After a lot of thought and reflection, I have decided to break one of my major rules about statements on the internet – to avoid politics, religion, and global warming.

Keeping with my regular theme of being a total schitzo, I have a confession; Political Sam is very young and inexperienced. Practically a baby. I realized this quite harshly at the last presidential election when I realized that I have never, ever, ever been able to pick a candidate. I have even tried to do a bit of research in order to choose one, but after 3-4 frustrating hours I would throw my hands up in the air and scream “I hate them all!”.

Then I would commit the cardinal sin of politics – and not vote.

For the past 3-4 years, I have tried to put a little more energy into knowing more about our political system and how it works. I don’t know very much more. I am still an ignorant babe. But I have learned many things about the principles of government that I support, and in that way I have been able to re-gain a sense of pride and respect for our country.

Political Parties

I highly disapprove of them, and have since I was a teenager. I don’t completely agree with any party, so why should I join one? It’s not as if Democrats really stand for the epitome of everything Democratic, and Republicans for Republic. Those are just names they chose when they formed the party.

Because I won’t do it on my own, Democrats and Republicans like to throw me in a category called “Moderate”; but then they try to define the political viewpoints as a “Moderate”, and they totally get me wrong.

This doesn’t make it very easy for me to choose my own way of vote. I live in the information, and have to try and dig through all the piles and piles of biased information in order to extract the truth. At the same time, I have to perform the difficult task of formulating an opinion, an act which I try to reserve for when I have gathered an acceptable amount of information – something which I still haven’t been able to do.

Political Principles

In the past I have put off my political involvement, ignoring the news and most especially avoiding hot topics, focusing instead on my own daily life. I have a lot of my own crap to sort out, so it’s hard for me to feel like I have time and resources to devote to fixing national problems.

What I have begun to realize, however, is that I can still gain a strong sense of political principals which can help me to guide my decisions. These principles are always growing and shifting, since I am always learning – remember, Political Sam is a baby. Maybe a toddler. There’s a lot of learning and adapting going on, and it’s going to take a while.

Some of these principles:

Popular Sovereignty – This is the principle that good government gets its power from the people. In the case of the United States, the power comes from the people, is regulated through the Constitution, and is then Divided (Another principle – power split between the National and State level) and Separated (National is separated into Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branch) in order to further spread this power out.

Republican Form – I learned in both school and scouts that our country is a Republic, but often in social settings (or on the news or in bad classes) we have grown this habit of calling the US a “democracy”, which it is not. A Democracy is a system of government in which the people make laws. A Republic is a system in which the people elect officials who create laws. We have some Democratic practices, such as Propositions on the State Level, but overall our Government System is a Republic. I think this is very important for budding Political Sams and others to realize, because it gives you a better idea of what your place is, and what you can do about decisions in government.

Please keep in mind what I said above, that the Democratic and Republican parties have nothing to do with the core principles of a Democracy or a Republic, but are simply names chosen by the parties. Those parties have nothing to do with what I’m talking about when I say our government is a Republic.

After some thought on the subject, I am really happy that the government is set up this way. Most of us think pretty highly of our own opinions, but as I stated earlier – I rarely feel like I have much time or resources to devote to fixing national problems. Well, that’s why it’s my job to vote for men who I believe DO have the knowledge and capacity to fix these problems. Can I be 100% confident that the things I want (lower interest rates, more money, more financial aid, more health coverage, etc.) are actually better for the nation as a whole? No, I can’t even be 5% confident of that. I would rather put a vote in for another gal or guy who I am more confident has the knowledge and experience to better make these decisions.

Rule of Law – Because our officials come and go, the law rules, not the elected men in government. This means a few things; one is that we have to enforce law, otherwise we encourage the public to become law-breakers. That’s why we get traffic tickets when we get caught, because there needs to be the distinct possibility of being caught. Another thing that Rule of Law means is that we as citizens have the responsibility to be, well, responsible. We need to follow the laws on our own, and the government’s job is to make laws to govern those who will not regulate themselves. This means that a system under Rule of Law is going to be different depending on the self-regulating capacity of the people.

It also means that sometimes the bad kids ruin it for the rest of us. There are chain-link fences and metal detectors around our schools not because the school is a “bad institution”, but because there have been enough occasions of school violence that rules were created for the protection of all, not to favor the rights of a few.

But in the end, I would much rather that the law rule than that a single person or small group of persons rule, or that the majority rule. Majority rule, in my opinion, is very close to anarchy and chaos, and could lead to factions or mob thinking, where the strong prey upon the weak. So, for now and with my current level of knowledge, I’m a fan of the principle of Rule of Law.

Bill of Rights – The Constitution was only ratified because of an agreement that there would be a Bill of Rights; as a result, one of the first tasks of Congress was to form this Bill. Thus came the first ten amendments. Look back on times of war, and the times the government has tried to limit our freedom of speech – how much worse would it have been if there had NOT been a Bill of Rights? I believe having one is a lot of why this country has seen its success this far.

Provident Living/Self-Reliance – Don’t think by this that I believe we should all have a bomb shelter and ten years’ food supply beneath our household. Rather, I mean that citizens should be self-reliant. In this economic downturn, many more citizens have been using food stamps. This is fine, and I’m glad we have a system in place so that these families do not starve or have to resort to begging in order to get by. Self Reliance means that the responsible citizen would accept the Food Stamps while in need, or while in transition, while making their very best efforts to become self-reliant, at which point they would stop accepting the Food Stamps.

Economic Freedom – This is one of my very favorite things about this country. As a Scanner (someone who has a wide base of interests and has a hard time choosing just one to specialize in), it’s been really difficult for me to find the one job that I want to work for the whole rest of my life. Isn’t it a blessing, then, that I have the opportunity to seek many jobs? To gain experience in many places, and to learn many things? Isn’t it amazing that in this country, you can go to college at ANY age? Some of my Chinese relatives do not have this luxury – if they aren’t doing well in school and in college by 18, they probably aren’t going to get the opportunity.

Freedom of Conscience – This is the principle that people may have whatever beliefs they want to. You can worship or not worship according to your liking – there is no state church, and rightfully so. You can have your own political beliefs, and rightly so. In other words, I may not agree with your opinions about God, the economy, illegal aliens, gay marriage, abortion, or Obama – but I respect your right to have them. Not only that, but I am grateful that you can.

The Stance of Political Sam

So what is my stance on these issues? What is my chosen party? What is my chosen “opinion”?

This is it; for now, at least. I haven’t chosen a party, and probably won’t. I will continue to learn, adapt, and grow in wisdom regarding politics, but I am fairly certain that these principles of Government will be at the heart of my political stance. Because I so highly value these principles, I try my best to remain open to many ways of thought.