Jim Nolan is running for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina. He is an AP Government teacher from Morehead City and is using his classroom and students to wage a write-in campaign on his behalf. Ostensibly, this is a lesson on civics, but what's disturbing is his platform. It is stereotypical of public sector teachers, and if my kids were attending his classes, I would be concerned.
Mr. Nolan demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of our federalist system, and shows contempt for our Constitution: a typical trait of progressives. He has outlined what is wrong with our style of governance and noted what improvements should be made. Here are a few of the most absurd and easily refuted arguments of candidate Nolan:
Elimination of the Electoral College
A remnant of the Republic's disdain for the common man's voice - it should be eliminated.
The popular vote coupled with mandatory voting will give a better picture of America’s true voice
First of all the common man does have a voice, it is called the House of Representatives. Eliminating the Electoral College would disenfranchise the less populated states. Presidential candidates would cater to the big urban centers at the expense of others. Cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami would benefit greatly from the promises of candidates while the common man in Montana and Idaho would be neglected.
The 17th Amendment is a perfect example of a transfer of power from the rural areas to urban. Before the Amendment, the state legislature decided who would represent them in the U.S. Senate. Now it is done by popular vote, and with it came an explosion of campaign contributions by special interest that in many instances is harmful to the states themselves.
Candidate Nolan believes in mandatory voting or a fine of $200 will be levied. Yeah, let’s have a bunch of uninformed morons voting. Didn’t we learn our lesson from the last general election?
Term limits for Congress
House terms should be 4 years instead of 2. The members must spend most of their time raising money for re-election and that’s insane. There should also be a term limit of 20 years, or 5 election cycles. This will allow for new people to come into the political arena with new ideas and prevent the temptation for corruption. And since 98% of incumbents get re-elected due to special interest money, this limit is necessary
Candidate Nolan has a point on term limits, though his reasoning is flawed. He believes that the terms of the House of Representatives should be 4 years instead of 2 because they spend most of their time raising money? How is an extra two years going to stop that? The whole reasoning for a two year term is to make these politicians more accountable to the people. I fail to see how a four year term accomplishes anything.
Elections
The election process can be improved also. How about an election date change to allow for easier voting - for example, a National Holiday, or an election week, with local polling places staffed not with all volunteers but local public servants such as policemen and firemen or teachers after school taking shifts? If we are touting democracy all over the world, let’s live up to the bragging.
All I have to say is that if you can’t make it on time to vote, then you are not that interested; and that means you are uninformed. We don’t need a bunch of idiots voting for people who don’t have a clue on the important issues of the day. Again, haven’t we learned our lesson from the last election?
Candidate Nolan would have us replace volunteers, who actually care about the process and sacrifice their time because it matters to them. He would rather have special interest groups like the public employee unions watching over our votes. I don’t think so! All you have to do is look at Greece, New Jersey, Chicago and California to see the corruption involved in that.
What I find particularly offensive is the use of students to disseminate his propaganda. I will agree that there is a lot of waste in the defense budget and cutting it by 30% is somewhat reasonable; but to say it would get rid of the deficit is absurd:
Here is an actual figure that compares the Iraq war to the rest of the budget, and for good measure a demographic showing the budget deficits of Bush compared to Obama. Candidate Nolan’s assertions are patently false.
The rest of his platform is what you expect from a progressive nut job teacher who is indoctrinating his students. It makes a good argument for a voucher system and private education.
Source: http://www.2ndrev.org/
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/09/1749260/his-class-learns-politics-from.html#disqus_thread
