Last night I watched about 30 minutes of the Las Vegas Democratic Debate on CNN on my computer (since we don't have cable TV). I have really been rather disinterested in the race for president so far, and outside of Barak Obama and John McCain, there hasn't been anyone remotely interesting to me. On the Republican side I don't think John McCain has any potential for winning the primaries. He has alienated the Republican establishment so much, there is no way they would let him win. And, since I am registered as an "Independent", I'm not sure I can vote in any of the primaries anyway.
Last night one of the questions asked of the candidates was -- which was more important -- human rights or protecting American national security? Now, I may be quite naive -- but I was very disappointed that all the major candidates said "American national security". Some like Obama seemed to indicate that there was no conflict between the two. That simply is false.
Perhaps these candidates have not really thought about this very much, but it would seem to me that human rights are a fundamental value. If you say that protecting American national security is fundamental, then the protection of human rights becomes secondary and all kinds of things are possible -- eavesdropping on your own citizens without cause, torturing prisoners of war to get information that will protect our security, indiscriminate killing of innocent people; and the list goes on and on and on. If American national security is #1, then almost anything can be done and explained away in those terms. Kind of reminds me of some of the things have crept into our politics and philosophy here in the USA since 2001.
If I had to vote today for president, I don't know what I would do. Today the front-runners are Clinton and Giuliani. I wouldn't vote for Clinton. I don't trust her as far as I can throw her. Unlike her husband who is simply a people-pleaser, Hillary has principles but unfortunately it appears to me that her bottom-line principle is power. People who lust after power are dangerous people. I wouldn't vote for Giuliani. There just seems to be a bit of a smell around him. If he is the candidate, Republicans certainly can't claim any kind of family values banner. Hillary could actually claim that banner because she stood by her man while he behaved like Giuliani. If Rudy's only value is that he might beat Hillary -- that isn't good enough for me.
Perhaps the solution is to move back to Canada. Universal healthcare, budget surpluses for the past 10 years, falling taxes, and a currency that is worth more than the US$!
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