China and Human Rights

This blog post will significantly depart from the topic of the previous ones, as yesterday, I attended a presentation my several practitioners of Falun Gong. Falun Gong is notable as it is a major religious group in China, and one that has been severely persecuted. Even if one allows for the reports to be grossly exaggerated, these persecutions would still be a terrible human rights issue.

Unfortunately, as much as I wish we could, there seems to be little we can do about this issue. While the United States could impose sanctions, or attempt to use other economic methods, we need China as much or more as they need us. Furthermore, they hold huge amount of US treasury Debt, and you have to assume, that they would use these as an economic weapon against us. The United Nations would seem to be another non-starter as far as dealing with China is concerned as, China holds a security counsel veto, meaning it would be able to prevent any resolutions against itself. And even if the situation were bad enough to warrant military action, something I believe is not true, the US, even with NATO support, would most likely be unable to defeat China in a conventional war, especially with all of our other military commitments. Therefore, I must conclude that there is very little that the world can do to influence China, on this or other internal policies.

With that in mind, the only real solution seems to be an internal one. In my opinion, the solution seems to lie in the resource often followed by the oppressed, civil disobedience. Saint Augustine said that "An unjust law is no law at all," and this has been the guiding tenet of civil disobedience since. In the 1920s and 1930s, Gandhi used civil disobedience to push for Indian independence, a goal that he ultimately achieved. Other examples include Martin Luthor King Jr. and the American civil rights movement and Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. It is my hope that these techniques may also be applied in this case, though they may prove less effective in communist controlled China than in the democratic nations that these movements have previously been used in.

In conclusion, China's human rights practices are terrible, Falun Gong's treatment is only one element of a wide problem. However, the international community, including the United States, seems to have little leverage to affect this situation, though that should not stop us from using what we have. Thus the majority of the solution mus come from inside China, and the best hope for that is civil disobedience.

The Oct 7th Debate

I am writing this during and after the presidential debate on October the Seventh.
While this debate did not revolutionize the election it certainly helped to define the positions of both candidates. The next president, be it John McCain or Barrack Obama, will face some of the toughest challenges any incoming president has ever faced certainly the toughest since FDR.

Tonight's debate has helped us to see how each candidate will handle many of the issues, from the economic crisis to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the energy crisis and a looming social security shortfall. The most short term issue, the economic crisis was the most among the most contentious as both candidates attempted to be the one who predicted the crisis. However, it seems Obama has the advantage here as he unlike McCain has been pro-regulation for a long time. Tax policy is one issue where Obama and McCain differed significantly, McCain wants to give tax cuts to the wealthy and to business, subscribing to the so called "trickle-down" effect, while Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich and big business. Health Care was another issue on which the candidates differed sharply, Obama wants the government to get much more involved with the problem, different people would benefit under each plan. Consumer reports discusses which demographics fare best under each plan in detail. Foreign policy and National defense were much more evenly balanced, with McCain's advantages being his long experience in the area as well as his support for the seemingly effective surge in Iraq, while Barrack Obama had the advantage of opposing the Iraq war from the beginning. On Energy there seemed to be little to tell the candidates apart aside form a slightly increase emphasis on green energy on Obama's side. One more interesting this debate gives us clues to are the candidates personalities. Barrack Obama remained calm and cool throughout the debate in contrast, McCain seemed annoyed almost angry when Obama was speaking. Though it is my personal view I feel a calm chief executive is best for America.

At this point with less than one month to the election to go, one must remember that it is not only the next president that will be decided this November but the next congress as well. At this point polls suggest the Democrats will pick up a few more seats in both the House and Senate, however it appears they may not have enough to prevent filibusters, a legislative delaying tactic. This means that even if McCain is elected he will have a much harder time enacting his agenda. But it also presents a problem for the Democrats, the next four years are likely to be hard ones in many ways, possible tainting the Democrats with unpopular measures including tax increases and cutting important programs.

On a related note, one Democrat running for reelection in the senate is Max Baucus, the senate Finance committee chairman, he won with a 32% margin in the last election so it seems unlikely that he will lose. The unusual thing about this election is the two candidates positions, Senator Baucus favored the Bush tax cuts, while his Republican opponent Bob Kelleher, favors socialized medicine, nationalizing the oil industry and raising taxes to lift the poor out of poverty. Does this seem backwards to anyone else?

The next election will be for high stakes, perhaps even more than usual. Many people seem to agree that the nation has reached a critical decision point about its future course. Unfortunately no one can look into the future to tell us the right choice so we must hope America makes the right choice.

The Economy and the Government (Revised)

Winston Churchill once said, "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." However, not all forms of democracy are the same, there are single party systems and multiparty systems, there are federal systems and parliamentary systems. .Our own government is a two party democracy, and it as proved more enduring than many other democracies. This does not mean it is the best type of democracy. For example, a parliamentary democracy allows for the removal of a chief executive when the people lose confidence in him or her, where our own only allows for removal when that executive has committed "High Crimes and Misdemeanors”. In a parliamentary democracy, there would be a process to remove under-performing or unpopular presidents. In my opinion, the executive branch has become too strong, especially during the Bush Administration, and it needs to be made more accountable to the legislature and the people.
Another potential danger with the U.S. system is the possible weakness of the Supreme Court. There are many who denounce "Judicial Activism," including some judges. They seem to have forgotten that the Judiciary are one of the three coequal branches of government, and that its duties are to interpret the Constitution. While what many call judicial activism is not part of the constitution, it has played an important role throughout or nation's history, John Marshall, the chief justice in the early 18th century made many decisions, not least the decision establishing judicial review, that, today, would be condemned as judicial activism. Judicial activism is not a problem with the supreme court as some would have us believe, but a crucial part of its powers. Expand this idea more please.
One final issue rests with the legislature. It is very rare for an incumbent of either party, anywhere in the nation to lose an election, something which seems to be in stark contrast to Congress's terrible approval rating. The fact that the boundaries are drawn by the party in control of each state leads to protection of incumbencies, results in districts with bizarre boundaries. Perhaps a neutral unaffiliated group would be better suited to this task. While the districts boundaries may not be the only reason for incumbent Senators and Members of Congress, it is by far the most most blatant. Another method to possibly limit incumbent advantage would be to reduce or eliminate member items.
One could easily apply Winston Churchill's statement to capitalism as well, Capitalism is the worst economic system, but all of the others have been tried. Our American system of capitalism is one of many that falls in between pure capitalism and socialism. The problems of pure capitalism are many, as the theoretical competition necessary for capitalism sometimes fails to materialize, or if sometimes materializes but then fades away. A key example of this took place in America in the late 18th century, when beginning with the rail roads, and spreading across American industries, huge monopolies and trusts formed. It took a step away from pure capitalism, to government intervention under presidents Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson to fix the trusts’ many problems. Furthermore, the greatest economic crisis in American, if not world history, The Great Depression was solved not by the free market, but by the massive government interventions of the New Deal. However, the other side of the coin, communism, has its own more numerous problems. The Soviet Union had huge economic problems throughout its history, chiefly due to the problems underlying it entire economic system, especially the lack of motivation for individuals, as unlike in a capitalistic system, they had no vehicle for improving their standard of living. Our current system, may have swung too far towards pure capitalism. Our current president, and the last two chairs of the Federal reserve, have been of the laissez-faire school, This decrease in regulation has arguably worsened or even led to the current economic crisis. The banks and other investors began to put their money in under regulated, little understood parts of the markets, derivatives and CDOs. Furthermore, there was nothing to stop or even slow the mortgage brokers from issuing mortgages to the least suitable candidates. If these had been better regulated perhaps the crisis could have been lessened or even avoided completely.The American governmental and economic systems present many advantages, they have proved resilient, and mostly effective, however, just because something is good does not mean it cannot be improved. Our leaders in Washington, whoever they may be come January 20th should make an effort to eliminate the bad while keeping the good.While our government and economic system may be better than many alternatives, they are not the best out there.