Damn I'm feeling political lately...

So I've been thinking about the upcoming election, and, consequently, what a government, ideally, should do. Now, I realize that, as a subjective statement, this is a largely personal matter, and what something "should" do is different to everyone. But here's my philosophy...

1. Economy
The government has a responsibility to be fiscally sound, and create an environment that makes it possible for EVERYONE to have a chance at making money. That is, they need to make it so everyone, economically speaking, is on a level playing field. To me, this doesn't mean giving big corporations tax breaks. This would mean taxing the rich higher than the poor. It makes sense to me because the rich are already at a huge advantage over the poor, so having to pay a greater percentage of their income evens the playing field with the poor. This doesn't nullify that the rich earned their way to become rich because they are still going to be rich, and a poor person who becomes rich will be in the same boat, and have to pay his dues, so to speak.

2. Foreign Affairs
Concerning foreign policy, the government has a responsibility to act responibly in foreign affairs. They have to reflect the attitude of the majority of the people, and, if the government doesn't, then it is not serving its purpose. The government needs to interact peacefully with other countries, and, only after all peaceful options have been exhausted, consider war as an option. An important thing to remember as well is that it is not our government's job to impose its sense of morality/economy/governmental processes on another country.

3. Social Issues
My point of view is that it is not the government's job to tell it's citizens what and what not to do, socially speaking. Of course there have to be laws to protect others' rights, but further than that, the government should not have a say in what we choose to do in our personal lives. This includes imposing a religion on people, telling people what, socially speaking, is right and wrong. Today's issues relevant to this are gay marriage, the "war" on drugs, abortion rights, things like that.

4. Environment
The government has an absolute responsibility to manage the environment soundly. This includes signing nuclear limitation treaties, pollution ordinances, etc etc. And yes, this includes not polluting the sky and furthering the global warming effect. Yes, I realize that some people will say "Well, that can't be conclusively proven." Of course it can't, but it certainly hasn't been disproven. I think we need to look into the global warming effect more intensely and finally decide whether it's real or not. If we can't prove it either way, we should make ordinances against global warming contaminants, which makes sense anyway because the same particulates that cause global warming are not good to breathe or to even have around.

And finally, another word about the candidates. I've heard a lot that Kerry is just "the anti-Bush candidate." Well, he IS a democrat, and most of his ideology does conflict with Bush. I mean, if Kerry thought the same as Bush, why would the Democrats pick him to run? Of course he's Bush's antithesis. And yes, Kerry comes from a rich family. So why exactly does he run Democrat? Because he believes in the ideology. He's going to suffer from his tax plans, but he knows it's good for the country. He went to Vietnam and was injured. That last statement is a fact. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding him in Vietnam, he went, and Bush and Cheney didn't.

OK. Enough politics for now.