Division in America

I think that the "tea parties", if they were intended to be a legitimate protest were laughable in terms of execution and ideology. More unfortunate than the embarrassment I feel for those who participated in the wearing of pointy triangle hats and tea-bag touting, is the hypocrisy of prominent conservatives (hannity, et al) who go from dismissing all criticism of the Bush administration as "un-American" or "emboldening terrorists" to supporting protest of the Obama administration as "Patriotic".

It's the division and polarization of America that I find most dangerous. Where the fuel for the hatred comes from, I'm not sure. There are some obvious candidates, like Fox News or Conservative Talk Radio of Rush Limbaugh and his ilk, but I believe that these are mere symptoms of something deeper. When only 85% of Americans obtain a high school diploma and only 27% receive a bachelor's degree, I think illogical anger is an expected result.

I have long denied being a democrat, but I'm not republican either. I'm a laissez-faire capitalist with liberal social values. While I do not agree with many of the conservative criticisms of Obama (comparing him to Hitler is a big stretch), I have my reservations about any politician who believes he can solve any problem by taxing and spending. My beliefs stem from what I see in the federal budget, anecdotes, and my personal experiences with government agencies. There is a ton of waste in all government operations, and government bureaucracies are often ineffectual. I think that it is in the best interest of all citizens if government makes itself as scarce as possible while providing services that are not well managed by market incentives, e.g. Health care, military, basic welfare, etc.

In some cases, government is not just inefficient but grossly distorting to an otherwise healthy market. One example is the mortgage incentives given to Fannie and Freddie (by Congress) for issuing subprime mortgages that lead to the financial crisis we're in now.

As for taxes, I can agree with a progressive tax system, but I don't agree with wanton spending at the expense of American taxpayers (even the rich ones). The more we tax rich people, the more we will be a) pushing more money into tax shelters or b) driving away wealthy citizens who can pick and choose the jurisdiction in which they want to live. This is happening at a local level in the NYC tri-state area -- lots off people list their primary residence as Jersey (even if they live in the city) to escape city income taxes and lower their state taxes.

I'm not saying I personally want to pay less taxes -- I don't mind paying taxes that go to well thought out, worthy causes. Most taxes are paid by rich people anyway. My gripe is that the government does a lousy job with taxpayer money, and they have no incentives to get better at it. Bad politicians end up landing jobs in the private sector firms (the ones that lobbied them in office) and Good politicians cozy up to their largest donors so they can keep winning elections. Nobody looks out for the little guy.