A Platform For The Presidency An explanation of what America needs in a Presidential Candidate in order to safeguard our future. Also, what exactly needs to addressed in America?
There are a lot of people out there advising us on what policies we need to implement to save America. But has anyone recently asked what problems we need to solve when deciding what policies to implement, rather than asking what political affiliation they are?
In the 2008 Presidential Race, we have some 30 or 40 candidates for President, spread out amongst the many political parties that have sprung up over the years. But, there is a problem -- too many people nowadays focus too much on political affiliation rather than winning the future, and it's really starting to harm us a nation.
For President, I'm liking Fred Thompson at the moment. I'm not necessarily a fan of his social policy, but a lot of the things that he and I disagree on are moot points anyway -- until the SCOTUS reverses Roe v. Wade, abortion won't be changing all that much. The War in Iraq has already happened so that can't really be changed, and I do agree that we have to take a more aggressive than a passive stand on terror -- however, military actions like Iraq are unjustified and just create a greater cause for terrorists to gain a renewed hatred for us. We need to stop terror at every possible turn, but we have to be sure that our actions do not alienate the Muslim-Arab world that is sympathetic to groups like al-Qaeda that still may be swayed to realize that we are still not bad people, despite what our detractors say about us.
We need an immigration policy that will control our borders -- as Thompson said, immigrants have a long history of developing this country into what it is today, and that must continue, but a flow of illegal immigrants is dangerous to our own national security, and must be stopped at all cost. Amnesty is not an option -- only an immigration policy that is consistent with both our values (so that cases like Pedro Zepata don't happen) and our national security interests will be acceptable.
In terms of Energy, the biggest thing we need to do is reduce and perhaps eventually eliminate our dependence on foreign sources of energy. For example, there hasn't been a new Nuclear Power Plant licensed in the last 25 years -- which, given the history, is perhaps a natural reaction from the problems we've seen. Regardless, it is time to start thinking about the future and re-start our ambition of Nuclear Power as well as remembering the problems of the past and finding a way to prevent history from repeating itself.
Environmentally, no one argues -- I think -- that we need to protect our wildlife and our own environment. Economic sustainability is just as important as economic development, so the two need to weighed against each other to develop a plan that conserves our national resources as well as allowing our economy to progress into the future. Fuels that are hydrogen based are a great idea, as well as solar power. More money needs to go to R&D of these critical technologies -- not only will it help preserve our environment and our natural resources, but it will decrease our dependence on foreign energy sources and make us more self-sufficient as a nation.
In terms of taxes, we need a tax policy that is fair across every socio-economic level. The current tax policy is far too complex -- some 60 thousand pages of tax law, so boring to read and so hard to get through that people actually specialize in understanding it. I'm sorry, it shouldn't take a college degree to be able to pay your taxes. Is the flat tax an option? Perhaps. Depending on it's implementation, it might be a good solution. It is not fair to tax someone more simply because they make enough money, but neither is it fair to tax those near the poverty line more simply because they don't make enough.
Our federal budget needs to be balanced -- our National Debt is staggering, amounting to some $170,000 per person in America, and $440,000 per family. The first step to reclaiming that is to develop a tax policy that is fair to all Americans. Next, balancing the budget is crucial to ensure that we don't shoot ourselves in the foot by making the debt even higher while we're trying to eliminate it altogether. Then, we need to develop inflexible rules for the budget that will enable it to stay balanced from President to President, and from Political Party to Political Party. With that done, it'll be a matter of time until the deficits eliminate themselves and the National Debt decreases.
This is our future. This is where we need to go as a nation -- and to be honest, Newt Gingrich is very, very right -- we need to get past the partisanship and gridlock that is tearing us apart as a nation, and it's going to take everyone to make it happen. We need to do it before Americans -- always so devoted to their ideas of free expression of speech and ideas -- end up killing America through their own good intentions. That would be the biggest disaster of history -- to see the United States rapidly de-construct itself through a series of well-meant but destructive actions that led to our government and our economy falling apart at the seams with no way to put it back together.
Matthew Sartell
Biography - Matthew Sartell
Matthew Sartell considers himself to be a freelance writer and, at the age of 19, has already made an impact on the world. Political opportunities have already came my way, and who knows? The future could be very interesting. Matt is currently living on his own, trying to make ends meet in the real world. Gaining life experience and maybe he'll actually be able to say one day that he indeed was a living, breathing, contributing member of the Human Race.
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