The Exigent Duality
Political views, version 2.0 - 14:21 CST, 1/07/12 (Sniper)
In spite of the facts that I've always acknowledged the political landscape as something important to follow, and that I've assumed it was a topic I would find interesting, I had not put in the effort to learn much about politics until the summer of 2011.

A few months after my new-found interest in the American political scene, I decided to put in writing some of my viewpoints on various issues. I have been revising, and will continue to revise, these views as I learn more over time.

General culture: I tend to favor systems that provide a minimal amount of structure, and then step back to let things happen organically. I believe America at its best should be a country where anyone could pull themselves up by their bootstraps and achieve greatness, through hard work and ingenuity. I believe that we're pretty much there right now, which is great. Further, America should be about equal opportunity, not equality. Government should trust people to make sound decisions and try to stay out of their hair as much as possible.

State versus Federal power: When things are equal, the default bias should always be towards local government, and away from centralized government.

Fiscal policy: Pass a balanced budget ammendment, but allow for an override via a vast, bi-partisan majority in both the house and the senate, in the event of a total emergency. Follow Benjamin Franklin's message: "The burden of debt is as destructive to human freedom as subjugation by conquest." Pass legislation that enforces audits of the Federal Reserve. Form a commitee to investigate how to safely privatize or re-privatize all government-sponsored enterprises, such as Freddie Mac. Certain things like owning a home should be a privilege, not a right-- trying to artificially influence the markets creates bubbles.

Foreign policy: Retract Cold War containment policies. Plan for responsible withdrawl of troops from all around the world, including Iraq and Afghanistan. Follow Thomas Jefferson's advice: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none." Close our military bases all over the world except where they are needed. Continue to be proactive in protecting our interests, but let economics drive foreign policy, and only pursue highest priorities directly with military force; depend on subterfuge and clever diplomacy to handle the vast majority of issues.

Energy policy: Pursue established forms of energy-- oil and natural gas-- in equal measure with "alternative" energy through subsidies. Subsidies are a terrible idea generally because they circumvent the market and create bubbles, but in this case the market is not going to react quickly enough to the environmental duress our scientists have proven we're placing on the planet.

Technology policy: Keep the internet free-as-in-speech and open as much as possible, even if cultural evolution suffers; we've opened the can of worms and there is no way back now. This means that net neutrality is a must, and legislation like SOPA is a catastrophically bad idea.

Tax reform: Flatten the tax and broaden the base; introduce a flat tax and eliminate all deductions and loopholes. It's the only approach that is simple, consistent, and fair.

Copyright and patent law reform: Reduce copyright protection to twenty years, period, no exceptions. Reduce patent protection to ten years, period, no exceptions. Force the US Patent Office to check for obviousness as well as prior art. Develop very strict guidelines as to what a patentable invention really is. Instruct Patent Office to not be afraid of backlog; do not grant patents just because the workload is too high. Develop affiliation rules, and only allow for one hundred patent applications from affiliated parties per year. Use the freed up time and money to do audits to enforce the affiliation rules. Have US Patent Office enter all granted patents into an outsourced, open database so inventors can know if they are infringing on a patent; that problem will also be lessened because of the lower volume of granted patents due to the new policies.

Education reform: Dramatically scale back the scope of the department of education. The department's new duties should only include the analysis of mandatory, standardized testing, with penalties to states with poor test scores. Pass legislation that gradually phases out the public school system and replaces it with state-wide systems that pool property taxes and distribute them in the form of vouchers that parents can use towards any private school of their choosing. Include a clause that allows for states to opt out of this mandate and pursue their own education program if they so choose. Take some of the money saved via the reduction of the education department and offer it in the form of grants to encourage the formation of new private and charter schools. Repeal the "No child left behind" act; those laws do nothing but attempt to artificially simulate, at great cost, what the market would do much more swiftly and efficiently on its own.

Health care reform: Do exactly the opposite of the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act"; talk to health insurance providers and issue legislation that would lower their costs, not introduce beaurocracy that would increase their costs. Do everything possible to broaden the base of health care provider options for consumers in order to introduce price competition among providers. To further help people afford health insurance, issue tax credits such as described in the H.R. 3400 legislation.

Social security reform: Offer all citizens under the age of 35 the option to place their money into personal retirement accounts. Raise the retirement age and cut benefits until program is economically self-sufficient. Put a rule in place that bars politicians from robbing from the trust fund.

Military reform: Create a lean, efficient military that focuses on surveillance and counter-terrorism; the days of superpowers fighting massive ground campaigns with gigantic, ground-based armies are over.

Shrinking middle class: This is a real problem, but I have not yet heard of a fair solution from Republicans or Democrats, so we'll stay the course. Markets set the wages of everyone, from truck drivers to commodity traders to CEOs, no one is paid "too much" or "too little". And people who propose singling out the "rich" with extra tax burdens would be the first to cry foul if the same logic was applied to them.

Gay marriage: This is a decision best left up to the states. Since homosexuality is genetic, I favor renaming "marriage" to "civil union" at the state level. Allow any two human beings to obtain a union.

Abortion: Life begins at conception. As such, create a Federal mandate to make abortion illegal, except in cases of rape or danger to the mother's life.