ISU Bengal

Issue date: 11/19/05 Section: Opinion

Right now, our mainstream political atmosphere is not so much about ideals and differing political philosophies, but two teams, the Republicans and Democrats. If you're a true conservative, you are probably frustrated with insanely wasteful government spending, corruption, ignorance of states' rights, etc. Likewise, I'm sure true liberals are disappointed at the Democratic Party's inability to present any sort of real alternative to Republican agendas on homosexual rights, medical marijuana, terrorism, health care, etc. For any of you that are frustrated with your usual party, I recommend looking outside the box. Now might be time to read a recent book by Ralph Nader, John Stossel, Naomi Klein, etc. There's very good reason to believe that both the Republican and Democrat parties are slipping into irrelevance, even if they continue to have de facto control of the ballot box for decades.

Most of the political ideals that I had long viewed as conservative (limited government, personal freedom, etc.) appear to have been abandoned by politicians calling themselves "conservative." Now, I find these values in people called libertarians. The libertarian ethos is essentially that government should be as small as possible and citizens should retain as many personal freedoms as possible. Sure this sounds conservative, but it's incredibly far from modern conservatism, which is really just cheerleading for the Republican Party. For example, a common libertarian ideal is drug legalization. Stossel's book gives very accessible reasoning for this. If a person is a responsible drug user, then no harm is done to anyone else, and the government has no right to restrict what this person can put in his or her own body. Of course, if a junkie commits a crime, such as theft or murder, that is already illegal. By making drugs illegal, the government has facilitated the criminal drug trade, which catalyses other crimes, such as murder, buying off law enforcement, etc. In the mind of the libertarian, the government's war on drugs is simply another example of how the government messes up every time it oversteps the very limited purposes for government. This reasoning is generally applied to the welfare system, minimum wage, prostitution, excessive small business regulation, etc. Libertarianism is a very fascinating and powerful political ideology, in contrast to the arbitrary nonsense that is modern conservatism.

In addition to libertarian philosophies, I highly recommend the works of Ralph Nader, Naomi Klein, and their peers. These individuals examine what happens when corporations become to powerful. Current legal standing, dating back to Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, gives corporations the same constitutional status as human citizens. However, unlike most citizens, corporations can invest millions of dollars in politicians. We live in a world were campaigns are driven by advertising and swaying the public with empty sound bites. In return for helping politicians win campaigns, the corporations are treated to enormous no-bid contracts, ridiculous tax breaks, sweetheart legislation, etc. Currently, money really does "make the world go round." Look at the exclusive contracts that Coke and Pepsi routinely get with K-12 schools. These are public institutions that hire dieticians to organize healthy student meals for growing children. Furthermore, public schools put great effort and money into physical education and health classes. Then why do middle schools sabotage that effort by giving Coke and Pepsi exclusive contracts to directly advertise to K-12 students in public schools? It's all about money, and Coke has much more than any soccer mom out there. While this example may not seem terribly dramatic, I presented it because it's very accessible. For a more dramatic example of corporate power, look at the oil industry's government ties. Despite that fact that Exxon made over $10 billion in net earnings last quarter, August's energy bill gives the industry over $4 billion in tax breaks (Time November 7th). This is how corporations operate with our government. They buy it off and get even more money and favors in return. Last week's Time Magazine (October 31st) cover story was all about "[h]ow corporations are picking people's pockets - with the help of Congress." American corporations frequently pay multimillion dollar fines rather than comply with laws, as long as the benefit outweighs the costs. The likes of Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, etc. have shown that these institutions will go to any lengths, at any cost to their employees, for the bottom line and CEO excesses. Rarely will the corporation acknowledge the moral and ethical restraints that the individual does. We pay the consequences for that. Of course, citizens can still curb corporate power through taking an active role in our government. This is the crux of Nader's campaigns, the people taking back control of their government and curbing abusive corporate power.

There are so many important political causes and philosophies that get drowned out by "sanctity of marriage" versus "civil union" nonsense and arguments over purple hearts.

On a national level, both the Democrat and Republican parties are very much out of touch with reality and they constantly waste our time with silly partisan fights to spin NASCAR dads in the swing states. This will continue until we start looking outside the issues and ideas presented to us by the donkey and the elephant.

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