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My name is “Joseph three beers and I’m out cold”.
I am voting next month for President Please allow me to tell you more about me. I need a candidate that speaks to me, that understands me. More about me…..
My Political affiliations: I am a registered Republican, but would be best described as an independent. I made that election when I was 18 years old, and Ronald Reagan was just leaving office. At the time, I couldn't’t imagine being anything else, Reagan was a hero, as we had just defeated the Soviet Union in the cold war. My favorite movie of that era was Wall Street, TV show LA Law. I guess that explains me studying finance as an undergrad and going on to Law School.
My background: I’m originally an east-coaster, and I moved to Arizona as a kid. I got my undergrad degree in Tempe, AZ. My college years coincided with the collapse of the S & L’s. Charles Keating was our local Gordon Gecko, and I too would have been friends with him at the time, if I could have. Later, I learned how greed corrupted him and those around him, and cost so many their life savings. At least justice was served and he went to prison.
I should say that back in college, and through most of my twenties, some people knew me as Joe Six pack (a few called me keg for my proficiency in that area). Luck kept me from getting a DUI or hurting anyone on the road back then.
My Family: I am in an interfaith marriage with an amazing woman who comes from a much different world than mine, a conservative town much smaller than Wasilla. I have found this town to raise some very good people. It has forced me to see small towns differently than I did before. Don’t get me wrong there is something very wrong with having to drive 45 minutes for Chinese food. My daughter is the world to my wife and I. Our second child will be born soon and my biggest concern is that my children have all of the safety, freedom and opportunity that my wife and I grew up with.
My Political Views: I believe in small government, whenever possible, but I am also a strong believer in consumer protections and regulation in areas where the market is unable to regulate itself. There are instances where I admit that the government needs to watch out for me, Joe Six pack, Media Elite and Eddie Everyoneelse, most importantly my children. Sadly, the older I get, the more examples see of markets failing to regulate themselves properly. I believe that the government should stay out of peoples lives as much as possible and that discrimination is best left to people of hate. I believe strongly in separation of church and state, and stronger in separation of people of hate and state.
Gun Control: I grew up having handguns and shotguns. I don’t hunt but I am not against hunting. I have great respect for bow hunters and hunting in ways that minimizes the advantage of the hunter. I am against assault weapons.
Abortion: I am pro-choice, but I have great respect for those who are on the pro-life side. How could you not? I believe that we all need to focus on the preventing unplanned pregnancies. This would be abstinence (which will be my first choice for my children, regardless of the approach I took), availability of contraception, and education. If any of my children are adults, or close to adults and have an unplanned pregnancy, and are willing to talk to me about it, I hope to summon all of my strength to not judge, but to love them and help them find what is right for them. More likely, I will not handle it well but I promise I will try. If my daughter is thirteen and impregnated by a rapist, I will love her with all I have and arrange for her to have an abortion and the best counseling available. I would then abort the rapist myself if the opportunity exists.
My view on 9/11: I woke up to local Phoenix sportscaster Bruce Jacobs saying that someone just flew a plane into the world trade center. I turned the TV on right before the second tower was hit. I barely moved from my TV for two days, except to call and e-mail my law school friends working in New York. Ken, worked in a building across the street, but was in court that day. Brian’s brother worked for Morgan Stanley but was proceeding down the stairwell and was on the 14th floor when his tower was hit. He made it out.
I didn’t understand the simple conclusion that we all came to that Osama bin Laden was an evil crazy terrorist, who was just hell bent on killing Americans. Further, he was called a coward for orchestrating this attack on innocent civilians without a military objective. It looked like a clear objective to me.
I stopped expressing my view on the event about a year after it happened, as I got tired of people writing me off as crazy. I met my wife the following year and I still remember the expression on her Father’s face when we talked about it. He was too nice to tell me what he thought, but I knew, as everyone thought the same of my opinion.
This is what my view was and for the most part is: Osama bin Laden is a man who did a horrific thing and we should kill him and everyone in his organization. However, we should not look at him as crazy, as it negates any thoughts of an agenda beyond killing Americans. Hearing that our President’s position on Iran is that they are “assholes” brought back these memories. We obviously will not agree with his agenda, but if we don’t understand it, we will make bad decisions. My opinion of his agenda was as follows: America is dictating mid-east policy by deciding who has power, and weapons and we are doing it primarily because of our need for oil. We had more influence than the governments in the region and this led to corruption within the governments. The agenda was to end our influence in the region. I don’t think it is a crazy assertion.
I found that making this statement came across as anti-American to most ears, as everyone wanted to only characterize him as crazy. My view is that if you don’t understand your adversary, you can’t defeat him. Make no mistake, I never thought that anything less than death would be sufficient for him. However, it seemed that everyone felt like he declared war on us on 9/11. This war was going on long before this, but it wasn’t enough for most of us to care about. If he was crazy, he would have simply gone to battle against us and lost in 10 minutes. He never could defeat us from a military standpoint, so my belief was that he attacked our economy and played upon our fears, hoping that we would defeat ourselves.
Again, I never felt we should do anything less than kill him, but my entire point was that when we make policy decisions and exert our power and influence in ways that impact people in other countries, we will breed a group of people that hate our country. Therefore the options as I see them are:
1) Get out of the region, which we can’t do as long as we need the area for energy. In other words, we need to develop other energy sources and reduce dependence on foreign oil so that we do not have to exert as much power. This is certainly not an immediate option.
2) Be prepared for the next Osama bin Laden to appear and destroy him before it gets too far.
3) Make damn sure that most of the world always have our back by treating the World always with integrity and fairness and caring about issues in the world, even when they are not about our energy or national security. In other words, being the country that all others aspire to be.
Remember we didn’t have to write him off as crazy to get the world to agree to kill him. Understanding the underlying agenda will help stop the next Osama bin Laden. Remember that if it were just a religious thing, then he probably hates Canada and Mexico, but he attacked us.
My view on Israel: Who the hell knows? Best I can come up with is a permanent UN peacekeeping force in a buffer zone and a resolution that every member of the UN authorizes destruction of any country that attacks. I stopped trying to figure this one out a long time ago.
I don’t claim to know what strategy will work best for Israel and other Middle-east issues. Fortunately, I don’t have to as I am not running for anything. This brings me to my final point. Others are running and I must decide who to vote for as none of them mirror my views. This is the dilemma I have faced in every election. The question is what would the ideal President and Vice President look like to represent me Joseph Three….you get the point.
My perfect president in any election:
a) Comes from anywhere from lower class to upper middle class. I would avoid those born to immense wealth because of my assumption that they are lacking the experience most Americans went through.
(All the candidates qualify for this one)
b) Is very well educated, ideally has graduate degrees from top schools, excelled in school;
c) Accomplished a great deal on his or her own after college;
d) Good understanding of most issues;
e) Integrity and likeability;
f) Respectful of opponents;
g) Curious about the world around him.
h) Never-ending thirst for knowledge.
My perfect VP has as many of the above as possible, but more importantly has experience in Washington. In my mind, the VP is there first and foremost to be a strong, calm steady voice to prevent panic by Americans or agression by opportunistic enemies in the event something happens to the President. The VP is there to do that until the next election, at which time I may or may not vote for him or her as President. In other words, they need to be prepared to step in for the President, without a hiccup.
I do not have to agree with the President on all or most issues but the bottom line for me can be summed up with two questions.
1. When the advisers are advising, will the President care enough about every issue to ask the right questions of the adviser?
2. Does the candidate have the demonstrated ability and base of knowledge to properly analyze the issue in his or her head, considering History, the Constitution and what is best for America to reach a decision on the issue that strengthens America and brings Americans together with each other and the world.
I need a President much worse at delgating than President Bush. I hope I have made clear who I am voting for.
Sincerely, Joseph
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