The Quest For Truth

I believe people should attempt to understand what is actually going on in the world. I do not mean occasionally watching the news or skimming through the newspaper; I mean actively researching events.
For as long as I can remember, my family has been built upon Christianity. We went to church every Sunday and had Bible study on Wednesdays. As a consequence of growing up in a Christian family, my parents taught me conservative principles and political views. Another key component to my political beliefs was growing up in public schools. In school I learned that America was a great country and did almost everything perfectly.
My first memory of politics took place when Bill Clinton was president. My parents frequently complained about how Clinton supported abortion and gay rights. I did not know enough about politics to make a decision for myself, so I naturally supported my parents. When the 2000 elections came around, my parents and I put a Bush yard sign in front of our house and volunteered countless hours for his campaign. Bush ended up winning the election. My parents and I quickly replaced whining about liberal politics with blindly supporting Bush. We thought Bush was a great president because he was a Republican and a Christian.
During my senior year of high school, my political views changed dramatically. I took government during the first semester. My teacher taught about various laws that violate Constitutional rights. I did not understand how this could possibly be true because I learned that it is impossible to pass an unconstitutional law in other classes. I figured that my teacher was just another product of America’s liberal education system. Toward the end of my government class, my teacher decided that his students did not understand the extent of America’s corruption. We watched YouTube videos of police officers tasing and attacking people who did not even threaten them. We also watched American soldiers kill people and animals for fun. This gave me a terrible stomach ach, causing me to go home from school early. I could no longer deny America’s corruption because I had seen it with my own eyes. This was the first time that I believed America was not the perfect country I once thought it was. I was angry at America’s corruption, but I also thought it was exciting to know what was actually going on.
A few months later, I heard my friend, Ricky, talking about politics and noticed that he was talking about the same things as my government teacher. Ricky told me to research the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 51 (Executive Directive 51), and a few other pieces of legislation. I was skeptical at first, but after a few hours of research I knew Ricky was right. The most astonishing piece of legislation that I found was Executive Directive 51. The Executive Order modified America’s continuity of government procedures by granting dictatorial power to the president during a crisis. I found out that this meant the legislative and judiciary branches had no power during a national emergency. It violated the checks and balances that were set up in Articles 1, 2, and 3 of the Constitution. This Executive Order made me feel like I was living in Nazi Germany, but there were other pieces of legislation that made me feel just as bad.
I wanted to learn everything about the American government and its politics. The next aspect of the government that I decided to analyze was America’s foreign policy. I was disgusted to find out that America has been known to falsify the pretenses for war. The two main examples I found were the incidents that occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin and on the USS Liberty. The Gulf of Tonkin incident caused America to become fully involved in the Vietnam War, even though the government lied about the way the attack occurred (Hanyok 177). The USS Liberty was supposedly attacked by Egypt during the 6-day War. It later became obvious that Israel, an American ally, really attacked the ship (Crewdson). The actual reason for the attack is still unknown, but it may have been used to persuade the American people to accept joining the 6-day War, if the war had continued. This shocked me because it shows that America was willing to sacrifice soldiers to push its agenda. I also thought about other facets of America’s foreign policy. I thought about the consequences of America using torture to gather information, having troops spread throughout the world, being involved in two wars, and micromanaging the policies of the world. I came to the conclusion that America’s foreign policies were wrong. It is amazing that I had been living in a false reality for 18 years.
From these experiences, I learned that America is not perfect and that all politicians need to be questioned. There are millions of Americans who blindly support politicians from their favorite political party. For example, many Democrats complain about how Republican’s free market values caused the current financial crisis. In reality, a large portion of the deregulations occurred under the Clinton administration. On the other hand, Bush claimed to support free market policies when he was running for president, but in times of economic hardship he issued stimulus packages. I believe that there are good Democrats and Republicans, but many politicians only show their true colors once they are in office.
If I have learned one thing about politics, it is that people need to think for themselves. People need to stop saying that America would never allow this to happen or that a politician is a Christian so they would never do that. If someone really believes these things they should research to verify that they are correct. I believe that a democracy only works when people are informed. If this does not happen, people will vote for a politician who seems like a good person and has policies they believe in, while that person may be putting on a mask just to get elected. I believe that learning the truth is, at the very least, a way for people to defend and appreciate their freedom.
People who want real change need to be extremely discerning about the politicians they support. America’s founding fathers did not risk their lives for Americans to take voting for granted; they risked their lives to fight the tyranny that results from apathy. People who want to preserve the ideals that America was built upon need to be informed. I believe that everyone should spend time trying to understand what is really going on in the world.

Free Market Manifesto

America’s economy is currently in a deep recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped about forty percent since 2007. Americans blindly trust politicians, the Federal Reserve, and the United States Treasury to repair the economy even though these same people and organizations were responsible for the economic crash. Band-Aid fixes such as bailouts and stimulus packages may stimulate the economy temporarily, but the recovery will be build upon debt. For example, when the Federal Reserve lowers the interest rates, it incentivizes people and companies to take out loans. When the United States issues a stimulus package, the government does not have the money to pay for the stimulus. The treasury prints off bonds and exchanges them for money that the Federal Reserve creates. The Federal Reserve then sells the bonds to banks, individuals, and companies in order to provide backing for the debt that is created in the process. America’s recent fiscal policy has created a huge debt bubble that is waiting to collapse.
The only solution for the current economic crisis is for the free market to fix itself. Laissez faire policies may cause a deep recession now, but they would stop the depression that America will face in the future if it keeps exercising its current economic policies. The graph below shows the proportion of America’s total credit market debt to its gross domestic product. The graph shows that America has not had as much debt as it currently has in at least the last hundred years.
America’s growing debt bubble is going to collapse when it becomes too large for the American people to sustain. This will result in a depression. Under a true free market, interest rates would be constant (at a much higher level to prevent unhealthy debt from being issued), taxes would be lower (so consumers could stimulate the economy), and economic downturns would be viewed as an essential part of the business cycle (causing the economy to become more efficient). America’s unprecedented economic growth during the 1990s may not have occurred (because it was built upon debt) under a true free market system, but the economy would have avoided the dot-com bubble, and the current economic crisis. America needs to get rid of its outrageous fiscal policy! It is the American peoples’ responsibility to bring back the free market!

The New America

In the 2002 State of the Union Address, George W. Bush used skillfully crafted rhetoric to make his audience believe that the security of America and the rest of the world was at risk. Bush directed his audience’s thoughts toward four main issues: the threat of terrorism, tyrannical governments helping terrorists, the only solution for terrorism was Bush’s plan, and freedom was at risk. At the time of the address, many Americans were caught up in the emotion of the September 11 attacks and Bush tried to use this emotion to push his agenda.
Bush made arguments like "Thousands of dangerous killers, schooled in the methods of murder, often supported by outlaw regimes, are now spread throughout the world like ticking time bombs, set to go off without warning” and “diagrams of American nuclear power plants and public water facilities, detailed instructions for making chemical weapons, surveillance maps of American cities, and thorough descriptions of landmarks in America and throughout the world.” These statements were used to scare Bush’s audience into believing that there were terrorists everywhere. Bush showed his audience that terrorists were a threat, but never talked about the effects the War on Terror would have on the millions of people in the Middle East who were not terrorists. Bush purposely steered people’s thoughts away from issues that would make people question his agenda. It appears that Bush only cared about getting people’s support, even if it meant not showing people both sides of the story.
Bush classified Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as the Axis of Evil. By classifying these countries as the Axis of Evil, it makes people feel like these countries are dangerous and does not help America’s relationships with these countries. If the American government really cared about the safety of its citizens, it would try to fix its relationships with foreign governments, not hurt their relationships. Bush did separate the Axis of Evil from terrorists. He did, however, make this point unclear; causing a portion of his audience to not understand that there were differences between the countries in the Axis of Evil and terrorists. The way Bush makes people put the Axis of Evil and terrorists into the same group was useful when Bush was trying to persuade people into supporting the war against Iraq. Many people were willing to support a war with Iraq because they felt that Iraq had a roll in the September 11 attacks. In reality the countries that make up the Axis of Evil are separate from the terrorist groups who carried out the 9/11 attacks. Since Bush made the distinction between terrorists and the countries that made up the Axis of Evil very small, his audience ended up being scared of a bigger, more unified enemy than really existed.
Bush tried to make his audience believe that his plan was the only way to stop terrorism. He used sentences like, “we will shut down terrorist camps” and “we will win this war” to make his audience believe his plan would work. Bush did not know if he could actually accomplish these goals; he made these statements so Americans would support his plans. Bush framed his arguments in a way that was meant to give his audience no choice but to believe him. Bush only presented points that supported his agenda, while neglecting to mention that there were negatives.
Before Bush’s solution for terrorism can be properly analyzed, the definition of terrorism needs to be understood. United States code says that terrorism “means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.” There are two types of terrorism: domestic and international. People within a country execute domestic terrorism. People that perform terrorism in foreign countries carry out international terrorism. The term terrorism is used frequently, even though many people do not understand what it really means.
In the 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush neglected to mention that the United States should have known that terrorism was a threat prior to the September 11 attacks. In the 1990s, terrorists bombed the World Trade Center and multiple United States embassies. After these attacks took place, it would have been logical for the United States to figure out why terrorists hate America, but it appears that America made no effort to fix its relationships with terrorists. The September 11 terrorist attacks may have been avoidable if America would have tried to fix its relationships with terrorist groups, as they became threats.
After the September 11 attacks, many people asked the question, “Why do they (terrorists) hate us?” This question is bias because it gives the blame to terrorists, while both the terrorists and America were at least partially at fault. America exercised a foreign policy that made the terrorists angry, causing the terrorists to carry out the 9/11 attacks. There are two main reasons why people think terrorists hate the United States. The first view is that terrorists hate America because it is wealthy, has a democracy, is free, and is a western country. Other people believe terrorists hate America because it constantly gets involved in international affairs that it has no business being involved in. Bush and his administration hoped that Americans and the rest of the world believed the first idea.
The United States has policed the world for the past fifty or so years, causing terrorists and governments around the world to dislike America. While policing the world the United States has been extremely hypocritical. The United States has gotten angry at countries that have nuclear weapons, while it possesses thousands of nuclear weapons. America has also been known to falsify the pretenses for war. Two examples of this were the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Tonkin and on the USS Liberty. The Gulf of Tonkin incident caused America to become fully involved in the Vietnam War, even though the attack never occurred. The USS Liberty was supposedly attacked by Egypt during the 6-day War, but it later became obvious that Israel, an American ally, had actually attacked the ship. The real reason for the attack is still unknown, but the attack may have been used to persuade the American people to accept joining the 6-day War. The United States has made terrorists angry because it has tortured terrorist suspects in camps such as Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Many terrorists dislike America because it has troops in over 100 countries. A 1997 Department of Defense study stated that, “Historical data show a strong correlation between US involvement in international situations and an increase in terrorist attacks against the United States.” Bush neglected to mention the affects that America’s foreign policy had on terrorists’ feelings about America.
Throughout the 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush talked about the abstract theme of freedom. He made comments such as “freedom is at risk”, “terror cannot stop the momentum of freedom”, and “we have known freedom’s price. We have shown freedom’s power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see freedom’s victory.” According to the Star-Spangled Banner, America is the “land of the free”, but what does freedom mean? The dictionary defines freedom as “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.” According to this definition, people in America are not free. If someone doubts this, they should try to avoid paying income tax. That person will eventually be forced to pay the taxes they owe or else they will be put in jail. George W. Bush was right when he said, “freedom is at risk”, but he did not mention that the American government was taking its citizens freedom.
Many Americans think they at least have the freedoms that the constitution grants them. Since the September 11 attacks, the American government has taken away constitutional rights in order to protect its citizens from terrorism. The Patriot Act grants the American government access to medical records, school records, and the ability to conduct searches without a warrant. This infringes upon the 4th Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Military Commissions Act gets rid of Habeas Corpus, violating Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution. The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 51 gives dictatorial power to the president during a crisis. This violates the checks and balances that are set up in Articles 1, 2, and 3 of the Constitution. Americans no longer have many of the rights the constitution grants them. Since 9/11, the American government has forced its people to give up freedom for security. Benjamin Franklin once said, “He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.” This is exactly what has happened in America since the 9/11 attacks.
In the 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush tried to make Americans support his agenda, even if it meant telling the audience half truths. Bush did not mention that the War on Terror was caused by mistakes by both terrorists and America. Even though both sides were at fault, Bush demonized terrorists, while making America appear innocent. After Bush started the War on Terror, he proceeded to take rights away from Americans in order to stop terrorism. The Bush administration has taken American’s rights for security, while it continues exercising the same foreign policies that put America at risk in the first place. Americans currently have less freedom than they did prior the 9/11 attacks and they are still at risk of another terrorist attack.