About
My name is Dave Chase and I am political science major from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. On the political spectrum I fall slightly to the left of most democrats but that is just on paper. Here is what I believe:
Important Ideals:
- I believe that the greatness of a country should be measured by how well it takes care of it’s poor, sick, young, old and disenfranchised.
- Freedom trumps security.
- All people should have the right to free high quality public education and free health care.
The Issues
Education
Our education system is failing. The richest country in the world should have the best public education system in the world and yet we have one of the worst among industrialized nations and we are average among all nations. We need a standard national curriculum that focuses on real measures of success like ones ability to think critically rather than ones ability to memorize names and dates. We also need more charter schools, less teachers unions, incentives for good teachers and accountability for bad teachers.
Health Care
I strongly support universal health care. My first proposal would be to provide government oversight and regulation over the health care system to help bring down costs and ensure the public’s best interest is being taken care of. Next I would propose a single payer system like Canada and the UK have. (Read more about my view on health care here)
The Economy
The current world wide economic crisis should clearly demonstrate that economic deregulation is a failure as a policy. The government’s responsibility is to protect it’s citizens not it’s companies. Our economic policies should benefit small businesses and individuals.
Taxes
Paying taxes is the most patriotic act one can do. I do not mind paying a little more to avoid deficit spending.
Guns
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
I am not in a well regulated militia that is necessary to the security of a free State, therefore the Constitution does not guarantee that I can have a gun. Guns kill so let’s ban them. (Read more about my view on guns here)
Abortion
I am pro choice. It’s a woman’s body so it’s her choice not anyone else’s.
Gay Marriage
I am pro gay marriage. We are talking about legal rights nothing more. If a religion is against gay marriage they do not have to offer gay marriages. And to the argument that it desanctifies the institution of marriage, I would say that an abusive marriage or a marriage as the result of a child not love does far more to desanctify the institution of marriage then allowing gay marriage.
The Death Penalty
I am against the death penalty simply because I am not comfortable with the idea of the government killing people.
Climate Change
It is a serious problem that is going to take US leadership to solve. The US is by far the leading contributor of greenhouse gasses and it needs to be the country that sets the toughest regulations.
Human Rights
The UN did a good job laying it out. I guess I will also declare here how disappointed and outraged I am over the US’s recent policy to torture and hold without trial prisoners suspected of terrorist activities. (Read more about my views on human rights here)
Iraq
We should not have invaded in the first place. I wish I could say that we should just pull out but I fear for what will happen to the country after we leave. I simply do not know what to do about this mess.
More issues to come.
Find Me Online
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Political College Student on the Web
Washington Post blog mentions this post about the death penalty here.