This exercise was originally posted at: http://maritimeorca0.blogspot.com/2014/10/review-political-parties.html
Task
Review at least three political parties. Try to find how the various parties reflect what you truly believe. By requiring three parties, you will have to review at least one third party.
My Idea
As I mentioned in my notes when I introduced this exercise, a list of defining beliefs can be a good starting point. Most of my defining beliefs reflect the reasons that I do not support the schools, but I can still use them. I have decided to consolidate my beliefs and rewrite them so that they better reflect what I want out of politics.
I went to the websites (should provide a roughly even bias since websites are designed with the same general purpose) of 5 political parties (Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, and Constitution). From those sites, I tried to extract positives and negatives (usually more after negatives since the bias of the website means that positives could be spin while negatives are legitimate). I also made quick checks on Wikipedia to get some information that I missed on the political websites.
Unfortunately, my first site was the Democrats. They had a lot of text with little substance. They were also clearly embracing a government shutdown so that they could exploit it for political gains (remember that I make these exercises a year ahead of posting). This made it a little harder to remain neutral throughout the process. It also made it harder for me to sit down and actually read everything that each party believes. I found myself skimming through the other websites to find important details.
Mindlessness is my biggest fear
is now
Party members deviating from party lines
The only way for a party to consistently agree is if members mindlessly conform to party lines. I would rather see politicians willing to form their own thoughts and opinions. This was meant as the one objective measure (based on party deviation on randomly-selected issues). Unfortunately, only the Democrats and Republicans have enough power in this country to evaluate. This category has been removed from third parties.
It is better to be a good person than appear to be a good person
is now
More reliant on principal than political games
Party members should try to pass laws that will help the people and reject laws that will hurt. They should not rely on unethical political measures to get their way. I hate vote buying and trading as well as exploitation of legal loopholes (I don’t have a good method of evaluating either of those things). I don’t care for all the rhetoric that tries to manipulate the public into hating the opposing party.
In the ideal world, no two people are alike
and
You should never rely on others to tell you how you prefer to do things
are now
Willingness to support individuality
Since no two people are alike, the government needs to accommodate over three hundred million personalities. There are a lot of things that can harm the right to individuality. For example, I believe in small government. The larger the government becomes, the more control they have over the citizens. I also believe in the core concepts of equality. We should all be treated with the same respect despite our differences. These differences include variable beliefs and opinions as well as the desire to accomplish our goals in our own ways. One of my biggest goals in life is to become me. I don’t want the government to add obstacles to that goal.
Teaching and learning refer to the same process
is now
Values discussion over propaganda
Ultimately, I feel that everybody should make up their own minds on each issue. A lot of politics consist of telling people that they should agree with the party paying for the message. I have more respect when somebody points to resources that can help people make up their own minds. If somebody points out a party’s flaws, they should be wiling to listen. While most parties are highly likely to skew anything provided to justify their beliefs, I will be looking for parties that are willing to point to sources that acknowledge flaws.
Those who want to learn should be allowed to do so with as little restriction as possible
and
True education is a need
are now
Supportive of educational rights
Education is a need, and it’s inexcusable to insist that all education should be confined to a restrictive schooling environment. We need to become more tolerant and supportive of learning that occurs outside of school, and we should not push for more people to become mere products of the schools. We should not feel obligated to pay more for the government to increase its control over the need. I may refer to Misconceptions from my education blog. The worst argument to give me from a political standpoint is free college. This argument generally shows that a party embraces all the flaws in our schooling system, wants to make the process more expensive, and encourages discriminatory policies against those who learn elsewhere.
The present and future are more valuable than the past
is now
Will not sacrifice the future for short-term gains
The population of our generation is not nearly as important as the combined populations of the next thousand generations. A lot of political games rely on giving us what we want, but we expect future generations to pay. There are two really good examples in the political world. The first is the debt. Future generations will have to pay for our benefits with interest. It also sets up serious problems in the future if creditors realize that we can’t pay them back. The other example is the environment. We are doing some serious damage right now, but we don’t want to be inconvenienced. As a result, we will leave this world in worse shape than we found it. These two issues can be kind of tricky because most ideas for addressing the environment put a financial burden on future generations. Between these two, I feel that environment is more important but the government has more control of its debt.
Self-evaluations can always lead to improvement
will not be used
The purpose of websites for political parties is to persuade the public to support their parties. Insisting that they have problems that need to be fixed does not fit this purpose. Between the five parties reviewed, the only one that acknowledged any mistakes came from the Republicans. What mistake did they admit? Their political strategy for the presidential election was flawed. Instead of addressing outdated beliefs or ethics, they were looking at how to improve their election chances.
Neutrality is impossible
will not be used
The primary purpose of this exercise is to figure out how the parties match my beliefs. In a sense, I’m comparing the bias of multiple parties to my own personal bias. I don’t need to address this belief.
Thought should not be restricted by words
will not be used
Since I will be basing my reviews off of words that I can read online, I really can’t judge how well their thought goes beyond words.
The first time is more valuable than the hundredth
will not be used
I probably could have used this, but what I’m really after with this belief would be difficult to establish. The idea is that maintaining a specific thought pattern focused on a single subject is not as valuable mentally as moving on. Sometimes, an issue needs a lot of attention, and change for the sake of change is not always good. This makes it very difficult to extract anything useful for the reviews.
A common belief among all is not proof
will not be used
This is not a good belief to apply to politics. These people are supposed to (but rarely do) represent the people. While it’s nice to see someone occasionally stand up against the majority (and sometimes supermajority) for what’s right, it’s generally not an appropriate political action. Even so, there actually are a few times when I do like politicians going against the mindless masses (I would love to see a push for legalized education).
True knowledge does not exist
will not be used
Most politics rely more on political beliefs than facts. While there are times that facts are presented to help their arguments (usually misrepresented to make their cause look better), this is not a major political concern.
Happiness is the ultimate goal in life
will not be used
Although I could include a category about supporting the pursuit of happiness, I don’t think I can provide an accurate review of that category. This is primarily due to the fact that different people want different things. Part of this will likely be integrated into support of individuality since more people will be able to pursue happiness if the government is tolerant of individuality.
You have to be in a situation to know how you would deal with it
will not be used
This belief was more of a reflection of how people look at mistakes made by others and insist that they would not make the same mistake. For example, people who have grown up knowing that slavery is bad seem to overwhelmingly insist that they would have had the exact same anti-slavery beliefs if they had grown up being raised to believe that slavery is just a part of society. This is not a good belief to relate to politics because it could be misinterpreted. You shouldn’t pass a bill purely for the sake of finding out if it’s brilliant or catastrophic.
Intelligence cannot be measured
will not be used
I don’t like the arrogant mindlessness of stereotypical college graduates (common in politicians). A lot of this arrogance comes from a feeling of intellectual superiority stemming from success with a process inaccurately portrayed as an intellectual pursuit. I’m trying to evaluate parties, but intelligence is more of an individual issue.
Who I am is more important than what I am
will not be used
A lot of politics is about economy. If you look at my categories, I’m not limited to jobs versus people. Quality of life is a big issue for me. That’s why things like individuality and educational rights have their own sections for review. If I added a category for this belief, it would essentially be used to summarize other review categories. I don’t feel that’s necessary.
Nobody will ever be better at being you than you
will not be used
We all have our own strengths, and we should feel free to pursue those strengths. While this is a very important concept, I am confident that an environment that supports individuality will allow the pursuit to happen. I don’t feel like I need to add an additional category for a positive consequence of something that I’m already covering.
Added
Other issues
There are things that concern me but are not going to be listed as defining beliefs. So I can capture some missing components, I am adding a section to my reviews for other issues.
The actual reviews can be found at: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=2E6EFB80915ED5BD!7533&authkey=!AGtgpbpV0zov17I&ithint=file%2cdocx
Notes
Although this was written during a government shutdown, the decision to make this exercise had nothing to do with the shutdown. I already had it on a list of exercises that I wanted to develop, and it was at the top of the list for reviews (the specific type of exercise that I had already settled on). I figured that because I knew that both sides played a role, I could push past it. The Democrats ruined that for me by proving that they wanted the shutdown for political reasons. I still don’t like the idea of changing exercises just because I personally struggle with them, so I kept with it.
Feel Free to Comment
Now that this exercise has concluded, feel free to share any thoughts that you had regarding results, your approach, and any other ideas that popped into your head regarding this exercise.
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