Month: July 2007

Categories
politics

2008 Endorsements

Endorsed

I believe that Mitt Romney is the best candidate for the country today. He has the experience of leading in both public and private capacities. His life is not littered with evidence of personal instability. He has the support of his family and the attention of the media. My confidence in his ability to be an effective leader for our nation is such that I have even donated to his campaign (a first for me). No other candidate or potential candidate appears to be as well suited for this job in our time.

Top Tier

As much as I like Mitt, I recognize that there are some other top-notch candidates out there. I would feel positive about the prospects of our nation if any of these top candidates were president.

Barack Obama has the charisma to energize people around him. He is intelligent and seems willing to go beyond appearances of what the political establishment endorses and choose to follow what he feels to be the best course on the issues. I believe that his time in the Senate has been enough to expose him to the realities of politics without being long enough to turn him into a jaded insider.

Mike Huckabee seems to be everything that Mitt Romney is except that he does not inspire so many people, nor garner the same media attention. He has the experience as governor to know how to lead and a life that demonstrates his convictions. In a different time he might even be a better candidate than Mitt, but today is not that time.

Tom Vilsack is another candidate who I would endorse as readily as Mitt, but he has dropped out of the race because he could not gather the media attention to keep his campaign afloat. He would make a fine addition to any ticket. In fact, he should be at the top of any ticket if he were still in the race himself.

Second Tier

Second tier candidates are those who I think could make decent but not noteworthy presidents. With some, such as John McCain and Bill Richardson, I had hoped to find top tier candidates. Their weaknesses in campaigning suggest that they are not so well prepared as those in the top tier. Others in this category include Joe Biden, Sam Brownback, Christopher Dodd, Rudy Giuliani, and Tommy Thompson. If he were still running I would have placed Jim Gilmore here as well. This is also where I would expect to place Fred Thompson if he formally entered the race.

Third Tier

Third tier candidates are those who are technically qualified so that I think they could be President, but who would likely be poor presidents. These include John Edwards, Daniel Imperato, Bob Jackson, and George Phillies. I would have included Hillary Clinton here, though as a front runner many would think me biased. Instead I felt that I could not endorse her because her history and the passion that many have against her essentially guarantee that she could not be effective. All the other candidates here would at least have hope of becoming effective.

Not Endorsed

If your favorite candidate is not listed above I would be surprised if they were also not listed among those I could not endorse. Those are Steve Adams, Donald Allen, Alan Augustson, John Bowles, John Cox, Mike Gravel, Jon Greenspon, Bob Hargis, Duncan Hunter, Mike Jingozian, David Koch, Steve Kubby, Dennis Kucinich, Charles Maxham, James Mccall, Ron Paul, Wayne Root, Joe Schriner, Christine Smith, Michael Smith, and Tom Tancredo. My reasons for not endorsing them can be found on their individual posts.

Categories
life

Loosen Up

Over the course of this conference, while I was staying away from home I took note of the fact that I seem to get more carefree when I’m away from home. I act more like a teenager, without a burden of care and responsibility. It seems that I am not alone in this – or else everyone else is generally more carefree than I am by nature (that is a possibility). For example, an interchange with one of my co-workers last night. In response to something I said (which I can’t remember):

Michelle: Don’t get cute.

Me: I’m already cute.

Michelle: Don’t get smart.

Me: I already am.

Michelle (simultaneous with my statement): Stop.

Michelle: Don’t be a turd. . . Go.

Me: . . .

Me (after 15 seconds): See, I told you I was smart.

So now I am left to wonder, is this change of apparent personality good, bad or neutral?

Categories
Local politics

That’s My Town

I stumbled across an interesting post about Baby Boomburbs as described in a new book from the Brookings Institute. “Boomburbs” are fast growing cities of more than 100,000 people which get lost in the shadows of their larger neighbors (so, anything within a 20 mile radius of New York City). “Baby Boomburbs” are similar except they have 50,00 to 100,000 residents. Normally I would have thought that this was academically interesting except that I had just read a story where the mayor of Lehi was quoted listing the population here as 45,000 (I had thought it was closer to 30,000). I don’t know how precise that 45,000 is, but it puts us close to the classification of “Baby Boomburb.” With our incessant growth we could reach 50,000 before the next census if 45K is anywhere close.

This makes me even more interested in what they had to say about these cities. I’d like to see what challenges they identify and how much that does or does nto align wtih the challenges that I have identified, or that the residents of Lehi seem tuned to right now.

Categories
life

Up For Air

It’s been a very busy couple of days. I have been busy at our conference. Sunday we took a break and visited our families. I had the extra satisfaction of playing host to an old friend of ours and her kids (I hear is still she is still there tonight). Then it was back to the conference for more long days. It’s been fun and rewarding to talk to people and after the keynote speakers tonight I am more excited to get back to making use of the internet in sharing with others and (hopefully) making some difference in the world through my work.

Categories
culture politics

Sunsets for Subsidies

I have been thinking a lot lately about the many ways that government has become a provider or enabler of many economic activities. We take it for granted that government should provide for our retirement (Social Security) which is why we have a looming crisis. We hardly consider, let alone actively question, the necessity of having government subsidize the production of various foods (Farm Subsidies). The idea of having a private industry for educating our children sounds like class warfare (Public Education). We think it irresponsible that anyone should have to rely on the support of family, friends, and neighbors – instead we blindly expect them to rely on help administered by complete strangers (Food Stamps and Unemployment Insurance). We can’t imagine that anyone besides the government can fund our exploration for new energy sources and now we are sure that government needs to nationalize our health care system.

I have concluded that, if Social Security and the 1930’s was any indication, the problem that caused this mindset was that we enacted a permanent solution to solve a temporary problem. The result is that our attitudes have changed so that we are willing to preemptively create permanent government solutions to perceived potential problems. The only solution that I can see is to automatically have an expiration date for government programs (excluding the three branches of government) so that they have to be explicitly reauthorized on a regular basis (perhaps every decade as the default and shorter if the authorization specifies a shorter time period). We could then stop looking for ways to make Social Security solvent forever and look at reasonable ways to phase it out, just like Senator Lugar is trying to do with farm subsidies (and he’s a farmer by birth).

Categories
culture

Dependence vs Liberty

I think Scott hit the nail on the head when he talked about the paradox of people distrusting the government while demanding more government services. It is natural that we chafe against intrusive authority whether that intrusion is warranted or not. It is also natural that we turn toward our source of temporal support to fill our needs and wants, especially when we rely on a single source of support. Generally speaking, greater dependence warrants greater intrusion on the part of the supplier.

The paradox here is that individual liberty cannot thrive without personal independence. If we ever hope to be free of government intrusions – and the possibility (probability) that they will be exploited – we must begin to look outside of government for the solutions to the challenges that we face. If I fear that I will get laid off and that I can’t afford that, I will not want to end the government welfare programs. If I have enough savings, or I trust friends and family to help me out in the event that I lose my job, then I am more likely to want those programs terminated so that I keep more of my own money to increase my financial independence. The same holds true for other government programs as well as non-governmental dependence.

Categories
culture politics

American Greatness

While writing about Independence Day I began thinking about what makes a nation great. I thought about how we can become greater, and how we can lose our greatness. It seems to turn on our perspective. If we believe that we are great and spend our energy and time focusing on what we have to offer we become greater. If we focus on our perceived weaknesses we lose the greatness that we have.

There is value in admitting our imperfections, but if we focus on those imperfections and idealize what is happening in other parts of the world we will become like the rest of the world. If that is what we want then we must not be a great nation because the rest of the world has something that we want. Sadly on the 4th of July I found a post from a self described “Progressive” stating that we should do away with displays of national allegiance.

If we are to become greater we must recognize what we have to offer the world. What we offer the world is our demonstration of the responsibilities and rights that are inherent in individual liberty. The key is “individual.” Our greatness does not stem from our form of government – that has been copied and modified in many places with varying degrees of success. Our greatness lies in individuals striving to better themselves. We often talk about individuals and families striving for better economic situations, but that is a two dimensional picture. What we should be talking about is the individual liberty to make choices, wrong choices and right choices, and accept the consequences of those choices. We should be emphasizing the responsibility of people in our country to overcome discrimination, not the right of people to play the victim.

I am coming to believe that individuals striving to better themselves does not include individuals striving to use the law to make others participate in improving the economic situation of those around them. As John Stossel put it, “when people are ordered by the government to be charitable, it’s not virtuous; it’s compelled. . . . Moral action is freely chosen action.”

In my Independence Day post I concluded that remembering and reciting our historical founding were keys to becoming real Americans – Americans who have bought into the idea of America and American liberty. As I was looking for ideas on a new title I came across U.S. History.org with a list of 18 historical documents which help define America and what we stand for. These range from the Magna Carta in 1215 to the American’s Creed in 1918. Go have a look. I believe that familiarity with these founding documents will help to create a framework for common understanding of our historical context which then shapes our current issues and discussions.

Categories
life

Pre-Conference Denial

My company puts on a conference for e-learning developers every year. The pre-conference starts tomorrow and I am teaching the first pre-conference workshop. I have heard much talk around the company worrying about being prepared for the conference but I havenot had those cares. I have felt prepared to do my part to make the conference happen – until today.

Now, I am suddenly nervous for my classes and jittery at the thought of spending 7 of the next 8 days away from my family. This, despite the fact that I am going to be less than 50 miles from home and I will get to be home with the family on Sunday. I don’t know what to expect with regard to blogging during this conference which might be more disappointing because it has the potential to serve as a nervous outlet.

Wish me luck.

Categories
life Local

Misleading Headline

It’s frustrating to read articles such as the Daily Herald’s “Lehi residents talk about east-west freeway” because the title suggests that there might be a Lehi viewpoint to the article. It looks more like a UDOT viewpoint.

The results of their informal survey – asking whether people prefer the UDOT plan for a 2100 North freeway or the Lehi plan for a 4800 North freeway – are that six people chose the UDOT plan, one chose the Lehi plan, and one person said “whichever gets my mom home from Salt Lake the fastest.”

There are two things that really disturb me about this. First, of these 8 “Lehi residents” there are 4 residents of Eagle Mountain, 1 from American Fork, 1 from Alpine (really not connected to this issue), and only 2 from Lehi. Lehi did not even have the highest individual representation, let alone a simple majority. Second, the single question does not provide enough background to make any kind of informed choice between the options.

Of the two residents from Lehi, one chose the Lehi plan for 4800 north and one chose the UDOT plan for 2100 North. I accept that there are residents of Lehi that would choose 2100 North, but the reasoning behind that particular answer seems to confirm what I suspected – that the people being questioned were not generally informed on the issue. The reason given by that Lehi resident was that 2100 North would “harm less people putting it there because they wouldn’t have to remove as much.” That is true only when the 2100 North option is compared to the other UDOT options but not true when compared to the 4800 North freeway that UDOT has not yet considered. 4800 North would not remove any residents while 2100 North does. It is probably safe to say that respondents were also not aware that the UDOT plan is for 2100 North and nothing else while the Lehi plan is for 4800 North plus boulevards at 2100 North and 1000 South in addition to making Main Street wider west of the city where traffic is heaviest.

Next time I see an article about “Lehi residents” I hope they are actually residents of Lehi. I also hope that we can circulate more complete information on this important project.

Categories
politics

Caught Up

The 9th snuck up on me this month, but I consider myself to be caught up on candidate endorsements. Admittedly I did not do an endorsement for Fred Thompson, although I had him on my list. I consider myself caught up because Fred has not formally announced his candidacy and there’s an outside chance that he will not choose to run. I have been watching closely and he is very interested in running, but unless he is holding several aces up his sleeve he is not ready to run a presidential campaign yet.

As I indicated last month, I will be writing a post to clarify all the endorsements I have made. I will list who I think are the best candidates and why. I will discuss my perspective on what our nation needs in 2008 and how that differs from the current political rhetoric. I will also be seeking feedback on that post from any of my readers so that I can refine my thinking.

As we draw closer to the election season (primaries included) one of the things we most need is informed discussion from mainstream Americans which can hopefully influence parties and override the extreme viewpoints that often dominate party primaries. This informed discussion might also have the power to generate more participation from the electorate as people choose to vote who otherwise might feel unprepared to make an informed decision at the ballot.