Things I wish our leaders had the stones to publicly admit

In My Humble Opinion
1

(A tossup whether this belongs here or in GD. Moderators move if neccessary)

My List of Things I Wish People Dared Admit:

Marijuana (and possibly even Heroin should be decriminalized: At this point, more harm is done to society from their illegality than the drugs themselves. At most, using drugs should been seen as a health problem that can be handled by education and social disapproval (like tobacco and alcohol are handled now).

Underage sex isn’t that harmful: Yes it would be skeevy if creepy old men were out trying to pick up seventh-grade junior high school girls. Treat it as contributing to the delinquincy of a minor, or interference with parental authority. Stop trying to claim that there’s something abnormal about being attracted to someone with developed genitals just because they aren’t quite 216 months old.

The US can’t afford to be the World’s Greatest Power: The quarter-century after World War Two, roughly from 1945 to 1970, was abnormal, based on how wrecked the rest of the world was while the US remained untouched. Stop thinking that some combination of political and economic policy can restore the glory days the Baby Boomers grew up in. Cut the Pentagon’s budget to 100 billion dollars a year, and pursue the policies that can be afforded on that budget.

Afghanistan cannot be tamed: Afghanistan is not a nation, it’s ten thousand villages roughly linked by ethnicity and geographic location. No other region on Earth has less economic, social or political impetus to be united, and it’s history over the last three hundred years is a constant turnover of would-be rulers. Stop thinking because there’s a circled area on the maps labled “Afghanistan” that it can be treated like a unified civilized nation. Maintain a “veto” power by bombing the crap out of any anti-western faction that gets too strong, but forget thinking that a central government- ANY central government- can hold there for long or in depth.

Weapons are Necessary: Everyone says how horrible armaments are, what an expensive waste, if only they could be eliminated and peace established. Here’s the reality: Weapons determine whose laws you have to obey. In a world in which what’s considered free speech in some countries is considered sedition or blasphemy in others, whose laws you have to obey counts. Weapons allow you to say F-U to those who would punish and kill you for saying and doing things they consider wrong. Until the whole world is culturally and morally homogenized, weapons will be necessary.

Peace between Israel and it’s neighbors is impossible: The whole point of Israel is to be “Zionist”- a protected reserve for an endangered people. Ask moderate Arabs what they would consider a fair and just solution, and their response is a multicultural secular state in the region of Palestine. There is simply no compromise between these positions: one has to win and the other has to lose.

Global Warming Cannot Be Solved in the Near-Term: Short of the end of technological civilization, nothing practical can be done immediately to halt global warming. If an eco-Socialist policy of limiting carbon emssions could ever be imposed, it would simply reward any renegade country that broke the rules with wealth and power. Carbon limitation will have to be by technological advances in energy production, not by limiting consumption.

2

Same sex marriage should be legalized.

Here’s what the leader is thinking:
“I wish I could say this, but I’m not spending my political capital fighting this battle right now. Clinton got bar b qued for 6 months for the gays in the military issue. He didn’t make either side happy and it sabotaged the rest of his agenda for months.”

3

I’m an Atheist

You religoids are whacked.

4

I am the worst Prime Minister since the 1930s, while Thatcher was the best

5

Immigration Laws Should Be Changed And Let Those Who Have Lived In The USA, Paying Taxes, Be Allowed A Path To Citizenship
If someone who doesn’t speak English all that well, and has less than a high school education, is taking “your job”, maybe you should take another look at your resume and perhaps take a few courses at school.

6

“I was wrong”

7

If we do not import young people from outside of Europe, West Europe will become the one great old people home, without anyone to pay the bills, and yes a lot of those young people will be different from us, deal with it

8

You can’t have decent government services without the taxes to pay for them. Voters, please make up your tiny pea-brained minds.

As a politician, I’m going to vote the way my large donors tell me to vote. Let me walk you through this: It takes money to win an election. Money comes from corporations, PACs and super-rich people who have it. Ergo, they make the rules. And wattayaknow, the rules they make favor them and screw regular people.

9

Ditto for the U.S., with the additional note that if we don’t purposely bring in people from around the world, by default we will get more and more illegal aliens from Mexico.

10

**This highway repair is never, ever going to be done. And if it ever were to be done, we would start all over again. **

11

The world will end on 21 december 2012, we have known this for some time and plans have been made to save the world’s elite, and you are not one of them

12

No politician really wants to do anything about illegal immigration.

The fix is easy and they know it. Massive fines for employing, renting to, educating, and giving medical services to illegals. Give them nothing to come for.
But they’ll never do this cause they don’t see it as a problem. Instead they talk about it like it is a problem and appease the whiners by beefing up border patrol.

13

Yes, I flip-flopped on that issue. I listened to what my opponent said and realized he was right, so I changed my mind.

14

Hell yes I had sexual relations with that woman/man/goat, and I LOVED IT!

15

**Divorce and single parent families, in general, are extremely damaging and expensive.

College is a great place to explore the world, but actually delays experience, which is the better teacher for the majority of post-college jobs.

In the US, at least, political parties are a simplistic us vs. them money game that keeps innovation and compromise out of the system.

Although racism still exists, Affirmative Action has become something used by relatively wealthy minorities at the expense of the poor. Poor trailer park families, regardless of race, need assistance more than the children of, say, two ivy-league educated attorneys like the Obamas. Affirmative action based on just economic class/background or a combination of race and class would better serve the disenfranchised minority communities and better promote equality. **

16

We’re going to have to raise taxes

I hate paying taxes too. But for better or for worse, Medicare and Social Security aren’t going anywhere. Eliminating all budget earmarks, even were that possible, would cut the federal budget by a percent or so. Military spending is politically sacrosanct, for whatever reason. Still, promising to “freeze spending on everything but defense,” as one political candidate recently did, is like promising the judge that you’ll quit drinking everything but whiskey.

Oh, and the Laffer curve has been debunked. We need more revenue. We all know this, but you won’t vote for us if we admit this. So we keep telling you in so many words that deficit spending is better for Small Businesses (who have to compete with the U.S. Treasury for scarce investment capital) than the alternative of actually paying for the services everybody demands. Hopefully we’ll be out of office or dead before it all blows up.

17

**My idea of long term is the next election.

I don’t understand the Cliff’s Notes version, much less the doctoral thesis version, of the things I attempt to legislate.

I am a salesman. The best way for me to be useful is as a mouthpiece for well-informed, smart people. Please find some and pay them to tell me what to say.

‘The government pays for it’ is not the same as ‘free’.

Our education system transforms far too many average to smart children into dumb-as-shit adults with Bachelor’s degrees.

Non-criminal conduct in professional sports is not important enough for Congress to be bothered with.
**