The drop down menu under this heading is where I discuss my thoughts and ideas on the issues currently facing our society, but before checking those out, please read the below.
Our Declaration of Independence says it so much better than I ever could—“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
More than any wording in the US Constitution, that sentence from the Declaration of Independence guides what it means to me to be a Centrist Independent, and by extension, how and when the government should get involved in any issues, but particularly social issues.
As I have stated before, the primary founding principle of even having a central government was to do those things that the individual states could not do alone, or could not do as well, such as provide for a common defense.
Over time we have evolved and our government has evolved in terms of those things that we feel as a nation that the federal government needs to concern itself with.
To me, government at any level should not interfere or concern itself with social issues until and unless it becomes clear that we are not as a nation upholding that most basic fundamental statement.
If people are not being treated equally, if they are unable to live their life the way they want (with liberty and justice for all), if their pursuit of happiness is being impinged upon by another citizen’s pursuit of their own happiness, then those are the times it is morally and legally incumbent upon our government to intervene and act to restore the balance.
For as FDR said in 1936, and I’m paraphrasing, we cannot allow a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference. He was speaking primarily of economic indifference, but the same applies to social issues as well.
Throughout the history of humanity, and more specifically the American experience, there always have been, and always will be, individuals who are more forward thinking and “ahead of their time”. And there will always be people either yearning for the old ways, or to slow down the path of progress. Neither is correct 100% of the time, and both can be wrong at the exact same time.
It is the very nature of humanity to be embroiled in that constant controversy between the left and the right, which is precisely why those of us in the middle hold all of the power to decide if we as a society need to step on the gas, or step on the brake.
Instead of collectively determining what is the best course of action and slowly move forward as a harmonious nation every step of the way, unfortunately what has resulted due to the two party system and its inherently adversarial nature is that we take two steps forward and one step back, or one step forward and two steps back.
We lurch from 8 years in one direction to 4 years in the opposite direction and back and forth, so that in the end as Martin Luther King said so eloquently, “the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice”. The process under the 2 party system just looks ugly as hell and emotionally exhausting getting to that end.
But yet it doesn’t have to be that way! It is up to us in the middle to use common sense to bridge the gap, to keep the discussion going and constructive between both the right and the left and the middle, so that we can reach the correct decision, as quickly as possible, as painlessly as possible, and allow all of us to always be on the right side of history on any and every issue.
Perry Waag 