my politics

Someone asked me the other day about my personal politics and I recently sent a letter to an old friend of my with whom I often disagree but I think it explains where I am coming from and perhaps where I stand today. Here is a copy.

Thursday, September 16, 2010



Hi, Lloyd and Ramona,



It occurred to me while we were talking, why we always seem to be at odds when it comes to politics and that always surprised me since I consider myself a moderate. You once told me that you vote for the party and not the man because you believe in the principals laid down in the party platform and while things may change depending on the candidate the principals would remain. This is a solid argument and can be helpful in understanding why a person may vote the party line.

There have been a number of famous politicians who have made the statement, “I didn’t leave the party, the party left me”. If you believe these people then the party principals are not carved in stone and do change over time.



Take President Kennedy for one example. Here are a couple of quotes from him to illustrate my point.



Upon assuming the Presidency, JFK's Inaugural Address was as hawkish as one could ever get. "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty."



Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased – not a reduced – flow of revenues to the federal government."

One could imagine Ronald Reagan saying things like this.

I have been a careful observer of things political since my first vote for Stevenson against Ike in 1956 and over the years I have voted for four Republicans, four Democrats and two Independents. I am what people call a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. I understand that government takes money from one group of people and after taking a cut for operating expenses, spends the rest on other people. Government takes from the rich and gives to the poor, takes from the poor and gives to the rich and just about every combination in between. The basic difference between Rep and Dem is from whom they are taking and to whom they are giving.

I feel that this giving and taking is necessary at times but not so at other times. When Clinton said welfare should be a helping hand and not a way of life he got my vote. It is just like raising children in that you can do too much for them or too little. In just about every case of government giving there are what I call the unexpected consequence of good intentions and often times the results are tragic and in most cases the programs are fraught with waste and fraud. The problem has gotten worse over the years because the country has grown and by necessity the government has grown. We often see examples of how the government is just too big to properly react when needed and one of the most recent events was Katrina.



One of the main reasons the federal government seems so inept is that politics gets in the way and by that I mean that elected officials are more interested in the party than they are in the country and this attitude carries over to the electorate. I personally know people who were hoping that the war would go really bad in Iraq and I know people today who are hoping the economy will tank.



This is what we have come to and when I ask myself why this has happened, I come to the conclusion that the elected officials have discovered that as long as they can keep us fighting with each other, it allows them certain latitude to keep control and the best example of this is what I call the teen age defense. When someone screws up the first thing they do is to point out how the other party did the same thing but only worse.



On another subject I sent an email to Ramona and will follow up with some family pictures when she confirms that she got my email.



I hadn’t seen you for some years and you look just the same. You must be enjoying your life. I enjoyed our visit and next time I will call ahead.



John Novick