I just watched a movie based on a book that I’ve read, called ‘Atlas Shrugged’. I’ve also finished the Fountainhead, which was suspenseful. Rand has been attacked by many psychologist’s who call her a ‘narcissist’. Still, while in many ways her methodologies are flawed, I respect her for being a woman who was speaking her mind during a time when it was even more difficult to do so than the present.
Anyway, this blog is titled ‘freedom’ of the United States for a reason. Anyone who has read the previous posts, may notice that I do not side with any particular political party. This is because they both have flaws. This country was founded based on ‘freedom’, and the right wings have diverged from that in terms of social situations, the left in terms of economical circumstances.
While not a ‘republican’, this state country been established as a republic, and that is the best case scenario. It allows people to live under a government that suits them, while still in the same country as many other governments- with a federal government regulating extreme corruption. It also lets states to take different measures into effect- and allows other states to reflect on how that is affecting their crime rate, economy, and quality of life in order to determine whether these practices would be productive for their own states to adopt.
The social corruptions of the republican party are not only causing them to lose the popular vote, though, but destroying freedom in the way it is most important. It is ironic that the same party that tends to boast ‘freedom’ also tends to try and dictate whether people of a specific sexual orientation marry, people who are under certain circumstances get abortions, and what type of religion they should follow. Also, I am probably not the only one who has noticed that it seems to be the right wing extremists who tend to become the most disillusioned and commit the most atrocious crimes. It’s ironic that the party who seems so ‘anti fiscal manipulation’ is the most manipulative in terms of people’s personal lives. I don’t know about you, but I would rather have my finances manipulated. Still, again, this can result in negative conclusions and fiscal problems can effect someones personal life as well.
The financial ironies of the left wingers are going to probably send a lot of businesses and wealthier people packing- and in many ways already have. This, I suppose, was Ayn Rand’s ‘objective’ in writing Atlas Shrugged- to show that an economy that helps certain people too much and taxes business owners significantly ceases to become an incentive based economy- and incentive based economies tend to be the ones that thrive the most in terms of fiscal superiority. Kind of the ‘you can try to carry more but if it is too heavy you could end up worse off than you started’ type of mentality. Still, this can be flawed if you don’t look too deeply into these issues.
For example, the republicans are claiming that the democrat’s ‘socialist’ system, as they like to call it, will choose who lives or dies. The irony of this situation is that the system in place already does so- as the wealthiest get the best treatment. Also, people who can afford preventative care tax the system less, which ironically tends to be the wealthy. If healthcare were socialized to some level, it could actually end up costing us less in the long run- which would explain why many government run healthcare systems have fewer expenses and higher life expectancy rates. Some lefties are not understanding, though, that we have regulations such as not being allowed to turn people away from emergency rooms- which could thus tax the economy and healthcare system to a point where it isn’t as efficient, or ‘healthy’. This could explain the US healthcare statistics being so poor and costs being so high compared to the rest of the world. You can’t blame this on genes, as this includes diverse areas, as well. What the righties aren’t understanding is that a more ‘socialist’ based healthcare system could eliminate a lot of those problems.
Then, you have the issues of illegal immigration. The right wingers don’t seem to understand that making immigrants legal would make legal citizens able to tax those who were once illegal, and also put them back on the grid. Some of them seem more paranoid about a ‘big brother’ 1984 type situation, and anyone so afraid of being ‘watched’ has something to hide, in my opinion.
I have seen both parties bullying each other in the most unproductive manner- focusing on things like the statistics of the party’s personal lives or educational degrees, etc. as opposed to actually focusing on the objective at hand. This is where Rand’s genius comes in. Both sides could use a little of the lean thinking ideas she tried to create through her fictional situations. Both sides of the political spectrum spend far too much time trying to put each other down, competing, or out-do each other than actually focusing on the matter as opposed to what is trendy amongst them. While an economy without parties could be called many things, perhaps it is the most productive type of way to solve things. After all, the deadlock ‘conclusions’ (if you could call them that) our government keeps coming to obviously aren’t working.
My opinion? As someone who has no political authority, and will never be listened to when it comes to politics, but wants her voice heard anyway… both parties could learn a lot from each other, and if they could only understand that a law that applies to so many things- everything is best in moderation- applies to today, maybe we would actually get somewhere. Everyone wants freedom, but both sides need to reflect on what that really means. Both parties could use a dose of both logic and compassion- even for each other.