Foreign Policy
The US Government’s revenue through income taxes in 2011 was about 1.2 trillion dollars. In 2011 we spent 711 billion dollars in military spending. That is 59% of our income. To put that 711 billion into perspective the 2nd largest military spender is China at 143 billion per year. We spend almost 5x more than the next largest spender. In fact, we spend more than the next 20 countries combined. Romney has said that he plans on increasing military spending and a war with Iran is a foregone conclusion because of their “weapons of mass destruction”. Sound familiar? It should, that excuse worked 10 years ago for Iraq which even Alan Greenspan said, “everyone knows the Iraq war was largely about oil.” This foreign policy makes sense seeing as 17 out of Romney’s 24 foreign policy advisors served in the Bush administration.
The popular sentiment with neo-conservative republicans is that our military presence keeps us safe. It is, in fact, the opposite. The CIA has a term called “blowback” that basically means that our actions have consequences and the attacks against us are consequences of our actions. Osama Bin Laden said that a main reason for the 9/11 attacks were due to our military presence in Saudi Arabia. The Iran hostage crisis was in response to our CIA ousting their democratically elected leader and putting in place a monarch under our control in 1953. Our meddling has consequences. People are not willing to fight us and die because they hate America’s freedom. They fight us because we limit theirs.
Military spending is often confused with defense spending and this is done on purpose to confuse people. Politicians use the term defense spending to make it seem like our military spending is for defensive reasons. We have over 700 military bases around the world in over 130 countries. That is not defense spending that is nation building and colonialism. There is no reason why we should still have military bases in Japan and Germany. We are very vulnerable and have no one to defend our own borders. Policing the world is not in our best interest. We spend way too much money on foreign aid and foreign occupation. Empires fall due to over-expansion of their military. Ask the Romans.
Deficit Spending
Paul Ryan’s budget which Romney has basically adopted doesn’t even balance the budget for 28 years. Our credit rating is constantly being downgraded and we are 16 trillion dollars in debt. We cannot continue down this road. Putting a republican in office does not simply solve the problem. Reagan increased the debt by 1.3 trillion dollars. Bush Sr. increased it by 2 trillion; Bush Jr. increased it by 4.5 trillion. For the past 30 years no president, republican or democrat, has not increased the debt. Romney, who will also run a deficit, would be no different. Since 1980 we have gone from under 1 trillion in debt to over 16 trillion. Without drastic measures we are headed for a default. Lowering taxes without cutting spending will increase the deficit and debt.
Monetary Policy
The Federal Reserve is anything but federal or a reserve. It is not a part of our government. It is a private bank that is under no control or oversight by our own government. It is free to create as much or as little money as it deems “necessary”. The Federal Reserve has been printing up trillions of dollars out of thin air just in the past few years.
Quantitative Easing (QE) is the process of buying assets from institutions like banks. The problem with this is that the Federal Reserve has no income. They have no way of paying for these assets. They merely create the money for it. The most recent example is called QE3. It began September 13th of this year. Under QE3 the Federal Reserve will buy toxic mortgage securities from banks using money they merely create out of nowhere. This is nothing more than a bank bailout that devalues your money. Pretend there are only 100 dollars in the money supply and that you own 1 dollar. Your dollar is 1% of the money supply. If they create 50 more dollars there are now 150 dollars. Your 1 dollar is now only worth .6% of the money supply. Your dollar has lost its value. The Federal Reserve is currently creating 40 billion dollars per month and buying mortgage securities from banks with no end date. It is indefinite. This means the money supply increases by 40 billion dollars every month. Your dollars are now worth less than they were last month and will be worth even less next month. This is why food is more expensive at the grocery store. Mitt Romney defends this policy and has said that he would have reappointed the Chairman of the Fed Ben Bernanke when his term was up in 2009 after Obama reappointed him.
Mitt Romney has also gone on record defending the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the bank bailouts. His running mate took those views much further by actually voting for these issues in the House of Representatives.
Personal Liberties
Personal liberties have been greatly diminished since Bush passed the Patriot Act in 2002. Obama has continued these and Mitt Romney supports this as well. Obama and Romney both support the Patriot Act which is anything but patriotic. It allows for warrantless searches and seizure which is in direct conflict of the 4th Amendment. Perhaps the most egregious attack on our freedom has come within the past year. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was signed by President Obama on New Years Eve of 2011. The fact that it was signed then should raise some red flags in itself. This law provides the ability of the government to indefinitely detain persons who are considered threats to national security including American Citizens. No trial, no charges, no jury. “But I’m not a terrorist” you may say. This doesn’t matter, as long as you are declared an enemy by the government you are fair game. You have no trial or a jury of your peers to prove yourself innocence. You might consider this to be a conspiracy theory but it has already occurred. Brandon Raub, a former marine made some Facebook posts that expressed his beliefs about the wars we are in as well as some “controversial” topics. Brandon was then paid a visit by the FBI and was “arrested” from his home in handcuffs. No warrant was issued and no charges were filed. Raub was sentenced by a judge to be detained and undergo a psyche evaluation. If it wasn’t for the internet’s outcry and public pressure of this case who knows if Brandon would have been released yet. In a Republican Primary debate earlier this year Mitt Romney said he supports this provision in the bill and would have signed it if he were president. Paul Ryan also voted Yea on extending the Patriot Act as well as voting in support of the indefinite detention clause in the NDAA.
People worry about the 2nd amendment and gun ownership during Obama’s second term. Between Romney and Obama only one has passed anti-gun legislation thus far. That man is Mitt Romney. He passed legislation as Governor that permanently banned semi-automatic assault rifles in Massachusetts and promised to maintain strict gun laws with this statement, “We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them,” he said during a gubernatorial debate. “I won’t chip away at them; I believe they protect us and provide for our safety.”
The Case for a 3rd Party
If you only watch the mainstream media you may believe that there are only 2 candidates running for president. And that’s exactly the way they want it. The debates allow only 2 voices because they are 2 sides of the same coin. Imagine what the public would think if during a debate Candidate 1 said, “We need to stay at peace and continue giving foreign aid to countries”. Candidate 2 says, “We need to stop giving foreign aid and bomb these counties.” And Candidate 3 says, “We should stop giving foreign aid and stop bombing them.” What is one legitimate reason to only limit our choices to Coke or Pepsi when most people would actually prefer water if they knew that water was available? But water is not on the mainstream media’s menu. Republicans and Democrats have the same exact views on the macro-issues. I cannot understand why people are so against expanding their world view to include other points of view. Do people actually believe that republicans and democrats are the only 2 ways to view the world and, naturally, that the other team is wrong? The differences between the 2 major parties are only over issues like gay marriage which are blown way out of proportion and are used as a distraction to divide the people.
Gary Johnson, the candidate for the Libertarian Party, was a Republican Governor for 2 terms in New Mexico. He ran briefly in the Republican Primary this year. He is on the ballot for President in 47 states this year. The remaining 3, Pennsylvania Michigan and Oklahoma are under legal litigation right now by, guess who, the Republican Party. It’s true that he will not win the presidential election this year. How could he be expected to? He’s not even allowed in the debates despite being constitutionally eligible.
Campaign funding reimbursement is given to any party which receives 5% (he’s recently polled at 10% in Ohio when his name is included in the options) of the vote in the presidential election. This year it’s only republicans and democrats getting money to finance their campaigns. Voting for a 3rd party is not throwing your vote away, especially if it gives the party a chance of getting closer to a more level playing field. Voting for what you believe in is not throwing your vote away. I see voting for someone solely because they have an (R) or a (D) next to their name as throwing your vote away. People have been against Mitt Romney since the beginning. People did not like his views during the primary and “anybody but Romney” was the cry from the republican party during the primaries. Why must everyone now support him? He was forced on to everyone and no one even questioned it. People who consider themselves as conservative republicans are throwing their support behind an anti-gun, pro-bailout, big spending moderate from the very liberal state of Massachusetts? Voting for the lesser of 2 evils every election leads to perpetual evil. Democrats blame Bush for the mess we’re in and Republicans blame Obama and no one can see that they run the exact same policies? Do our brains not work anymore? Coke and Pepsi are bad for your health. I’ll take the water.
Conclusion
No matter who wins this election things will not change. We will have big deficit spending, continuation of senseless and expensive wars, and destruction of our personal liberties. Mitt Romney will perpetuate the same policies that Obama has for the past 4 years which were perpetuated from the previous 8 years in the Bush administration. 12 of the 24 years of my life have been spent under endless war, deficit spending, and erosion of constitutional liberties. The next time you go through the radiation scanner at the airport with your legs spread and arms raised above your head ask yourself, is this the pose of a free man?” People who use fear tactics to scare someone into voting for someone else is called a demagogue and it’s a tactic used widely by politicians. If you are that worried about the future of this country (as you should be) why aren’t you converting some of your assets into silver and gold? Why aren’t you learning to grow more of your own food or collect your own water to combat rising food and commodity prices? Why aren’t you doing anything but watching Fox News and hoping and praying for things to get better? It is not the strongest or fittest that survive, it is the most adaptable to change. Become the change you wish to see.
