Now they’ve got me flip flopping

Wow what a month it has been. Two posts ago I was voting Libertarian. My last post, actually a combination of two potential posts which never made the blog but were both written some time ago, stated that I might have changed my mind and here’s why. I personally consider myself a conservative. I’m conservative about so many things, but liberal or moderate on others.

My Views in a nutshell:

We desperately need to regulate Wall Street, Insurance Companies and Banks. This
one also troubles me since I’m totally against big government, but in all
honesty greed has gotten the better of them all, and they’ve played a big part
of the mess we’re currently in. Wall Street speculators have driven up the cost
of fuel to make a profit. Insurance companies have pulled out of certain states,
like Florida, to maximize profits and reduce risk, leaving many to pay higher
premiums for less coverage. Banks loaned billions to people who couldn’t afford
it leaving our housing market in a downward spiral.

I believe this country is taxing it’s businesses out of the country, and forcing them to look elsewhere to make money. The sooner we realize that companies are not in business to make it’s workers happy, but are instead in business to make money, the sooner we can start bringing businesses back to this country.

I feel that it’s our utmost priority to secure energy independence. Why are we throwing away billions of dollars every year to countries that can’t stand us and dance in the streets whenever something bad happens to Americans? We’ve done so many wondrous things as a relatively young nation, but we can’t figure out how to run a car or power our homes?

We NEED to get out of Iraq. That is a must do for us, we simply can’t afford it. Now do we do it correctly and orderly, or do we do it in the same fashion that left Vietnam in shambles? I for one say we need to start billing the country of Iraq for our time there. I think we need to start training and teaching them to care for themselves.

I believe in vouchers, not because I want to send my kids to private school, but because it’s worked in other countries and can work here. I believe if a school isn’t performing it should be allowed to go out of business. I feel that every American parent should be given the choice of where to send their child and spend the money the government spends to educate their child. Education in this country needs to be rethought from the ground up. We need to focus on individual needs and styles of learning, we need to focus on training those who have no interest in college, so that they can contribute to society.

I believe we need welfare, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security reform. We need to look closely at any loopholes that allow Americans to sit on their rears and collect a check when they’re perfectly capable of working. We need to make sure that those who can pay for medical insurance do pay for it. We need to either leave Social Security alone or set a kill date for it and come to terms with the fact that it’s failing.

I feel that homosexuals should be given the same rights as heterosexuals, not more, but the same. I feel that if two people want to commit to each other, then we should let them, but, I also feel that we need to curb some of the indecency in the homosexual community. For instance, why are homosexuals allowed to have a parade and carry out acts that would merit a public indecency summons, at best, for a heterosexual couple? True equality covers the good and the bad equally.

I believe that good healthcare is a right, not a privilege, as McCain seems to think. We are a rich nation, and denying ANYONE quality healthcare is morally wrong. People should not be allowed to suffer or die because they can’t afford healthcare. This one is a tough one for me because I don’t believe bigger government is the answer, but I know that doing nothing is also not the answer.

I strongly feel that we need immigration reform, and tighter borders, something neither party seems to care much about lately. We need to know who is crossing our borders, be it drug runners, terrorists, or simply workers looking for a better life. We need to decide what to do with the 12 million illegal immigrants already here.

As anyone who’s ever read my blog knows abortion to me is comparable to 1st degree murder. In truth I don’t feel that either party will ever do a thing about abortion, so it’s up to our religious leaders to change the hearts of Americans.

So anyway, those are my views on some of the more popular topics. As you can see I tend to lean more conservative than liberal on quite a few matters. So why the flip flop? Simple I just don’t like or trust McCain.

During all three of the debates McCain came off as the angry troll ready to pounce. He consistently had this silly smirk as if he had caught Obama with his pants down. He repeatedly avoided questions and resorted to pointing the finger, rather than explaining his position. And finally when he did get around to explaining his position he failed miserably at it. For instance when asked about his healthcare plan he changed topic. When pressed he elaborated that yes his plan did call for a tax credit, but it also called for taxes against employer provided healthcare. How does he think this will work exactly? He’s now going to tax my health benefits, but then give me a mere $5,000 to “help out”?

Ok let’s be honest here. Every year my company gives me a 3% increase. From what I hear that’s the average increase in this country. Every year my medical insurance goes up and wipes out my increase. This combined with the rising cost of gas, food, home insurance, clothes, and just about everything else has left me making less now than I did 3 years ago. Now I’m not complaining, well yes I am, but I can’t afford to lose my health insurance because McCain wants to tax it as part of my income. That to me proves that he doesn’t have a handle on the financial issues facing many Americans today.

After looking at it Obama’s plan, which by the way is not the same plan he had when he was facing Hillary Clinton, will be better for most Americans. I can keep my great coverage and save about $2,500 yearly. Does it increase government? Yes it does, but in truth we pay for it one way or another anyway. Medicare, Medicaid we pay for, someone skips out on a doctor’s bill, we pay for. So essentially we’ll end up paying either way. Small business that can’t afford to insure their employees will now have the option to insure them under the Federal plan.

During the debates Obama kept his composure and handled himself nicely, while McCain resorted to “That guy over there” jokes and transparent attempts to gain acceptance by crying foul. Let’s be honest this election has shown how evil and petty people can get. Obama has been called a terrorist, an arab, and a ni#$er by McCain supporters. Sarah Palin has been called a c*nt and has had her picture plastered on t-shirts with that word under it. So neither party is exactly innocent here. But EVERY mass movement has a few nutters in it, and thinking that you’re somehow owed an apology for something someone else said is a bit much.

That being said neither one really wowed me with their ideas for the economy. Obama’s idea to take a scalpel to the budget was a bit more impressive than McCain’s hatchet, but both plans still call for us to go deeper into debt as a country and that shocks me. It’s almost like the bone heads at AIG; those wacky bunch of executives who decided to go ahead with plans for a party even though they had no money to do so before they were bailed out.

Obama has showed signs of coming more into the center than he has in previous months, which leaves me wondering if he’s just telling us what we want to hear, or what he really felt before getting the nomination. For instance he’s suddenly ok with off shore drilling, nuclear power, and clean coal, something I believe he was against when he was debating Clinton. Either way I think Wednesday’s debate was a better format since it forced them both to actually speak to each other. That was one of my pet peeves from the first two debates. I think Biden and Palin did a much better job of being civil and actually communicating than McCain or Obama did in any of their debates.

The one area where I actually had the biggest change of mind was in the area of regulation. NBC did a nice wrap up after the debate and showed the candidates in their general campaigns. One of them was Biden giving a speech about regulations. Now as a conservative I’ve always been against regulation. In fact I rather like the capitalist system of checks and balances as I see it. “Make smart moves and prosper, make dumb moves and fail” The only problem with that is that it doesn’t take into account the greed factor. Now greed is a nasty thing. Palin spoke about it at the VP debate. Newspapers seem to be speaking about it almost daily, and the general consensus in the country is that the banks got what was coming to them for being greedy.

I remember the first time I saw the movie Wall Street. I remember watching Michael Douglas shouting out “Greed is good!”. Well greed just put the American people on the path to another depression. Our unregulated lending was fueled by greed, and it is anything but good, because now WE have to pay for it. Fuel speculation was driven by greed, and has made some Americans choose between gas in their tanks or food on their tables; again not so good.

During his speech Biden sarcastically mentions how we’ve done such a great job of self regulation in the business world, and that got me thinking. We haven’t. In fact we actually suck at it. Our companies chase the dollar without one thought to the damage they’re doing to those around them. Greed is not good, and since it is part of humanity we do owe it to ourselves to make sure it gets kept in check. So while over regulation is bad and poorly conceived regulations are bad, we do need to regulate the business world. We need to pass laws against greed as we have against guns, murder, drugs, or any of the myriad of things we pass laws against. We owe it to our children to make sure that they do not pay for the sins of their parents.

All in all I’m still undecided, but now with Obama leanings, which isn’t scoring me points with any of my friends. I do see McCain as just Bush part 3, and I do see him carrying on the same failed policies that have brought this country to the brink of collapse. So either I’m voting Libertarian or I’m voting Democrat, but I won’t be voting Republican this year, which is a shame considering we started off with much better candidates than the Democrats did.

Rudy whoever ran your campaign should be flogged for convincing you to run solely in Florida. Paul, Romney you both ran a great race, and God knows I would have preferred either of you to McCain. Huckabee you gave it a good shot, and you were my favorite, I expect you back in 2012.