I Heart Politics: March 2010

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Shot Heard Round the World

Although I know no one reads this blog (yet) I still feel like I owe it to my conscience to post my thoughts on the recent health care debate and even more recent health care bill.

First: How did an issue so personal become so widely run by government? When did we as an American people decided that our personal health was subject to government intervention? I for one know I never agreed that the government had a place in providing for my health.

Second: Where in the Constitution is reconciliation allowable or mentioned? When in history has reconciliation been allowed? What gives government the right to side step rules in order to push legislation forward?

Third: How did this happen?

The third question is the one I'm most interested in. My newest idea for a book---tracking the progress of governmental social interaction from the beginning of American society to the present day. I think it will be fascinating to link the social transitions to the political transitions.

Also, I find it interesting that 78% of Americans did not want the health care bill passed by the House on Sunday. That's a much more significant majority than 219-212 (which is 50.8% if you were interested). How is it possible that such a radical change to our governement, and by extension our society, can be decided by a majority of .8%? That doesn't seem to demonstrate the way our government works. It looks like this time representation didn't mean a thing.

-lil' miss liberty-

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Laughter Is Good for the Soul.

A little laughter never hurts when it comes to politics. It tones down the divisiveness, the partisanship, the angst. Compare and contrast the two images below. Differences? Similarities? All I know is I laugh every time I look.

This is our current President. He's addressing a group of elementary school children in a classroom. I'm not sure why he needs teleprompters, giant speakers, the podium from the White House press room, a secret service agent, and a brand new suit, but he does look pretty nice (and intimidating).

And this is our former President addressing a group of elementary school children in the gymnasium. Little different approach wouldn't you say?

Interesting to see how two different men handle the same situation. Who cares more about appearance? Who cares more about relatability? Who cares more about prestige? Who cares more about connectedness? Those are not my opinions, just some questions I thought were relevant to these two pictures. I think I could do an entire research project based on these two pictures. In fact, I just might.

-lil' miss liberty-

HOW TO: Learn from the Wise

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or decisions possible or impossible to execute."
-Abraham Lincoln-

"A politician is a statesman who approaches every question with an open mouth."
-Adlai Stevenson-

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."
-Aesop-

"When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow."
-Anais Nin-

"The peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: "Our country -- when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.""
-Carl Schurz-

"Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office."
-David Broder-

"When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it?"
-Eleanor Roosevelt-

"It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment."
-Elie Wiesel-

"What experience and history teach is this -- that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles."
-George Wilhelm Hegel-

"Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear."
-Harry S. Truman-

"The greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between giant organized systems of self-righteousness -- each system only too delighted to find that the other is wicked -- each only too glad that the sins give it the pretext for still deeper hatred and animosity."
-Herbert Butterfield

"Citizenship is what makes a republic -- monarchies can get along without it."
-Mark Twain

"States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions."
-Noam Chomsky-

"There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands."
-Plato-

"The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."
-Plato-

"A politician looks forward only to the next election. A statesman looks forward to the next generation."
-Thomas Jefferson-

"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."
-Thomas Jefferson-

HOW TO: Get to Know Me

I'm a political science major at Arizona State. I love politics, always have, always will. I feel like a majority of young people feel like politics isn't for them, or that it is better to left to the older and more wise generation. Well, that is obviously false. The old and wise generation has, and continues to let us down. So unless we (the future leaders) start to take notice we're doomed to the same mistakes. So this is me---making my meager impact. I hope to present my political views (and political nonsense) in a humorous, respectful, and occasionally scholarly way. Enjoy. --or don't, it's your choice--