrying a gun are more apt to think other people are carrying a gun. See Is someone holding a gun more likely to think others are armed? New study says yes and The “weapons effect.”
The evidence indicates that carrying a gun does not make a person safer, and in fact, increases the rate of violent crime. See Does carrying a gun make you safer? No. In fact, right-to-carry laws increase violent crime
The US must look like a dangerous place to live. Here is a quote from the British article, US gun violence in six chilling statistics:
“…Between 2014 and 2017, 56,755 Americans were killed by guns, including 2,710 children under the age of 12.
In that time, there have been 1,333 mass shootings – defined as incidents in which at least four people are injured or killed – eight of them at elementary or high schools.
The figures compiled by the GVA [Gun Violence Archive] include both intentional and accidental shootings, but do not include suicides, which account for an additional 22,000-gun deaths every year.” (5/18/2018 Paragraph 10-13)
The National Rifleman’s Association has held our government hostage for decades using millions of dollars on lobbying and political support. The single-issue voters the NRA can rally against politicians who do not support their objectives are one of the reasons the checks and balances of our government seem to be broken.
This is not just a Republican problem, as I think many politicians can be threatened or bribed by the NRA.
The Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
This does not guarantee the right of private ownership of the kind of weapons we see today. Using the NRA’s logic, an individual could own a nuclear or chemical bomb if they were configured as an “Arms.” In fact, the weapons of the times were muskets. As such, I say, let them have muskets and stop there!
Capitalism
The recent tax bill helped investors and benefited the very rich at the cost of lower-income citizens. From 4 winners and 4 losers from the Republican tax bill:
Winner: Corporate America
Winner: Donald Trump
Winner: Tax accountants
Winner: individual taxpayers — for the short-term
Loser: individual taxpayers — in the long-term
Loser: fiscal conservatism
Loser: Blue states
Loser: Obamacare marketplaces
Tariff Trade War: The trade war may hurt American corporations in the short term but will likely increase profits in the long term. At the same time, American consumers are beginning to see higher costs that probably will not be recovered.
Arms Sales: The Whitehouse has waffled over penalizing Saudi Arabia if they did assassinate that missing Saudi journalist (10-17-2018). The emphasis is on the arms deals, but the President is being disingenuous when he says it will create jobs. From Arms Sales Decisions Shouldn’t Be About Jobs:
“In addition, most major U.S. sales now involve offsets or licensed production – processes in which recipients of U.S. arms and technology produce all or part of U.S.-supplied weapons in their own countries.
“… licenses to produce U.S. weapons overseas have been a regular practice during Donald Trump’s time in office. One of the more embarrassing examples of this phenomenon was when President Trump bragged about the jobs impact of F-35 sales during last year’s trip to Japan, apparently unaware that F-35s sold to Japan and other regional players would be produced at a U.S.-licensed facility in Japan.” 3/26/2018
While arms sales may produce a few jobs, there are far more efficient ways to do that without proliferating weapons of war. The real winners are the American capitalist.
Lobbyists
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.” Abraham Lincoln
“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
“As a result of the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, American democracy is being undermined by the ability of the Koch brothers and other billionaire families. These wealthy contributors can literally buy politicians and elections by spending hundreds of millions of dollars in support of the candidates of their choice. We need to overturn Citizens United and move toward public funding of elections so that all candidates can run for office without being beholden to the wealthy and powerful.” Sen. Bernie Sanders
In a very real sense, we the people are no longer represented by our elected representatives. Sanders has a good point. Citizens United was decided by a conservative Supreme Court in 2010 based on the free speech clause of the First Amendment. The combination of gerrymandered voting districts, suppression of voter rights and the influence of radicalized conservative groups such as the infamous Tea Party and that ruling has effectively given our country to a minority group of rich radicals and corporations. (All of those factors have been approved by the conservative Supreme Court.) see How Corporate Lobbyists Conquered American Democracy
Economic Theory
Trickledown and Supply-side economics are favorite Republican economic theories intended to increase the productivity of businesses by reducing regulations and taxes placed on business and the “job makers.” While following the theories may be effective in increasing productivity, they have increased the difference in wealth between the very rich and the average person.
Regulations exist to protect the environment, workers and public from self-serving individuals and corporations. It is this determination to remove regulation under the guise of improving the economy that will assure this nation offers no response to climate change or environmental degradation.
To be realistic, corporations are expected to make money for their investors. Their officers would be negligent if they “trickled down” more wealth than necessary. I do not know the best approach, but I do know corporations are not paying their fair share. Remember it is a two-way deal. They make us goods and we buy them. Neither can get along without the other.
Realistically, corporations are enabled by the public they serve.
It is the public that pays for the schools that trains people to make their products. It is the public that makes it economically feasible to build the transportation system that moves their product to market. It is largely American raw material and energy used to produce the products.
It appears the Republican party sees citizens as consumers rather than people who deserve a fair share of the wealth they enable.
Consider this. The recent tax cut was intended to make it economically advantageous for corporations like Apple to bring money stashed in other countries, back to the US. The idea was that the tax cut would pay for itself by investment in new plant, increased jobs and pay. As predicted by the Democrats, most of those repatriated funds went right into stock buybacks, a move intended to increase the net worth of the corporation. See Here’s How America’s Biggest Companies Are Spending Their Trump Tax Cuts (It’s Not on New Jobs)
There must be a balance between corporate profits and worker gains. A company like Apple sheltering billions of dollars overseas might be good practice for the shareholder, but it ignores the responsibility of the corporation to be a good citizen. Again, much of corporation profits are made possible by citizens building the infrastructure in which the corporations make their money. Any citizen or corporation not willing to pay a fair share should not be able to profit from Americans.
Be mindful of the little cost increases here and there that most hurt the lower-income families.
Regressive Tax: Taxation that takes a larger percentage of a lower-income and a smaller percentage of a higher income. For example, a tax on the basic necessities (which form a larger percentage of the expenditure of the lower income population) is a regressive tax. businessdictionary.com
Mean Spirited – Racism
Two images of Trump will forever be what first comes to mind when he is mentioned. The first is his face as he mocked a journalist who suffers from arthrogryposis, which locks joints.
The second is his angry face as he whipped up anger in the mob at a rally.
Picture from The Telegraph: Donald Trump is getting angry white men very excited. Unfortunately, they won’t decide the election.
The most deplorable I have seen his followers has been when he gets his followers going with “Lock her up” and the way they cheered him on when Trump mocks Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony, tells people to ‘think of your son.’
There appears to be a direct correlation between Trump’s mean-spirited approach to government and the increase in meanspirited behavior around the country. See for instance, Trump doesn’t just fail a moral standard. He enables cruelty and abuse.
This was immediately evident when, shortly after he took office, racists seemed to come out of the shadows to march and demand their right to be racists. President Trump is normalizing racism
Final Note
There seems no sense in writing a conclusion to this essay. Each of us must make up our mind.
Truth to Power
As the great Paul Harvey would say, wash your ears out with this:
Lynzy Lab performed her song “A Scary Time”
