Thoughts on Primaries thus far…
In short, it looks like the general election maybe a choice between the left and the far left. This last summer, many of us commented on Ron Paul being the best candidate for the Republican ticket. However, I’m going to change my vote due to his foreign policy, or lack thereof. Mind you, I still like a lot of his domestic policies, so I hope he stays in Congress for a long time, but I think that a noninterventionist policy is a poor policy with respect to American interests. When we consider American foreign policy on the whole, it’s a pretty good record although not perfect. Intervention has been the general rule throughout American history. Noninterventionism was tried in the beginning, but it failed right with the Quasi-War with France. In this case, France was at war with Great Britain, and America tried to remain neutral, but wanted to continue trading with both. Of course, the French didn’t like us trading with their enemy, so they started to seize our ships. And thus begins this Quasi-War. Similarly, the same policy was tried again around 1812 under similar circumstances and lead to war with Britain. Jefferson did try to maintain noninterventionism in 1807 with the embargo act, but that devastated much of the American economy. We had a few wars with the Barbary Pirates when our ships were being seized in the Mediterranean, and had periodically invaded Florida, Cuba, and other Caribbean islands with small forces to fight piracy and protect other American interests. An excellent list of these military engagements is here: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/rl30172.htm. One of the largest advantages of having our military might throughout the world is that it keeps our sea lanes open for trade. It also allows us to quickly move troops to and from key areas as we deem intervention necessary. Although these interventions are often not very pretty, by and large they work to serve American interests.
The other issue I find interesting is the fair tax debate. The fair tax is being filibustered in many debates by people who do not understand the bill or argue against it with respect to no taxes. Although I do not think the fair tax is perfect by any means, and it is easy to take cheap shots at it, I do think it’s a heck of a lot better than what we’ve got. Some of the chief advantages I see are that it drastically simplifies our tax code, minimizes government knowledge of personal records, increases the efficiency of paying taxes, and can be more transparent than all the other taxes. It also puts incentive on saving and removes the penalty on productivity. However, there are things I don’t particularly like, such as the prebate. But if that is what it takes to get rid of our current system, them I’m for it (but not Huckabee, the chief supporter of it).
