Live from Hofstra....

9:36 P.M. It seems like this is just back-and-forth bickering, and obviously nothing new is gonna happen here tonight. If something does I'll make a comment, but I'm pretty disgusted at this debate so I think I'm gonna wrap it up

9:25 P.M. Awesome!!! what a good question about mudslinging!!!

9:23 P.M. Finally Obama comes back to McCain's claim that Obama never goes against the party leaders, and he finally challenged McCain's B.S. comments

9:21 P.M. I still don't understand how McCain is going to bring about change when he voted with Bush over 90% of the time

9:19 P.M. Ok, I'm pretty non-committed, but is just me or does McCain look like he's on speed? Shaking, red eyes, he keeps blinking? I think Johnny Boy is a junky

Ooooo good question. They got asked about the fact that their budgets will increase the deficit $200 billion. This is so characteristic of candidates- say they're gonna do lots of things, don't say how they're gonna pay for it, and then don't end up doing it. Obama's gonna go through every single line of the budget and eliminate whatever's not important? C'mon Barry

McCain: "why would you wanna increase taxes on anyone right now?" ummm because people who receive golden parachutes *cough* AIG *cough* should be making up for their mistakes

Can they please talk about something new? McCain has brought up Obama taxing small businesses in every single debate, and Obama always responds with the same thing.

Hmmm weird, McCain is telling Obama about some guy named Joe that Obama met. Weird. Oh, and McCain is gonna give Joe health insurance. Oooook. I've just been informed that when humans blink a lot, they're lying...look at Obama and McCain- who blinks more?

Welcome to the last of three debates between Barack Obama and John McCain, hosted by Hofstra University!

It's Wednesday night!!!

What do I want to see?

What do I want to see in the next four years? (What change really is):

• Government accountability- this means politicians having to answer for their actions, and citizens being informed of their representatives decisions. How hard would it really be for officials to be given a one minute spot on local news channels to tell their constituents what they did that day, what they voted on, and why they did it? It's wrong that our Congress has the smallest approval rating ever, yet reelection rates are at an all-time high. Why is that? Because representatives don't communicate on a regular basis what they're doing in Washington. Elected officials should answer to the people, and should always be considering what the public reaction to any decision is going to be

• Honest and clean politics- this election in particular has opened our eyes to how dirty political elections are. When you allow candidates to air any type of ad they want, that opens the door to a whole slew of problems: it puts a huge significance on campaign finances, allows for unnecessary character attacks, and generally leads to officials being elected based on the size of their wallets, not their merit and opinions. What can we do? Eliminate private campaign TV advertisements. Create a bipartisan commission to produce honest and fair commercials broadcasting the candidates' views and positions on issues. This type of positive campaign media will lead to a more educated electorate, and higher voter turnout

• More debates- a LOT more debates. This is what politics should be all about; public and open discussion in which politicians hammer out their opinions and policies. I liked John McCain's offer to Obama to hold ten or more town-hall style debates throughout the campaigns, and it's a shame that Obama turned him down. As long as Tom Brokaw doesn't moderate any more debates, this would lead to the electorate becoming more educated, and interesting, relevant questions being asked.

• A reform of the Congressional system- as I've posted before, the way the Congressional system has evolved is ridiculous. The current system of "mega-bills" is absurd, and has led to a muddled process, and made it difficult for representatives to stand up for what they believe. Each bill should have one topic, no ear-marks filled with pork-barrel spending, and Congressmen will be able to vote for or against it.


There are so many more things I'd like to see done, and I'm sure you have many more ideas of your own. If you like what I've been writing, share the link to this blog with your friends (http://publius4truth.blogspot.com) or join my facebook group

Interested in reading a live commentary on the debate tonight? I'll be blogging live during the entirety of the debate, starting at 9 PM

What can we do?

A recent post on my facebook group asked what my solution to our political problem is. The general attitude in the post was one that I've heard so many times; despair and resignation. The basic opinion among most Americans is one of "yeah I don't like what's going on, but I can't do anything to fix it". And THAT is the biggest problem in our country. The people have forgotten that they are the most important element in our government.
As I previously posted, an uneducated electorate is one of the failings of our democracy. However, I didn't mean that the electorate has not received schooling. What I was referring to is that the electorate, for the most part, does not take it upon themselves to be knowledgeable about the issues. Polls show that many Americans misunderstand the candidates' stances, and only a fraction of Americans watch the debates. When this happens the democratic process breaks down and things become very ugly. Because people aren't looking at the issues, character attacks become extremely important and profitable for campaigns. Candidates can say something repeatedly in television ads, and it will become true. Barack Obama isn't really going to raise taxes for everyone, but if John McCain's ads say it enough it becomes truth to American citizens.
It's statistically been shown that a "dirty" election (one with lots of mud slinging and negative campaigning) leads to low voter turnout. That could explain the fact that such a small percentage of Americans actually show up on election day. When barely fifty percent of eligible voters turn up to vote, that isn't majority rule- that's a flawed system. We need to clean up our politics, and break the generalization that all politicians are crooked.
What can we do to clean up our politics? There's a debate tonight. Go watch it. Look at what the candidates attack each other with. A majority of the time they won't debate each other's policies, they'll go after the voting records of their opponents. This is because of what our legislative process has become: Congressmen don't vote on individual concepts, they vote on mega-bills that contain dozens of topics. So of course you can drag up a voting record on any candidate that shows he voted for abortion, or against tax cuts. But there are probably also bills in which he voted against abortion and for tax cuts. What we need to do is to limit the extensiveness of bills so that Congressmen can vote for what they believe in and represent, and so that the ridiculous attacks on voting records will stop.
We need to remember that we the citizens are the most important part of the United States of America. We need to change the political atmosphere in which we don't hold politicians accountable for their actions and in which we do not become involved with our governing. We need to break out of the mindset that their is nothing we can do. Our founding fathers never believed that, and they would not have wanted us to do so. You have the right, and the responsibility to become an informed and active member of our government. Watch the debate, engage your friends in discussion, or contact your local representative. These are things that we should all be doing, and encouraging our fellow citizens to do.

Is our Government Really Broken?

Our government works in the sense that the effects of its failure have not been felt yet. Let me explain myself. Our government is, for argument's sake, a democracy. The core principles of a democracy are equality, and a government serving the interests of its people. However, our country's government has become a failed attempt at this. Though our founding fathers' idea was strong, times have changed, as has our system of government. In an age where lobbyists, corporate campaign funding, and negative campaign ads run rampant, power has been stripped from the hands of the constituents. We do not have an educated electorate, and this fact relieves politicians from the responsibility of being answerable to the people. The full extent of this has only occurred in the past few years; therefore our government still seems somewhat intact. But as more and more companies and PAC's realize the newfound potential power they have over the elected representatives of the people, nearly every decision will be made not by transparency and open debate, but by money changing hands and lobbyists paying off Congressmen. So what has to be done? In my mind there are several flawed aspects of our politics.
Lobbyists are one of the biggest issues our political culture faces. Yes, some lobbyists are honest representatives who merely support a certain cause, but many lobbyists are crooked Washington insiders hired by mega-corporations to exert an unfair amount of influence and to persuade Congressmen to support legislature that would be beneficial to certain corporations. These lobbyists often bribe our elected officials with cash gifts, expensive presents, and fancy dinners.
On a related note, we must stop campaign funding from corporations, and extensive donations from wealthy donors and PAC's. How can we possibly expect our representatives to make unbiased decisions when the same people who provide our politicians with campaign funding constantly nudge them one way or the other on pieces of legislation? The answer is we can't expect that, and it doesn't happen. So how do we prevent this? Eliminate the need for excessive campaign funding. As our system currently works, wealthy candidates have a huge advantage over their less fortunate opponents. These individuals can use their own wealth to finance their campaign. This is an intrinsically unfair aspect of American politics, and leads to less-wealthy candidates desperate for funding (which the PAC's are all-to happy to provide). If we were to initiate a system of free advertisements for all candidates, this would remove the much of the need for campaign funding. If we were to increase the number of publicly televised debates this would also level the playing field for less wealthy candidates, lead to a more educated electorate, and guarantee political victories based on merit, not wealth. Political reforms are not moving at the pace they should be, and unless a call for change is made the status quo will continue and our political situation will worsen.
There are so many things that could be bettered about our government's workings, and I'd love to hear some of your thoughts. After all, that's what this blog is about; open debate. So leave a comment, send me an email (john.publius1@gmail.com) or join my new facebook group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=42429172533&ref=nf


Thanks for reading

Change

I was recently asked what I would say to our next president were I to sit down with him. What change would I request him to make? I didn't know where to start. There are many changes that I would like to see made in the ruling of our country. But if I had to pick one, I would recommend that our next president begin to reevaluate where our funding is being appropriated, and begin working towards more global interdependence.
I believe that in our country our funds are being improperly used. Billions of dollars are wasted on pet projects and pork barrel spending, and huge benefits are being given to greedy corporations. Scientists are often given goals to meet, but are not allocated appropriate funds. They are then criticized for failing to meet their goals. We live in a constantly changing world, and we need to continue our legacy of being at the forefront of scientific progress and global relations. Our government needs to reevaluate what they are doing with our hard-earned tax dollars.
As a continuation of my first point, I think that the future administration should take much of the improperly placed funding and put it towards projects that assert our position as a positive world leader. Throughout the centuries, mankind has grown closer and closer together. From individuals in Mesopotamia, to nomadic tribes, to city-states, to kingdoms, to empires, to countries we have continued to come together. The next obvious step is for global interdependence to progress. The world needs a strong country to step forward and take the first step, and the United States is an obvious choice. With a joint global effort, the United States can dedicate its resources to finding the solutions to global problems. We need to place a bigger emphasis on fighting global warming, finding cleaner energy sources, and space exploration. This last topic is one that is not being researched as much as is necessary. Mankind has the potential to destroy itself and make our home planet uninhabitable. Even if this does not happen, our universe is an unpredictable entity that we do not fully understand. We need to ensure the survival of mankind, and must begin researching the colonization of other planets, for the continued existence of human beings.
Our government has lost its way in recent years. Too much time and energy is taken up by partisan bickering, and we lost what our founding fathers set out to create; a reasonable governing body. Our next president needs to transcend party differences, sensibly allocate our spending, and make the United States a frontrunner in global politics and science.

Welcome

Welcome to my...for lack of a better word blog. There are so many things wrong with the way our government and politics are being run. Corruption in Washington, an uneducated electorate, misleading and negative ads on television; government has truly become less about governing and more about drawing partisan lines, beating out one's opponents across the aisle, and getting reelected. But this is not how it has to be. The internet was a blessing to the American people and democracy. Distance and separation has always held us at the mercy of our elected officials. Because we did not have total access to the issues or to other constituents we had to rely upon our representatives to make decisions for us. But this practice was fallible. Politicians did not accurately represent the voices of those who elected them. The necessity of campaign finances brought politicians to their knees at the feet of special interest groups and PAC's. But this is no longer the way things should be run. With the existence of the internet, you and I can communicate and discuss how we want our country to be run. Power need no longer be dictated by the depth of one's pockets, but by the strength of one's words. Though our technology has progressed since the foundation of our country, we find ourselves once again in an era comparable to Hamilton's, Jay's, and Madison's. An era in which discontent has risen for the status quo, and in which those ruled resent their rulers. Yet there is hope. Through the internet, through free and open debate, through our words, we can come together and decide our future. I don't pretend to know all the answers, but I know that for America to achieve her greatest potential she must be governed by the voices of 400 million people, not a few hundred fat greedy politicians in Washington. I hope that over the coming weeks, months, and years you will join with me to change the way we let our voices be heard