This is a difficult topic to approach; however, I chose this to be my first blog to perhaps add some clarity to my position. For one, it deals with politics – a sensitive topic which has become even more sensitive in recent days. However, to clarify my position on politics and perhaps convince others that “We the People” can take a different approach to our political views rather than depending on party politics for our personal opinions.
Conservative in my political views as is it may be, I am not a member of any political party. Many of our founding fathers did not believe in political parties, though it seems to have degenerated into that situation almost immediately. The primary reason for my point of view is that there are some liberal beliefs and political positions with which I agree. Then there are obviously conservative beliefs and political positions with which I agree. But by and large what I believe is that if it is supposed to be “we the people”, then we should do as much for ourselves as we possibly can; both individually and as a community.
Take for example ecology, that was the 1970’s term for the conservation of our natural world/environment. We made great advances in technology in the 20th Century. So far as to take the dream of exploring beyond the confines of earth to making space exploration a reality. But unless we make a true “quantum leap” in technology in this century, we will still be confined to this planet; regardless of its suitability as a habitat. Therefore, it is only logical that we must conserve our natural resources and environment. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) along with “authorized” states[1], regulates industry in terms of the waste that industry generates and how it disposes of its wastes. But the EPA and State governments do not regulate individuals and we the people are the largest generator, collectively speaking, of waste in this and every other country. Now this would be the liberal in me.
Now as for the more conservative side, I am in favor of a smaller Federal government. That doesn’t just mean less people on the Federal payroll, but less control of our lives out of Washington, D.C. and more state and local control. The cities and states of this collective of semi-autonomous states known as the United States of America were, in the beginning, just that. Only during and after the Civil War did the Federal government begin to assert more control over the states as a whole. While broadened powers are necessary during wartime; that is, a war of the scale of the Civil War, WWI, WWII, etc., it is not necessary during peacetime. Trouble is: after the peace is made, agencies have been formed, people have jobs in these agencies and they want to keep their jobs. But federal oversight is not only: not necessary in every situation, it isn’t efficient or effective. People in their own localities know best what it is they need; not people thousands of miles away in D.C.
The scope of this essay is way too broad to complete – with the exception of spending another month or two or twelve or thirty-six or… This is just a start to a topic which will be an ongoing conversation with many subtopics to come.
[1] States are authorized by the EPA when they write their own environmental regulations, approved by the EPA, which are at least as stringent as the federal regulations and they may be more stringent.