Tag: partisan

People over Policy
At its core, public policy is supposed to the serve greater good, and no political party or ideology has a monopoly on good or bad ideas. Many politicians are elected and strive to do the best they can, while others seek only to better themselves. Every aspect of politics has positives and negatives, but two key elements, the policies and the politicians, define the outcome. I have often debated with myself and others about which is more important, the policies being advocated or those doing the actual advocating. Despite the conflict in my head, I can feel the truth in my gut that those we elect to represent us are more important than the policies themselves.
While policy is important, and the goals set in a piece legislation are not something to be ignored, the overall principles largely do not change. What is important are the details of individual pieces of policy and legislation, that are often decided through negotiation and compromise between politicians. Politicians who serve the constituents and their principles, or at least try to make the best decision in a situation with only bad options, will serve their constituents and nations well, even if every choice they make is not the right one. On the other hand, politicians only looking towards the next election, while likely not destroying the country will still weaken it, and leave a widening partisan and moral gap in the governance of our society.
I am someone who, generally speaking, leans from a moderate to a progressive viewpoint on politics. I would far rather have an honest, honourable, moral conservative or socialist in office than someone who holds my exact views but is morally and politically corrupt. It is as simple as knowing that, while the politician who does not share my values is less likely to pursue or implement policies that favour my political leanings, a politician with integrity beyond the parameters of party policy can be trusted to uphold democratic norms and maintain the public interest above all else. Meanwhile, I may love the policies that the immoral candidate stands for but I can neither trust that politician, once in office, to implement those policies or to maintain the basic democratic principles which make up the foundation of citizens’ faith in the integrity of government.
A perfect example of why it is more important to vote based on who is running than on what their exact ideology is, is the incumbent President of the United States, Donald Trump. Despite evidence of corruption and his lack of a moral compass, Trump ultimately won the election because conservative voters in the United States decided to vote based on the policies they believed he would implement over his apparent fitness (or lack thereof) for office. The consequences of this choice based on stated policy versus apparent integrity of the candidate are that the world is under threat from Trump’s erratic behaviour and many crisis or potential crisis are going unsolved. Furthermore, burdened by the corruption and incompetence and corruption he has failed to pass a significant portion of the legislation he promised his voters, whether it is health care reform, a massive jobs program, the construction of the border wall, or the backfiring of his trade war.
The flip side of this is seen in Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama. Obama was elected because of who he was and the change his evident integrity, intelligence, and optimism represented. Because of his positive character qualities, he was able to provide competent management for the world's most powerful economy during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. He was able to make changes to healthcare, foreign policy, and the economy, even when, for most of his time in office, the opposition controlled the legislative branch of the United States and actively worked to thwart many of his measures .
Politicians and policy are both essential factors to consider when casting your ballot.
However, despite the importance of policy, it is far more important to consider the quality of the people for whom we cast our votes above every detail of the policies they support.
Jonah Van Driesum is a third year Politics student and the Vice-President Programming of the Acadia Politics Students’ Association
October 22, 2018
Drop the Gloves
In most institutions that affect our daily lives, there are rules that guide us. These rules ensure accountability, decency, and integrity. The problem is that the people who often get ahead in life are those who circumnavigate those rules. It is time for those of us who try to live by the rules, by the ideas of common human decency and kindness, to drop the pretence, get into the muck and drag those who want to harm our common standard of respect under the spotlight.
Surprisingly, politics is the easy problem to fix. It only requires those of us with the right to vote to use it, frequently and intelligently. We usually vote based on emotion, asking questions such as, “Who will cut my taxes?”, “Who will keep me safe?” or even as primal as, “Who do I hate less?”. Instead we need to vote upon “Who has the qualifications, who has a reasonable plan and what is that candidate’s record”? Instead of putting power into the hands of someone we like, we need to put into the hands of someone who is decent and knowledgeable, even if we don’t like them all that much.
Our justice system is based upon the idea that everyone, no matter who they are or what they did or did not do, gets the opportunity to tell their side of things. It is messy, complicated, and at least one person always leaves unhappy, but it is the fairest and most practical way of judging our fellow members of society. The problem is individuals who have felt denied by the justice system and see that it has its limitations have soothed their disappointments by social media vigilante justice, instead of using the court system, where there are rules around evidence and testimony and where everything said and shown is cross-examined. Those who go outside of the justice system, make it nearly impossible for those whom they accuse to have an unbiased hearing, while potentially undermining the police work being done in such a case and other victim who have already come forward or may yet come forward. In many trials, whether it is a class action lawsuit, a mob prosecution, or in rape and murder trials, the prosecution has to do rigorous preparation as even a shadow of reasonable doubt can end a case. When someone goes outside of the justice system for their own satisfaction, any trial held will immediately be filled with reasonable doubt. This new wave of social media vigilantism undermines both defence and prosecution, tainting the principle of justice.
Students, parents, and the rest of our society are dependent upon the principle that everyone has the opportunity to become educated, and therefore become highly employable. Education is the silver bullet for nearly all of the problems in our world that stem from a form of inequality. But that bullet is malformed when those who should receive the most benefit by education are instead crushed by the systems restrictions and its unprincipled managers, making the system more about profit margins for the institution than future opportunities. With rampant price gouging of students through high tuition, unaffordable living costs, low housing affordability, and a lack of job availability, those managing the system fail to respect and support those with whose futures they are entrusted.
The major corporations of the world have shirked their responsibilities as community leaders. Average people make the success of these corporations possible by putting in a hard day’s works. It is more than fair for people to then expect to be compensated fairly by their employer. Instead, businesses have continually worked to undercut wages, move jobs away from the communities that relied upon those wages, and have done so while gambling with the global financial market and the health of the environment. People used to be able to place at least some faith in their employer, but now it is hard to trust them to even write a fair paycheque.
Finally, the media. I don’t think the media puts out fake news, to be quite frank, I generally agree with what I read in the news, and therein lies the problem. Newscasters were given the airwaves for free upon the condition they provide a public service, bringing information to the masses. Now, unless people actively seek out differing opinions in media and the world, they find themselves within their own political echo chamber, where everyone and everything agrees with their view of the world. Media outlets, whether on social media, T.V., radio or in a newspaper have shirked their responsibility to make people uncomfortable so that we can make our fellow citizens see a variety of opinions and life stories. By demanding a variety within our information input, we become more informed and more active citizens.
People have a responsibility to one another. In everyday life, most of us are able to live up to those responsibilities. It is time that those entrusted with the most important of those responsibilities live up to their end of the bargain.
Jonah Van Driesum is a 3rd year Politics student
September 28, 2018

Tag: partisan

People over Policy

Drop the Gloves