political thoughts

Another election.

yay.

I'm looking forward to that about as much as I am to the tooth caps my dentist is advising (let me just dig up the $1800 from my loose change, doc.) But, it's here, it's reality, and I have thoughts.

1. Maybe you shouldn't vote.
Yes, I know the usual shtick is to encourage everyone to get involved in the process, exert your democratic right, etc. I don't quite understand that. I think there are a lot of people who shouldn't vote.

First of all, if you really don't care, don't vote. Don't go mark an "X" somewhere if it really has no meaning for you, just because a poorly done government rap commercial says you should. Yeah, people want you to care, but being cynical may be your place right now. Be there if you must.

Second, if you don't take the time to understand the issues, don't vote. Too many people have a sound bite perception of politics that doesn't really understand a big picture perspective. Every pro has a con. There are no ideal solutions. Newspaper columnists are really bad. Let's look at fact A - it is obvious that because A is a fact, the solution is B. Meanwhile, they leave out factors C through Z that would also be affected by B. What sounds good and right in isolation can be horrible in reality. More on that to come.

Third, if you do understand the issues, and there is no clear winner, don't vote. What is the point of flipping a coin to choose just so you can say you participated? If you took the time to think it through and realize that you can't throw your support behind someone, why make it seem like you support someone or something you don't?

2. Things are not always what they seem.
I grew up in Conservative land. Actually, just being in the church a lot of the time seems to mean living in Conservative land. I remember one year, at a former church, the leadership polled local politicians where most membership lived on 3 issues: private schools, abortion, and another I can't remember. Then they reported the results to the congregation. The implication was clear: Christians vote conservative.

I'm not so sure on that anymore. Yes, Conservatives are the only party that seem to see anything wrong with abortion and gay marriage. But frankly, those issues aren't going to change anytime soon. Our best hope for abortion is to take action on spreading the truth about what it does to children, women, families and society. The change in policy will not take place without a change in understading. There's a lot of work to be done before that happens. Gay marriage is here to stay. Our votes are not going to make a difference to that. A vote of protest will not help to make progress in other areas.

What are the other areas? Well, poverty is a big one. The conservative solution to almost everything is tax cuts. Shrink the government, let the markets rule. Well, the more the markets rule, the more people go into poverty, the deeper people go into poverty, the richer the already rich grow. How is that Christian? How is that within God's will for humanity?

However, I still have a huge heart for the unborn. While I don't believe that legal change will happen, I think that policy could increase or decrease the number currently being performed. If women have better financial outlooks, abortion is probably less likely. Such a scenario is more likely to happen under Liberal or NDP governments. However, those same governments, especially the NDP, are more likely to give financial support to organizations that promote abortion as an ideology, thus perhaps making abortions more likely. It's a crap shoot.

Children's well being is also important. I'm very much for the current plan of developing a national child care system. This is a surprise to me, as a few years ago I would have loved the Conservative plan of just giving all parents a tax credit and let them use it to keep their children at home or use it for child care. But that was before I had a picture of the whole issue. The Conservative plan is not likely to improve children's outcomes in the long haul. My reasoning is this:

• Most kids are in some form of child care at some time (preschool counts)
• Quality child care is better for kids than child care that is of poor quality
• Much of child care in Canada is poor quality
• The answer is not for more stay at home parents, because that is not economically feasible for many families, not something other families want, and it is not economically feasible for society.
• Children in disadvantaged homes (stressed, hostile parents, often but definitely not always low income) especially benefit from having exposure to good child care. They do better in child care than if they remain at home with a stay at home parent.
• Better child care will only happen if we fund child care, not families. This has been shown time and time again in other developed countries. Countries that have good quality child care always get there by developing child care directly, not just giving tax credits.
• This does not mean that we abandon stay at home parents. Both can be supported, and have been supported.

To summarize - the issues are complex, and to vote with understanding takes time and effort. I know how long it took me to understand the necessity of child care, and I don't even know how to get a handle on issues I have next to no knowledge about (e.g. climate change, Kyoto). What I am sure of, is there are no ideal options, and no party has a handle on a true Christian response.