Authors Note: Over the recent months I have had an increased interest in politics. Part of that interest was spurred by the recent election. I have also had an increase in just thinking time before I go to sleep and it has helped me out greatly. I have started to find myself politically. For the longest time I couldn’t find a political candidate with similar viewpoints as my own. After doing much research I have found that a lot of my political views coincide with Ron Paul’s. He believes in a hands-off government style. From what I’ve seen in the academic world here at UNL or any campus for that matter is a lot different. A lot of people believe in a more controlling “big” government, or they think they do. I just want to call to attention that a lot of why Obama got elected was the ignorant young voters. Hear me out not all Obama voters are this way; some know what they are talking about. It seems to me that a lot of voters just used the TV as a source of information and not actual research to back your vote. A lot of voter’s do not do research on the candidates ideology. With this paper I wanted to bring to light some of my ideologies and why I think they work. I do not want to push them on to you, as I do not like to force people to do things, but I want you to take in my ideas and consider them. I hope that next election more voters will come out but mostly I hope that they will be extremely educated in candidate policy before they take to the polls.
In continuing with this self-analysis I would now like to focus on ethos, pathos, and logos. I will talk about Ethos first which is the authority to say what you are saying. Personally I think my ethos comes from the type of person that I am, I think people would say that I am pretty trustworthy and knowledgeable, but that doesn’t cover the people who don’t know me, to cover that I would say that a lot of my ideas coincide with such figures as Ron Paul and Peter Schiff. These two people are legendary and a lot of people know of them. Their ethos therefore backs my own. I also think that mentioning the founding fathers in my piece is a good use of ethos. Who doesn’t have respect for the founding fathers? They constructed the basic ideologies of our country and are responsible for much of the things we hold true as a country. They are also well known so many people can relate to them. This also helps greatly with ethos.
I would now like to cover Pathos this is the emotional portion. I think there is a lot of emotion put into this piece. There are many great examples of pathos in my piece. The whole subject matter of my piece sparks a lot of pathos. People get emotional about politics. I would like to quote some excerpts from my piece. For instance “I want it to be here for mankind to enjoy long after I leave earth” sparks pathos, this is thinking of others and hoping for the best for others, which every one should try to do. Next “This allows for everyone to live the American dream if they so choose. Education is the basis for economic prosperity.” Every wants to be economically stable and they want to provide for their family. I hope that everyone has the same opportunities I have had. These opportunities can be very emotional for many due to hard times or struggles they have had. People can always relate to the American Dream because they have had hopes to someday make the American Dream on their own. They want to live their dreams on their dream job and hope to become successful in whatever they do.
Lastly I would like to talk about logos this is the logic behind something. I think the overall theme in the piece is that you don’t want government programs to become worthless. For instance no one wants the education system to go south; therefore you should buy into my ideas. I think I bring some good ideas to the table with some solid logic behind them. An idea is not solid until backed by a reputable source. This ties into the statement of saying that my ideologies coincide with Ron Paul’s (a reputable source). Another great example of logos is this statement “A true free market economy uses the balancing technique of supply and demand. If there is a need for something someone will see the opportunity and begin supplying for that need. If there is no need for something than it will not be produced. It’s just an obvious and easy economy.” People like easy and obvious stuff, so by saying that the free market is easy and obvious may appeal to some. Another great quote from my piece is “We need to get educated; the whole mindset of the country and world for that matter needs to be changed. We need to start thinking differently, taking into account the consequences of our actions.” The premise behind this quote is that to truly change things it starts with you changing. This also makes for stronger individuals and a government that more reflects the people. If you want those things you should buy into my ideology. Now that I have covered ethos, pathos, and logos I hope you get a better understanding of what I would like to do with this piece. I hope you consider my ideas, not just blow by them or just accept them. I would like you to ponder them and make your own educated decisions and ideologies.
Over the years a beast has slowly begun climbing further and further into our lives. It has slowly begun to interfere with day-to-day activities. This beast is the U.S. government. Over the past 200 plus years it has grown to a size unimaginable by the founding fathers. This is something I hope people begin to realize. We need to push back and reverse this trend. I believe in a Laissez-faire government, but every government must have some control to keep it moving forward. I would outline what programs the government should be limited to, those being, primary education and military. For the most part the government should be limited to these things, and it should stay away from the economy, social security, and healthcare for example. I would now like to inform you why the government should have the control over the programs listed previously.
First off I would like to talk about education. The government should have control over schools, but it should be the state governments that make the education decisions. I believe everyone should get an education; this is why I believe the government should monitor and control education. Personally I think it would be good to privatize the education system. The government tends to ruin everything it gets its hands on. I think that privatizing education would be just one of the many ways to increase the quality of the education system in America. The problem I have with it is by privatizing education is that you limit the people who can afford it. This however is not a good way to run a county’s education system; the cons out weigh the pros. If we give the government a mild control over education then we allow the whole spectrum of classes to access the education system. This allows for even the poorest of poor to become extremely successful through hard work. This allows for everyone to live the American dream if they so choose. Education is the basis for economic prosperity. Next by giving the state governments control, you allow for a more personalized education. The smaller amount of people a given government has to cater to, the better it can perform. I think this would increase the quality of education by leaps and bounds. We need to start out early teaching young students how to learn and to value knowledge. We also need to be careful not to take away young ones childhood, the abstract thought and fun that goes along with childhood I feel help create a smart and well-balanced human being.
I would now like to talk about the environment. I personally think our environment needs to be protected and cared for. I want it to be here for mankind to enjoy long after I leave earth. The environment has done so much for us. Providing us with resources for example, we need to pay back our debt by protecting it. But what is the best way to protect it? There could be increased government regulation or increased education on the subject. I think that both need to be implemented in our society. The government does need to do something, get aggressive and control the situation, but we the people need to start the movement. We need to get educated; the whole mindset of the country and world for that matter needs to be changed. We need to start thinking differently, taking into account the consequences of our actions. We must begin recycling more and start driving more fuel-efficient vehicles. We must start and lead. We must tell the automakers, for example what we want, by not buying huge trucks. It is all about supply and demand, if there is no demand for gas-guzzling beasts then the auto makers will have no choice but to conform or go our of business. This is the best way to control what goes on in the world. People need to understand that without action by the people, change from a wasteful society to a recycling “green” society will never happen. We must do anything we can to curb our dependence on other countries oil. Again it all starts with you!
One part of life I believe the government should stay out of almost completely is the economy. I am a firm believer in capitalism and I believe that the governments regulation of the economy somewhat brought on the crisis we are currently facing. The closer we get to a true free market economy, the more stable and better our economy will become. You should research Peter Schiff, an economist that I have looked into and really agree with. Here is a link to some of his videos about the current economic crisis. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G3Qefbt0n4, there are 8 parts and I strongly recommend you watch all of them). A true free market economy uses the balancing technique of supply and demand. If there is a need for something someone will see the opportunity and begin supplying for that need. If there is no need for something than it will not be produced. It’s just an obvious and easy economy. The free market economic system is all about competition. Competition does everything in a free market system. Competition regulates prices, the number of companies, quality of product being produced, and wages/salaries to name a few. You the consumer are the powerhouse behind a free market economy. For instance if you feel that something is to high a price, you don’t buy it, this in turn brings the price down. You could bring up the argument that some things such as food cannot be cut. To move forth with the food example, if food prices are too high than consider these solutions, buy in bulk, grow your own food, buy the store brand (usually cheaper), there are many ways to show your dislike for the cost of food and government regulation had no part in it. The economy is like nature it will right itself in time. The government is like the pollution as the environment is to the economy. The less pollution (control) over the economy the better it will be. Government and the economy should be almost completely separated. Pure competition and limited government control are a breading ground for new ideas.
I will now move onto war and the control involved behind it. The Federal government should control the military. Obviously if the federal government didn’t control the military there would be chaos, a country where individual states could declare war on each other would be unbearable. Now that I have established the main reason behind giving the federal government the power to declare war, it should only be used as a last resort. A declaration of war should rarely be used. There are many ways to solve foreign problems without fighting. Think of it as two children arguing, would you condone a fistfight, or would you simply have then sit down and talk it out. Violence is not normally the most logical explanation to a problem. A simple talk could normally get the job done, but sometimes that is not enough and in the end war might be a possibility. War should also be planned out to the best of our ability. That way human lives will be spared. I have developed into somewhat of an anti-war advocate, but I will admit that at first I wanted the war in Iraq in the beginning, and maybe it will be for the better and not such a bad idea like some people think. It was a hard decision on George Bush’s part to send troops to Iraq. The nation was in turmoil of the destruction of the towers and the lives lost in them. Maybe we weren’t thinking straight and we should have had time to calm ourselves down. Then relook at what was done and decide if war was the right option. The government hasn’t really done as bad in Iraq as you might think; I recently read an article in the Journal Star (Lincoln Nebraska’s Newspaper) outlining the progress we have made in Iraq. The article states that this August and October (2008) had the lowest death toll in five years, that number being 13 U.S. soldiers. The article goes on to say that the surge of U.S. troops is actually working. Along with the surge was a change in tactics. One change outlined in the article was increased cooperation of Sunni Muslim leaders in targeting al-Qaida and other such groups. So the situation in Iraq is getting better. Hopefully some day Iraq will be a functioning “democracy” (I use that term loosely) and will become a great trading partner.
I would now like to move onto social security and healthcare. The government should stay out of these two services. I’ll start with the reasoning behind stopping the government’s involvement in social security. I think that we should stop redistributing wealth. People should be able to save their money for retirement etcetera on their own, not give it to the government to decide what to do with it. Also if people want to give their money to charity, good for them but let it be their decision. Next people need to realize that they need to save their money and not rely on someone else (the government). Yes there are some exceptions, some people are disabled and unable to work but there are other ways to help them out, maybe a privatized social security for instance. I think people in general need to be more responsible. Another argument for privatizing social security is that it is bankrupting our country. There is only one way to stop this downward spiral, discontinue or privatize social security. Now for healthcare, it too should stay privatized. Universal healthcare will be the death of quality healthcare in the U.S., just take a look at our neighbors in Canada and our friends in Europe. The wait times to get treatment in Canada and Europe are astronomical. People go to the doctor for every little thing clogging the system. Doctors’ pays suffer and the years in medical school do not pay off. Why do you think so many surgeons come from India? Because the pay is good here in the U.S. Next as I mentioned earlier this will also bankrupt our country. Think of all the operations and medications the government will be paying for, this cannot happen. Universal healthcare also takes away all competition. Competition keeps prices down, without competition we will either be paying more for healthcare or the government will be taking a hit, putting it further into debt. The system now is far from perfect but I think universal healthcare would be a step in the wrong direction.
The government is a very important thing in our lives, but its control has grown way beyond what it was intended. We need to look at what the government controls now and say can’t we do (that) ourselves? We must question what the government does and do something about it. As a last bit of info, I recently heard that Lincoln, Nebraska would be installing cameras on streetlights to monitor traffic, and give you a ticket in addition. Doesn’t this go against our rights, I don’t want someone spying on me 24/7, I find the whole situation extremely ludicrous. This is one time when we really need to speak up as citizens and not let the government gain unwanted control. We need to push back the government and elect leaders who understand that we must limit the government’s power to only certain things. I think this would provide for a better lifestyle for everyone.
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