This will be my 9th post since I joined the ranks of the intellectual virtual community of Joeuser.com. This will be a detachment of the style that I usually implement in most of my articles. This will be about politics which I have been studying so feverently as of late. The actual article I am writing will be about the presidency of George Bush from a factual and documented perspective. I will lean to neither left or right wing philosophy, but merely try to give a scope of what information I have gathered from George Bush and his tenure. I have been more of a liberal-minded person lately writing many anti-Bush posts out of mere anger of the effect his policies may or will have on my life and beliefs. I have written posts before stating I like to hear both sides of an argument before I make any inferences on what I think should be. This is the aim of my article to define both sides, or symbolicly, both faces of our current president.
Our Money
The economy and employment is a hot topic right now being manipulated by both conservatives and liberals for their own interests. The real question is how is the economy faring in the post 9/11 era U.S.. The answer lies in the eyes of the beholder cliche or not. Facts are the best way to represent what is real and what is a political ploy. The present state of the economy is one of mixed signals depending on what you view as a positive indication of improvement. Democrats have been throwing a number around stating 2 millions jobs have been lost under Bush's presidency which gives him the worst employment record since Herbert Hoover. In February alone 308,000 jobs were lost while only 21,000 new government jobs were created. Most states have lost thousands of jobs, like Ohio which has lost 250,000 jobs alone. That is a grim outlook for any person to base their opinion from. Taking that into mind looking at the actual statistics of employment and comparing it to the past yields a different story. The actual unemployment rate is 5.6% which is lower than the average of the 70's at 7.3% and 90's at 5.8%. So comparatively the unemployment rate is lower than similar American situations like the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the first Gulf War.
Statisctically the numbers of people that are employed now in the United States at 138566000 is at the highest it has ever been in U.S. history. The unemployment rate although staggering is presently lower than it was 10 years ago exactly. The economy itself is growing at a steady 4% quarterly. These statistics are enough to give Bush credibility as a "war president".
Numbers can play games with us. The budget deficit is heading towards a record of $500 billion. Gas prices are heading to a high of $2.00 which has lead some to push towards going into the national oil depository. In the midst of all this the White House has been able to take the heat off of the actual price of Bush's Medicare-prescription drug program weighing in at a hefty $540 billion over 10 years, more than 1/3 higher than what the estimate was when they passed the bill in November at $400 billion. The media and politicians can twist numbers around and manipulate statistics to show exactly what they want influencing the average person into believing something that might be only partly true. Everyone should stay as informed as possible when making there decision this fall. Sadly not many have time to look at statistics and are easily swayed by what they here as opposed to what they know.
Morality, among other things.
Morality in its own sense, has eluded definition from mankind. Who can really define what is right and what is wrong. In essence all men are equal, at least under this constitution so when can I impose my life on someone else? This struggle, even within myself, is the one that tears me between two sides more than any other argument. Morality is something I believe should be instilled in all our children. A good sense of morality can keep one out of trouble as well as having positive effects overall in a person's life. With that said I believe that every individual should decide how to live their own life. The current media circus which has placed people like Howard Stern on the backburner of the Fcc is one of this same struggle. What is indecent? Howard Stern is a raunchy show which does not hide itself under any sort of pretention. Clear channel under Mike Powell and the FCC pressure has removed Howard Stern citing it indecent. This in it's own right contradicts the 1st amendment. The F.C.C. will, in the future, try and regulate what we watch on cable t.v.. Also on their agenda they want to be able to monitor, or tap, the internet, which could theoritically bring prices up and stall new wireless and internet hardware. Is this paranoia or control of indecency in the United States? It is left on what the reader deems right or wrong. Bush is a strong moral president more so than Clinton before him. He leans heavily on conservative views. Something that some believe the U.S. had been lacking before hand.
Medical Science.
What is the price of a human life. For me, a life is priceless giving the potential of the impact of a single human being on the world, be it negative or positive. can the cost of one life to help many be justified? Playing God is something that conservatives and Christians frown upon, but what if playing God means saving many? Stem Cell research, genetic counseling , and cloning have the potential to revolutionize the way that doctors can save lives but at the cost of embryos. Stem cell research can take cloned embryo cells, or master cells, and turn these cells into a perfect match of any cell of the person from which it was cloned. This has the potential to cure many illnesses by replacing defective cells with healthy ones. This, Christians believe, is playing God because we are using our own embryos. Genetic counseling is stopping the problem before it happens. It allows us to find problematic genes that may cause illness after birth and eliminating them to have a healthy baby. It sounds like tampering with nature and again "playing God", but it has the possibility to eliminate any future health problems that come from our genes. Not taking morals into account this is a very positive future technology but it is altering the nature of humanity. I simply will not comment on what I think should be done but allow the reader to make their own mind up.
The current bioethics panel is the one that gives the president advice on what the implications of this kind of research yields , morally, ethically, and scientifically. At the beginning of the year Bush let go two of the only supporters of this research from his bioethics panel, Elizabeth Blackburn, a professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California and William May, a former Bioethics professor at Southern Methodist University. He replaced them with Benjamin Carson director of Pediatic Neurosurgery at John Hopkins University and Peter Lawler, professor of government at Berry College and Diana Schaub, a political-science professor at Loyola College in Maryland, which both are completely against stem cell research. Qouting Carson he looks at Stem Cell research as "the evil of the willful destruction of innocent human life," which is not a favorable position.
Science has also given us the ability to stop a human life before it is born. Abortion is has brought incredible backlash from both sides with the attempt on the life of a doctor who performed abortion. Abortion is something that has been controversial since it was first fought in court in Roe vs. Wade. Those that are pro-choice believe that abortion should be left for the mother to decide. What if a child is born from incest or under incredibly chaotic conditions, liberals believe that these are reasons why it should be lawful to allow the mother to decide. Abortion is stopping a human life that would otherwise be born. This kills any potentiality the human life had of being positive on this planet and it allows us to decide when to give life. Whether this will ever be accepted by conservatives and liberals alike is anyone's guess. For what is a life worth?
I have to get back to work I will make this a 2 part article (hence the name of the article) going over other aspects of his presidency. I want to see if I get any replies first. Feel free to criticize any statements I have made.