Independent By Choice

"They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community"

This quote from none other than George Washington perfectly summarizes my opinions of political parties. They are by nature divisive and self serving, which is why I refuse to join any. As I've stated before, for almost 25 years I've registered to vote as an independent, or as California puts it, "Decline to State." This does not mean I won't vote for anyone who is not running as an independent. I've crossed party lines more often than not, basing my vote on the candidate. And if in a particular race I do not care for any of the candidates, I'll write in "None of the above."

If political parties must exist, I would prefer to see three viable parties instead of the current morass of only two. With three parties of more or less equal representation, there would have to be compromise, statesmanship, and negotiation to get things done. With only two parties, it is too easy for one or the other to gain too much power and shut the other one out. This is what happened with the Republicans under George Bush, and now the Democrats are looking for payback. And who suffers? The American people.

The economy is a disaster, and the poorly thought out, pork ridden stimulus package is not the answer. I can speak as a government employee for 34 years, that depending on the government to solve our problems is not a good idea. While the vast majority of government workers are intelligent and dedicated, they have the luxury of knowing most of what they do will be funded, and their paychecks will always be there no matter what. This is why I always set artificial deadlines to keep myself motivated. If I missed one there would have been few consequences. But that went against all my ethics.

But for almost every other citizen, there is the pressure of if their business or employers do not do well, there are no paychecks. Period. That unfortunately still hasn't stopped greedy CEO's from raking in millions as their companies lay off thousands of employees. For the rest, who do not have golden parachutes, there is the fear of if they'll even have a job the next week.

So what is the answer? I honestly don't know. Stricter government oversight to regulate predatory loan policies would help, though it's a little late now. Helping those truly in need, for example, someone recently laid off from work who is falling behind on their mortgage, (fixed rate only, anyone who took out an ARM gets what they deserve), is a good start. Regulating lending practices is another thing that should be done. Loans for energy research and production is another worthy goal, but for energy production that actually works. Solar and wind are expensive, inefficient and impractical on a large scale. France generates 76% of their electricity from nuclear plants with an excellent safety record. Granted more research needs to be done on handling nuclear waste, but the French realize that and are doing much in that regard.

But dumping $781 billion dollars that must be borrowed from not always friendly foreign nations on questionable projects? That brings out the cynic and skeptic in me. President Obama is understandably under tremendous pressure to do something. But I would prefer a more cautious approach.