Friday, July 11, 2008

Loyalty or Balance

I've been thinking a lot about loyalty lately. What are we loyal to and why? I've always considered myself a loyal person. Maybe too loyal. I had a really difficult time switching preschools that my son will go to in the fall, because the first one was where my older son went, and had a wonderful experience, so I feel like I need to be loyal to her, even when a preschool opened within walking distance (as opposed to a 10 minute drive each way). So loyal, that when I finally did switch my son to the new preschool, in my guilt over leaving the first preschool, I may have said something that hurt the new preschool teacher's feelings. Hopefully not, but I'm not sure...

As a democrat, I'm having a difficult time understanding the hardcore loyalty that so many republicans seem to have to their party. In Utah, I think it's obvious that the one-party-super-majority system we have going on is not healthy, but still people seem to think that the next conservative republican will be better than the previous one.

I'm trying to imagine if I would feel the same way about the democrats if it were they who had a supermajority stranglehold on our government, but I'm just not seeing it. As far as politics go, my loyalty is to the well being of my community, my state, my nation, and this planet we call home, er.... earth.

I double dog dare (ooohhhhhh) any of you republicans who HAVE NOT already thought about the problems associated with a supermajority to do so, and to consider voting D this november (at least locally).

For some reason a supermajority has turned basically good people (I'm giving many of them the benefit of the doubt) into what appears to be arrogant, power hungry idiots (some just arrogant, some just idiots...). I can appreciate the desire to be loyal, but I think sometimes we need be careful of what we are loyal to, and make sure that there is balance and moderation.

22 comments:

adamf said...

I think there always needs to be a reason for loyalty, rather than loyalty for its own sake.

The one exception is with love, ostensibly not needed in the voting booth, (except maybe in your case, lol).

George said...

Well reasoned and expressed!

Emily said...

I'm not very politically involved and don't understand a lot about politics. But I do feel they are very divisive and that some people automatically assume things about others based on their political affiliation. I consider myself pretty conservative on most issues, but I don't always like the conservative representative. However, when looking at a more liberal candidate, I don't agree entirely with them either. I can't find a single person who actually represents what I want government to be. I've sort of lost faith in the whole system.

George said...

There is a nice piece about the R's coming apart in Utah -- the hardcore conservatives vs. the moderates-- in today's Trib. This could be an important election for Utah if more of those on the far right go down to defeat and the speaker loses his job as well. It really is about the tyranny of power in this state.

Charlotte said...

Very interesting post! But I'm already a democrat. I never vote a single party ballot. Obama, I'm your mama;)

Alice said...

It is really hard to find a candidate that you feel will really represent you, I totally know how you feel Emily. I think where none of the candidates are exactly what we might want (except in the case of the House of Reps, district 20, this year...) you have to look at the bigger picture.

I think it's more important to get some balance into our state government than to necessarily vote for any particular party (although what I really mean by that is that republicans need to vote for democrats because our government is lopsided and has run amok).

Charlotte- If only you lived in Utah! :) I don't know anything about the balance of power in your state... :)

Alice said...

Oh- and Emily, I also think that people get very uptight when it comes to their politics, so I don't want you to feel like you can't be whatever you want to be around me.

I like politics (and hate it at the same time), but it's not as important as good relationships with friends and family.

Salt H2O said...

I think there needs to be balance in all things. No one party has all the answers, each has it's MASSIVE flaws.

It annoys me when people don't think, or want to think, they follow the popular flow or do what their parents do.

Because no party or politian will ever be all things to me I work on a 3 issue rule- what is the politian's track record on my 3 top issues. (abortion is NOT one of them)

Now if the candidate has no track record (uhem, Obama) you have to fall back on what they say and if it continues to change... I'm flipping a coin.

Lisa said...

This is a very good post on an important issue for our state. Tyson and I have been talking a lot about this same thing. I do think we will see a little more balance after this election. I hope!

Alice said...

My friends who are from Illinois are pretty happy with what Obama's track record as their senator.

I should get more info from them on that...

SaltH20- I'm interested in how you (or any republicans really) view the supermajority in our state government? It's easy for me to say that half of you need to become dems, but obviously people who are really interested in politics have chosen their party for a reason, so it's not reasonable to ask them to change parties just for balance (well, I think it is, but I'm not sure how I'd feel if places were reversed). Thoughts?

Carissa said...

It's unwise to be so loyal to a political party that you become blinded or indifferent to the principles they support (which often changes over time and varies with each candidate). This goes for any party. Loyalty to principles... now that makes sense.

Carissa said...

Allie, if you don't mind, I'd love to hear you present a case for being a democrat. Maybe you could pick some of the platform issues and explain why the party deserves more followers in Utah. Or compare the platform to the Rep. platform and tell us why you think it's better. The balance argument just isn't good enough (hey, there's too many Mormons in Utah- some of you should convert to Catholicism, you know?) I'd be interested in your argument anyway. I'm not loyal to either party.

Alice said...

I'll work on something Carissa- I'll make that it's own post. Just now I was reading over the state republican party platform (which appears to not have been updated since 2004) and also rereading the state democratic platform. The republican one has a lot of stuff that "sounds nice" but doesn't really tell us anything. The closest thing I could find relating to immigration is, "HERITAGE
We recognize the contributions made to our quality of life through ethnic diversity." That clarifies things for me... There was another one that I found amusing, "ETHICS AND STANDARDS
We demand honesty, integrity, morality, and accountability of our public officials. We will work
to expose and stop corruption."

I'm sure there are "inconsistencies" in the state dem party also, but (and this is why my balance argument is a good one) at least if the two parties were more balanced, they could act as checks for each other to ensure one group doesn't get carried away and forget about "demanding honesty, integrity, etc...."

Anyway, I'll do a new post.

George said...

Elder's Neal Maxwell and Marlin Jensen both believed and taught it as a worthwhile thing to be a Democrat in Utah. I have Elder's Jensen's speech on the subject.

Bekkieann said...

Carissa, George identified the problem: "the tyranny of power". With no opposition, the balance of power is completely thrown off, and the people of Utah are at the mercy of corrupt politicians. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I posted on this topic myself recently, though unlike others here, I don't have a lot of confidence that Utahns will vote any differently this year, despite the scandals and divisiveness in the Republican party. Good post, Allie.

http://slcblues.blogspot.com/2008/07/utah-voters-apathetic-or.html

Carissa said...

I get the problem about how having too much power corrupts. The point I was trying to make was I don't think the balance argument BY ITSELF would be enough to convince peoples to change parties. For some, it might be reason enough. I would guess that most, however, subscribe to a particular party based on ISSUES they feel strongly about, so simply saying "we need more balance" doesn't address the issue discrepancy. Hopefully that makes sense.

Alice said...

I agree Carissa- people who are really interested in politics aren't likely to change parties just for more balance, even though from my perspective, I think that they should.

No one wants to sacrifice their personal pet issues for the bigger picture, and few people ever bother to look at the bigger picture (again, this is all said from someone who doesn't know what's it like to be asked to change parties for the sake of balance, so what do I know...).

Salt H2O said...

I think the super majority is ridiculous. It lacks balance a lot of balance.

I heard that there were a number of traditional republicans running as Dems in Utah

I am a registered Democrat- and in Utah, I really do tend to lean more democrat than republican.

Alice said...

H20- I'm not sure that republicans running as dems will fix things much. :)

I might be in a "depressed with politics in general" mood today though....

(Who is your state representative Kory?)

Salt H2O said...

I'm depressed with politics every day, they kind of go hand in hand.

Paul Neuenschwander

Alice said...

Oh good...

Vote for Kyle Roberts.

He's my Mister.

(and he's a moderate.. actually I think he's pretty conservative about some things and liberal about others- does that balance out to moderate?)

Salt H2O said...

Good luck to your husband! That's great!