Political Identity

I chose to do a commentary on an article called " When 'Identity Politics' is Rational " which discusses whether or not voting for somebody based on their identity, race, religion, etc. can be reasonable. Before reading this edititorial I would have never thought that voting for someone based on such silly things, like gender, could ever be logical. I'm not saying it is logical all the time, but for certain reasons, it is.

In identity politics sometimes people vote just according to things like sharing the same religion and dont take into consideration the persons capability of leading. They side by saying things such as " he is my brother" or " he is Southerner" so i will vote for him. Instead of thinking about the things the persons accomplished or what their views are they make their decisions without any information on the candidate. Though a lot of identity traits such as gender and religion help make us who we are they shouldn't be the basis for all decisions we make These people need to start learning how to vote as a citizen not as a tribe.

However as the writer pointed out identity politics can be positive. One example he gives is when an African American votes for a black candidate,not for the sole purpose of being black ,but because the candidate is more likely to identify with the obstacles he or she faces in society. This is perfectly rational because their voting on the basis of their interests not just because "he is one of mine and I have to support him". The author goes on to give reasons why women and Jews would also want to vote in a similar way. The author's point of view is as he says " all interests are special interests" and that no one can vote for a candidate without basing it on their own interests.

Bush' s Budget Cuts

I've chosen to summarize an article from the "New York Times" which explains a budget Bush will propose this coming Monday. There are a pros and cons to this budget. The budget would give 19.7 million dollars more to"State Children's Health Insurance Plan"( coverage for children of low income families). Spending on this program for the next five years would end up being 45.1 billion dollars which would allow the program to meet what it had set out to do. The budget would also allot more money to border security and help protect New Orleans against storms like hurricane Katrina by building levees and flood walls. In this proposal Bush is also asking for 2.4 billion dollars for the Food and Drug Adminstration whose job basicly is to make sure what were eating, and medications we are taking for health conditions, is actually safe. The money would allow more FDA workers to go to other countries and inspect things before they were sent to the U.S.

Though this budget allows more money for some programs it takes away to much from other important ones. Poison control centers would be cut by 62 percent along with rural health programs which would be cut by 87 percent. This budget would completly end the community service block grant that helps low income families with neccesary things such as houses and food, along with a programs designed to care for people with alzheimers and treat ones with brain injuries. Bush would also like to end the Hope IV program which restores old and damaged public housing, and makes them livable. Many education programs such as Even Start will also suffer cuts in there budget. This budget provides more money for some programs but then completly takes everything away from others which I believe are, for the most part, equally important you cant rightfully give millions of dollars to one program and take all funding from another away. I believe this article is well worth reading because this budget will effect many americans everyday life and because it gives you an idea of how much it costs to keep needed programs in effect.