Starting off

I am, by today's political standards, what might be considered a statistical anomaly. Fiscally conservative, yet also economically fair (I want to see the budget balanced so that my children and grandchildren are not burdened by the silliness of my parents and my generation. But don't want to overly burden all Americans with silly increases in taxes and draconian cuts), yet socially progressive (kind of speaks for itself, but i'll elaborate in a lot more detail in a little bit).

I used to just in passing look at the nations political climate and say 'oh well, what can I do about it' and go about my life. But over the last few years, I've found myself wanting something more. Now, I watch MSNBC, Current, the political shows on the weekends on all the networks, and at least attempt to watch Fox News (before I have to change the channel to keep from throwing large heavy objects at the TV) as much as I can. and here's what I see.

1) Compromise, where has it gone? This is a country of over three hundred MILLION citizens, governed at the federal level by a total of five hundred thirty seven elected officials (535 in the legislative branch, 2 in the executive). Which in and of itself is the highest citizen to federally elected official in the world unless I am mistaken. To effectively GOVERN a nation of this size, compromise isn't a nice thing to have every once in a while. it should be a REQUIREMENT. 

2) You can't have it both ways. Many of the more extreme right call for a return to govern by the Constitution. yet have no problem abandoning the document when it suits their needs. Here's where my socially progressive side comes out by the way. You see them pushing for complete bans on abortion (including cases of rape, incest or the mother's well being), most forms of birth control, and infertility treatments by giving fertilized eggs full rights as citizens, yet do not want to give long term illegal aliens a viable path to citizenship. You see state and federal level 'definition of marriage' amendments, effectively denying fundamental rights to Americans whose only 'crime' is that they are gay. You see limiting of choices in health care plans and exemptions to existing ones based on 'religiously moral' grounds. I was raised as a Roman Catholic, so I'm well aware of how my church fells on those issues. I just don't happen to agree with them. You want to set 'standards' for educating our children, yet treat the teachers who provide that education as 'evil money seeking monsters'.  

Let's start with abortion/birth control. Until a fetus is clearly viable outside the womb (so probably at least 6 months), ANY choices in regards to that pregnancy are the woman's. Pregnancies caused by rape or incest are under that umbrella as well. When the mothers well being is at stake, she should come first. Birth control is another easy one if you stop and think about it logically. Look at the statistics regarding teen pregnancy and unwed mothers in this country. the highest rates of both are in the deep south, where sex ed for the most part boils down to 'don't have sex until your married' (Seems to really work well doesn't it?). Yes, abstinence should be taught in sex ed in school. But other forms of birth control should also be taught and be easily available 'if asked for'.

Onto another favorite target of social conservatives, gay marriage. And here, I'll get right to the point. Every state amendment in which the 'legal definition' of marriage (for the purposes of taxes, health benefits, next of kin, etc.) is one man and one woman is blatantly in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Gay/lesbian Americans are due the same rights to 'life, liberty, and property' as hetero-sexual Americans. End of discussion.

Using the examples above to allow employers to use 'moral' grounds to deny/make changes to employees' health care benefits (because that, along with truly reforming the tax code and federal term limits, are something I feel VERY strongly about and each deserves separate posts of their own). But to lay the groundwork for that post, I feel that one thing the federal government 'should' be allowed to do is set unified standards for what is considered 'basic care' which the states cannot deviate from.

After taxes, term limits, and health care.. My favorite thing to criticize politicians is education.  I'm all for holding our teachers and students to a higher standard. But you have do it right. Testing works, but doing a single, all-encompassing, all-powerful test to determine the fate of schools, their funding, and teachers jobs makes ZERO sense. Why not start and end the school year with a test. Use the results from the first test to identify where students are weak and strong, and then customize their class schedules to help them improve on the weak areas and challenge them in their strengths. Then judge schools and teachers by the results of the SECOND test. Invest in getting GREAT teachers in classrooms. Pay them properly.


Edit: just noticed I had mixed up the 4th and 14th amendments