Which Issue Matters Most To You?

Which of these issues matter most to you?

My answer is Foreign Policy. Our foreign policy is behind alot of the problems we have today. Unsustainable spending due to our bloated defense budget, increases in taxes needed to somewhat balance out the unsustainable spending, a decrease in civil liberties largely justified by the scary sand people who might attack us if we don't touch people's junk, an increase in federal powers overall granted by wartime powers, and of course the cronyism that emerges between government and corporation when the government buys trillions of dollars in defense equipment.

Foreign policy is not nearly as worrisome, at the moment, as the increasing gap between rich and poor. The gap between upper middle class and lower middle class is widening, and ultimately taking a path that will keep this trend going. If this doesn't change, political power will be completely determined by the rich and which candidate is favored by the richest people, instead of in the hands of the majority of Americans.

Disability & education issues.

Other: Immigration.

Where we are going for dinner. :2wave:

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Campaign finance.

You fix that, so that corporations and wealthy individuals can no longer buy the favor of the US government and a lot of the other issues with solve themselves.

Starsandstripes said:

Foreign policy is not nearly as worrisome, at the moment, as the increasing gap between rich and poor. The gap between upper middle class and lower middle class is widening, and ultimately taking a path that will keep this trend going. If this doesn't change, political power will be completely determined by the rich and which candidate is favored by the richest people, instead of in the hands of the majority of Americans.

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that's a silly worry given that at least half the rich in this country want more and more government, and the rest of us want to limit the government to the boundaries the founders placed on it

Fiddytree said:

Disability & education issues.

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This.

Although more education than anything.

This is based on my belief/opinion that with better education, the rest will follow.


Edit: I actually have no idea how to define "better education", though.

Other: Unemployment.

Jetboogieman said:

Campaign finance.

You fix that, so that corporations and wealthy individuals can no longer buy the favor of the US government and a lot of the other issues with solve themselves.

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BS. The wealthy have always made the rules and they always will. :shrug:

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Taxes, and size/scope/ power of federal government.

TeleKat said:

Which of these issues matter most to you?

My answer is Foreign Policy. Our foreign policy is behind alot of the problems we have today. Unsustainable spending due to our bloated defense budget, increases in taxes needed to somewhat balance out the unsustainable spending, a decrease in civil liberties largely justified by the scary sand people who might attack us if we don't touch people's junk, an increase in federal powers overall granted by wartime powers, and of course the cronyism that emerges between government and corporation when the government buys trillions of dollars in defense equipment.

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Can only choose one?
That is why there are so many voting "other".

lizzie said:

Taxes, and size/scope/ power of federal government.

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Both are largely affected by foreign policy, as I stated in the OP.

TeleKat said:

Which of these issues matter most to you?

My answer is Foreign Policy. Our foreign policy is behind alot of the problems we have today. Unsustainable spending due to our bloated defense budget, increases in taxes needed to somewhat balance out the unsustainable spending, a decrease in civil liberties largely justified by the scary sand people who might attack us if we don't touch people's junk, an increase in federal powers overall granted by wartime powers, and of course the cronyism that emerges between government and corporation when the government buys trillions of dollars in defense equipment.

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Mine is also foreign policy, simply because it interests me more. I'm a left-wing interventionist, which is a fairly difficult and unpopular view to maintain. I'm basically stuck between leftists/libertarians who think that everything bad that happens in the world can be blamed on the US, rightists/libertarians who simply hate foreigners, and right-wing interventionists who aren't capable of assessing when our foreign policy doesn't work.

BTW, most of the stuff you listed is more bureaucracy than foreign policy. As I said, I'm a big-time hawk, but I don't see the necessity for a bloated military or government surveillance.

TeleKat said:

Both are largely affected by foreign policy, as I stated in the OP.

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Not to any great extent since national defense can only be a federal power. While I will agree that playing national policeman is unwise it is the domestic expansion of that effort, at the federal level, "demanded" (we are told) in response to the 9/11/2001 terroir attacks\that is the source of much growth in that area.

The huge spike in federal spending (formerly known as a budget), from the "financial crisis", in 2008/9 is unlikely to be reversed and then we were "blessed" with PPACA - a huge new federal entitlement whose scope is yet to be appreciated thanks to clever "politically necessary" delays.

We now have this bizarre thing known as "mandatory" federal spending which is said to be "off the table" in any "budget" dealings and thus we are left with other strange arguments about cutting anything that "won't make any real difference", meaning that taxation must be increased or we will "default on our obligations".

Once the federal gov't gives itself a power, program, agency or department then it is extremely likely to grow and extremely unlikely to ever be reduced or removed. When education became a federal power, it was relatively small and a part of Heath, Education and Welfare - each if which has now grown into their own cabinet level departments. Not once is education mentioned in the constitution as a federal power, yet it is apparently here to stay growing to take control (bit by bit) from state, county, city and school districts forever.

Mystical affinities with sports teams...

For me to choose one on this list is definitely drug legalization. The war on drugs has been the most destructive social policy our government has created- the war has cost taxpayers around $51 trillion, cops have become militarized to the point where every single city and government agency now has a SWAT team (even the Dept of Education has got a SWAT team) equipped with military weapons and tanks that carries out no knock entries and innocent people have gotten killed, devastated inner cities and minorities and incarcerated millions. And guess what? The government has totally failed to stamp out drugs and instead created a new breed of organized criminal who have made billions in profits over it (watch HBO's The Wire for an accurate portrayal of the drug trade in the inner cities) both locally and abroad.

At least politicians of the past were able to learn from their mistakes and repealed Prohibition after 13 years when they realized it wasnt working. Not so with the Drug War.

Other: like most Americans, the most important issue to me is the economy.