Heretical Conservatism: Eeewww...Squishy
Now we come to the squishy part.
These are the issues in which I can, at the very least, agree with the premise (somewhat), but I just can’t completely get on board.
Where do I “squishily” agree with conservatives?
Greater financing for education:
I’m biased on this. As previously stated, my wife is a teacher so I get to see, on a daily basis, some of the problems in our schools. While I’m extremely distressed by the state of our education system today. I’m not 100% sure that throwing more money at the problem is going to fix it.
The BIGGEST problem with education goes back to the “family values” issue: Poor parenting. Mind you, poor parenting is not limited to the parents who don’t care. In many cases, poor parenting can manifest itself in people who shelter their children, do not allow them to make their own mistakes and believe that their children are incapable of doing wrong. I like to call these wastes of space “Helicopter parents”. More on them another day.
Whether you are a parent who is apathetic or you are a parent who can not take a step back and allow your child to take his licks and learn on his own, you are a negligent parent and, hence, the biggest problem facing our education system.
The SECOND biggest problem with education is that, due to the passage of “No Child Left Behind”, teachers are limited to teaching the test. This is a pretty narrow focus and, as a result, our kids are NOT getting the quality education they should be. Kids are being taught that the answer to “X” is “Y” but are given no explanation as to why; no background.
Teacher: “The American Civil War began in 1861 and ended in 1865.”
Student: “What was the cause of the Civil War.”
Teacher: “Doesn’t matter. It's not on the test. Just remember that it went from 1861 to 1865.”
The second problem leads to the third: many of the GOOD teachers are so frustrated by their inability to do their job in the manner in which they were trained that they decide to get out. What’s the point of being a glorified babysitter who sits in front of the class with flash cards? If they’re going to do a job which doesn’t utilize their skill sets, they may as well get one that pays better.
It’s easy to use a perceived lack of funding as an excuse for having such a crappy education system but, in reality, billions more in education funding does nothing to address the problem.
Although it would be very nice if they were to throw some of that extra education cash our way. My wife needs a raise.
Protection of key American industries like defense, certain raw materials, and agriculture from foreign competition:
I’m squishy on this because I’m not terribly educated on this. I always thought that competition was a good thing, free trade kinda guy I am. Unfortunately, many foreign countries have proven that they can do the same job better, faster and cheaper in other industries so would competition destroy these other industries? Don’t know. This doesn't really seem like a "conservative value" as much as an "isolationist value".
It seems to make sense, though, that our defense systems SHOULD be designed and built by Americans. By outsourcing this function to other countries, aren’t we making espionage just a little easier?
Should we protect certain raw materials? Sure. Oil comes to mind. Seems pretty well protected already, though, since we sit on huge pockets of it and refuse to do anything with it for fear that we might disrupt the mating habits of caribou.
Agriculture, on the other hand, SHOULD be subject to competition. The federal government has made it completely ANTI-competitive. How many jobs do you know of where you can get paid by the government NOT to produce? How many billions in subsidies and tax breaks have we paid farmers in order to keep prices in check? Looked at your grocery bill lately? We constantly see stories about starvation around the world…about how expensive food is becoming, yet we pay farmers to NOT produce?
Let’em compete. I’m tired of Kroger being the second largest recipient of my take-home pay (after my mortgage company).
Prison reform that focuses on rehabilitation through education and labor:
This one is squishy because history has proven that there are just some HORRIBLE people in the world. History has also proven that some people are in jail for reasons that have nothing to do with a lack of education but bad timing or dumb mistakes.
In a perfect world, we would look at the crime and determine the best course of action. If you got caught shoplifting to feed your family because you had no job, perhaps you can be rehabbed through education. If you’re a serial rapist or child abuser, you should be marched right through the prison library, taken to the recreation yard and shot.
As far as those who fall in the middle (between “horrible waste of skin” and “unfortunate victim of circumstance”), a common sense approach to the problem would be in order. If there’s a good chance the person can be rehabilitated and become a productive member of society, I’m all for giving it a shot. If, however, the person is beyond redemption, don’t waste the time or money.
So, there's my squishy three.
The six in which I think the right wing is full of shit will each get their own post. Some of them will be short but some will likely be pretty long.
These are the issues in which I can, at the very least, agree with the premise (somewhat), but I just can’t completely get on board.
Where do I “squishily” agree with conservatives?
Greater financing for education:
I’m biased on this. As previously stated, my wife is a teacher so I get to see, on a daily basis, some of the problems in our schools. While I’m extremely distressed by the state of our education system today. I’m not 100% sure that throwing more money at the problem is going to fix it.
The BIGGEST problem with education goes back to the “family values” issue: Poor parenting. Mind you, poor parenting is not limited to the parents who don’t care. In many cases, poor parenting can manifest itself in people who shelter their children, do not allow them to make their own mistakes and believe that their children are incapable of doing wrong. I like to call these wastes of space “Helicopter parents”. More on them another day.
Whether you are a parent who is apathetic or you are a parent who can not take a step back and allow your child to take his licks and learn on his own, you are a negligent parent and, hence, the biggest problem facing our education system.
The SECOND biggest problem with education is that, due to the passage of “No Child Left Behind”, teachers are limited to teaching the test. This is a pretty narrow focus and, as a result, our kids are NOT getting the quality education they should be. Kids are being taught that the answer to “X” is “Y” but are given no explanation as to why; no background.
Teacher: “The American Civil War began in 1861 and ended in 1865.”
Student: “What was the cause of the Civil War.”
Teacher: “Doesn’t matter. It's not on the test. Just remember that it went from 1861 to 1865.”
The second problem leads to the third: many of the GOOD teachers are so frustrated by their inability to do their job in the manner in which they were trained that they decide to get out. What’s the point of being a glorified babysitter who sits in front of the class with flash cards? If they’re going to do a job which doesn’t utilize their skill sets, they may as well get one that pays better.
It’s easy to use a perceived lack of funding as an excuse for having such a crappy education system but, in reality, billions more in education funding does nothing to address the problem.
Although it would be very nice if they were to throw some of that extra education cash our way. My wife needs a raise.
Protection of key American industries like defense, certain raw materials, and agriculture from foreign competition:
I’m squishy on this because I’m not terribly educated on this. I always thought that competition was a good thing, free trade kinda guy I am. Unfortunately, many foreign countries have proven that they can do the same job better, faster and cheaper in other industries so would competition destroy these other industries? Don’t know. This doesn't really seem like a "conservative value" as much as an "isolationist value".
It seems to make sense, though, that our defense systems SHOULD be designed and built by Americans. By outsourcing this function to other countries, aren’t we making espionage just a little easier?
Should we protect certain raw materials? Sure. Oil comes to mind. Seems pretty well protected already, though, since we sit on huge pockets of it and refuse to do anything with it for fear that we might disrupt the mating habits of caribou.
Agriculture, on the other hand, SHOULD be subject to competition. The federal government has made it completely ANTI-competitive. How many jobs do you know of where you can get paid by the government NOT to produce? How many billions in subsidies and tax breaks have we paid farmers in order to keep prices in check? Looked at your grocery bill lately? We constantly see stories about starvation around the world…about how expensive food is becoming, yet we pay farmers to NOT produce?
Let’em compete. I’m tired of Kroger being the second largest recipient of my take-home pay (after my mortgage company).
Prison reform that focuses on rehabilitation through education and labor:
This one is squishy because history has proven that there are just some HORRIBLE people in the world. History has also proven that some people are in jail for reasons that have nothing to do with a lack of education but bad timing or dumb mistakes.
In a perfect world, we would look at the crime and determine the best course of action. If you got caught shoplifting to feed your family because you had no job, perhaps you can be rehabbed through education. If you’re a serial rapist or child abuser, you should be marched right through the prison library, taken to the recreation yard and shot.
As far as those who fall in the middle (between “horrible waste of skin” and “unfortunate victim of circumstance”), a common sense approach to the problem would be in order. If there’s a good chance the person can be rehabilitated and become a productive member of society, I’m all for giving it a shot. If, however, the person is beyond redemption, don’t waste the time or money.
So, there's my squishy three.
The six in which I think the right wing is full of shit will each get their own post. Some of them will be short but some will likely be pretty long.
posted by Big Bad Dad at 2:42 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home