And then there was one.

Last night I spoke with an old man from California who thinks it is cute that I may or may not have voted for GWB in 2004.


(Are you sure that is even me??)

He suggested that I might explain my preference for the right side of the spectrum. And I guess it is funny that despite the fact I spend 75% of each day thinking, eating, and sweating politics that I rarely ever bring anything up here. The truth is, knowing so much becomes disenchanting. There are no good guys, not really, because politicians are really just unattractive versions of Paris Hilton, who say and do anything for power, money, and influence. Some elected officials are better than others at making you believe that they are sincerely and genuinely interested in making the world a better place for you and me. But when it comes down to it, they are much more interested in self-preservation. I suppose that this could mean that part of the time, some good may come out of this equation, that your interests and their interests might temporarily align. The Senators, Governors, and Presidents who appear on your ballot are not evil people, but they are human none the less. Deep down somewhere they have ideals and values.

I only know of one politician, and I've met and worked with hundreds, who made a political sacrifice for what he actually believed in and the public responded by denying him a re-election despite the fact that he turned a dying and suffering second city into a culturally diverse, safe and interesting place to live and work. He was even a Democrat and I voted for him twice.

When I call myself a Republican I do so under the assumption that the label Republican means smaller government, state autonomy, and the preservation of the most basic of human rights. I don't think it should mean government sponsored spying, the withholding of pertinent information from the American public, or the prolonging of unnecessary war. The Constitution was written in such a way to balance power between the branches of the Federal government and under the pretense that power over the lives of citizens would not lie at the Federal level, but at the state level. It seems clear to me that when you hand over money and control to any single entity, you sacrifice the prospect for equity, freedom, and fairness. If James Madison were to walk the lands from sea to shining sea right now, I think he would have a nervous break down. This is not what he envisioned and this is not what we should tolerate. The Federal government and all of it subsidiary branches, divisions, organizations, and corporations are so ineffective because they can only address the needs of the American people in an entirely homogeneous way. It's no wonder that the minorities, the impoverished, the uneducated become lost and fall further behind. The bureaucrats are so busy developing a model which fits the majority that they fail to address what plagues the most vulnerable of the population. That is not the way the most prosperous, most powerful nation in the world should be run.

To be sure, our country has done a lot of good in the world and I'm certain that the promotion of freedom, whatever the motivations, will benefit human kind as a whole at some point in time. I find it alarming that the United States continually falls lower and lower on the various ranking lists of organizations like Freedom House and even Human Rights Watch. Take for example, our dismal 24th place ranking from the Global Press Freedom Rankings 2005.

How do we fix it? I'm not sure and any answer I provide will be purely sophomoric, but maybe the solution has to be that obvious. The Federal government needs to stop addressing things like health care, education, and poverty. These issues are best left to the communities who intimately know the people who live and work within them. Power and money need to be yanked away from politically motivated career politicians and redirected towards the state level. The Federal government should refrain from restricting freedoms like that of a woman's right to choose. It should operate transparently and efficiently because it has no valid excuse not to. If we are going to claim that we are citizens of the greatest nation in the world, it is time for us to demand that things be done correctly.

That all being said, I stand by those that I am responsible for having elected. There may be policy decisions that I disagree with, however I disagree knowing that they have at their disposal information that I do not have access to. The decision making process used to determine policy and action is overtly complicated and subject to factors I cannot even account. I just wish that some of those decisions could be venerated and questioned in a more public forum without accusations that those who question THEIR government are un-American. The government is made up from a body of humans and humans make errors, most especially when try to work together with people whose goals and intentions might be less than pure...I just wish they would admit it.