Political Commentary

Before I get started, imagine my shock when I looked at a Readers Digest and saw an article with exactly the same title. It was kind of funny really. That article was about something completely different too.

After the Tuesday primaries, I asked a friend why they chose to vote the way they did. The response was that they wanted change. I think we all want some kind of change, but change by itself is neither positive or negative. It is just change. During the current political campaign, I have been laughing at the candidates during debates as they argue back and forth who is really the candidate of change. “I am the candidate of change.” “No, I am.” “You are not, I am.” “Hunh unh.” “I said it first!” Well that is all pretty funny, and doesn’t really mean anything ultimately.

I think rather than arguing about who is the candidate of change, the candidates should really reveal what kind of changes they want to make, so that the American people can decide if they are proposing good or bad changes. I propose that everyone should make a list of changes they would like to see, and a list of changes they would not like to see. Everyone would have a different list of changes, probably. Then they should take a careful look at the candidates and see if they offer the changes you want. I will describe some of the changes I would like here.

First the good changes:

Lower taxes
Smaller government
Less government spending
Repeal of the 14th ammendment
Repeal of the 16th ammendment
Enforcement of the 2nd ammendment
Enforcement of immigration laws
Elimination of entitlements for illegal aliens
Less government interference in my life
Protecting our borders
Supporting our border patrol agents
An intelligent energy policy
Controlled end of US occupation of Iraq

There are a few, for example. Now, what I would consider bad changes:

Increased taxes
Drivers licenses for illegal aliens
Government mandated health care
Immediate withdrawal from Iraq
Global warming and other countries dictating US energy policy
Endangering the lives of our border patrol agents by prosecuting them when they defend themselves
Increasing entitlements for illegal aliens

OK. There are a few changes that I have heard about from our candidates of change. Now look at your lists and see what candidate supports the “good” changes, and what candidate supports the “bad” changes. This should give you a pretty clear idea of who to vote for. Of course, you want to vote for the person who supports your good changes. Now, for my lists, I don’t see anyone supporting any of my good list. Supporting the bad list to greater or lesser extent - John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and Barak Obama. Obama supports the highest number of the bad changes on my list. This means that as an agent of change, Obama represents really bad change for me. While I am very impressed with Obama’s demeanor and speaking ability, and he seems like a man with integrity, he does not support any of the changes that I would like to see. So he would not be a good candidate of change for me. I would rather have the status quo. I guess status quo would lead me to John McCain. But I would really like change too! To me, McCain does not represent change. He represents continuation of the bad policies of the current administration. To me, changing gender or race of a president is completely irrelevant, and a dangerous way to select a president.

It is really sad when you have a choice of status quo, which is bad, or bad changes, which is even worse. Unfortunately, that is the best the current crop of major candidates have to offer. I would invite all of my readers to make a similar list for themselves and see what candidate you arrive at. Maybe I will write myself in again. That would be fun.