Party Politics
It really seems to us that Republicans and Democrats both love their country. They both believe that their approaches to saving the future of the country are right.
It must be noted at this point, that when we say Republican or Democrat here, we are talking about what we percieve as the philosophical center of each party. The Activist Middle takes no stand, and has no understanding of the extremes of either party.
Having said that, here is our view of the Republican solution to the economic problems of our country at the moment. We think that this part of America truly believes that the best way to prosperity is to reduce the size of government while ensuring that govenment gets out of the way of the part of the country that they feel is most responsible for economic growth and prosperity in our country in the past, that is, the business and weatlh class. The top tiers of the American economic system. The notion is that when they win, we all win. When they are successful, we are all successful. A rising tide lifts all boats. Top down!
We believe that the Democrats solution to solving the economic problems of our country at the moment, is a belief that government is about the American People. They feel that the collection of US Citizens that is our government should be providing for and ensuring that a majority of the people have an opportunity to prosper. More importantly to them, is their notion that if you put more money into the hands of more people, businesses prosper (because they have more customers) hire more people, which in turn produces more and more prosperity, etc. Thus businesses and ordinary people both produce more revenue for a government that is able to balance it's budgets and provide more prosperity for all americans. A rising tide lifts all boats. Bottom up!
So what comes first, more people having more posperity, buying more goods and services, and raising the prosperity of American Businesses and more americans. [Demand Side] Or is it the other way around, ensure that the business community prospers, having unfettered access to markets at home and abroad so that it is able to provide more goods and services to the people of our country, and help provide the country the revenue it needs to balance it budgets and maintain it's standard of living. [Supply Side]
Which comes first? Which method works best?
Our view is that when we try all "bottom up", we try too hard to solve all problems for everyone, and we eventually bring ourselves to financial ruin.
Equally, our view is that when we try all "top down", hubris and greed (think 2008) can bring us financial ruin and to the mess we have now.
As part of the Activist Middle we feel that we need a healthy combination of the two. We need to allow the checks and balances in our polictical system to work. We can not be allowed to go to the extreme of either of these two philosophical choices. We need the vigorous, but not rancorous political debates that hopefully produces the kind of compromise that get us to the "Goldilocks" solution that we need.
For most of our history however, we have had a functioning political system. Right now we don't. The Last time our political system didn't work, we had a civil war.
Our political system is currently broken and we need to fix it before it is too late.
It must be noted at this point, that when we say Republican or Democrat here, we are talking about what we percieve as the philosophical center of each party. The Activist Middle takes no stand, and has no understanding of the extremes of either party.
Having said that, here is our view of the Republican solution to the economic problems of our country at the moment. We think that this part of America truly believes that the best way to prosperity is to reduce the size of government while ensuring that govenment gets out of the way of the part of the country that they feel is most responsible for economic growth and prosperity in our country in the past, that is, the business and weatlh class. The top tiers of the American economic system. The notion is that when they win, we all win. When they are successful, we are all successful. A rising tide lifts all boats. Top down!
We believe that the Democrats solution to solving the economic problems of our country at the moment, is a belief that government is about the American People. They feel that the collection of US Citizens that is our government should be providing for and ensuring that a majority of the people have an opportunity to prosper. More importantly to them, is their notion that if you put more money into the hands of more people, businesses prosper (because they have more customers) hire more people, which in turn produces more and more prosperity, etc. Thus businesses and ordinary people both produce more revenue for a government that is able to balance it's budgets and provide more prosperity for all americans. A rising tide lifts all boats. Bottom up!
So what comes first, more people having more posperity, buying more goods and services, and raising the prosperity of American Businesses and more americans. [Demand Side] Or is it the other way around, ensure that the business community prospers, having unfettered access to markets at home and abroad so that it is able to provide more goods and services to the people of our country, and help provide the country the revenue it needs to balance it budgets and maintain it's standard of living. [Supply Side]
Which comes first? Which method works best?
Our view is that when we try all "bottom up", we try too hard to solve all problems for everyone, and we eventually bring ourselves to financial ruin.
Equally, our view is that when we try all "top down", hubris and greed (think 2008) can bring us financial ruin and to the mess we have now.
As part of the Activist Middle we feel that we need a healthy combination of the two. We need to allow the checks and balances in our polictical system to work. We can not be allowed to go to the extreme of either of these two philosophical choices. We need the vigorous, but not rancorous political debates that hopefully produces the kind of compromise that get us to the "Goldilocks" solution that we need.
For most of our history however, we have had a functioning political system. Right now we don't. The Last time our political system didn't work, we had a civil war.
Our political system is currently broken and we need to fix it before it is too late.
