Post #1

 

Political topics can be divisive at times, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important to have an interesting debate over. As someone who is often interested in politics myself, I have decided to write about them more often, to give people the opportunity to have an educated discussion on them, rather than just a general one, with each other. If you don’t like the thought of having opinions from other people, why would you? So today I will be arguing politics, specifically national politics. We do not use a very specific term when talking about politics here because that has pretty much all been covered by others already: it is too broad a subject! However, there are some points here for everyone’s benefit. First off, I will start by talking a bit about what I would consider “politics”. To avoid confusion, we will begin with something that most people call “the law”, or just the basics of how our government works. The main reason I want to talk about politics is that, despite not needing too many definitions, most people understand political science in its simplest form – there are things we talk about and say “might as well be true”. These things include the basic laws that govern our country (although it is a vast field), our government system, and politics itself. In other words, if we ask someone, “What are the 5 branches of government,” they might say their state legislature. That is generally pretty good, but then again, it is also not so straightforward, as our federal parliament is the largest component of how things happen in the United States. There are a few points I would like to make before diving into politics. Let us first review where everything else came from!

To get started, let me explain what I would like to look at. A lot of my definition of politics is based on international relations; the American institutions we see in the world system we live in right now. My understanding is that there are multiple levels of government, which all work to complement each other, and one is the lowest level (or base) of governments: monarchy. When something happens in your own life, the people will immediately assume the government is trying to control or take advantage of. This seems to work pretty fine when most people know that the lower level is doing things against their wishes, making decisions for themselves that affect their lives. But when it comes down to a particular point in time, things become less clear. Here in America, when I was growing up, everything was pretty easy – the president had veto power, congress could not interfere with the executive branch, and vice versa. Things have changed somewhat, but it remains pretty much the same. It is still not that easy to tell what’s going on in our country at any given single moment. While I tend to focus on political issues today as much as possible, I am happy to write another article about how it may be easy to overlook these elements and focus on the bigger picture. I will talk more about the relationship between religion and politics in the future, and why religious leaders have a role in policymaking when discussing public safety, health, and environmental protection. For now, let us skip ahead to that next concept I would like to go over.

The second thing I will say about politics is that there are laws that govern the way each branch handles different parts. In the case of the states, we have a large number of state laws that govern the whole of America, and a smaller number of federal laws. Some differences may be as simple as “a governor can sell alcohol only if he/she holds office.” And while this may be very normal to us at the time, politics is a complex subject, and we do not always follow the rules. In Canada, our Parliament is the last level up the ladder from monarchies, and the rest of these constitutional levels consist of elected governments, legislatures, and select governments. Because of all our variety, it is hard to say exactly what type of government is the best, but since both of our prime ministers are a monarch, it is clear that monarchic rule is the correct system for Canada. Although we do have similar features to our western democratic process, it is a rare occurrence that the lower systems of government would not have the same degree of input or voice. On top of this, being a member of three levels might mean that you have more freedom of speech between the two levels than you would have in a nation like Australia, where there are many parties. In addition to all this, we also tend to forget one thing that makes these systems so distinct from democracies: there is no separation of powers. You literally cannot elect the US President, Congress Speaker, Senate Leader, or Supreme Court Justice, and then set all those positions aside and vote someone else. No, there is nothing separate about the people themselves. Everyone votes and elects representatives who vote on behalf of the common voters. Not only does this lack of separation create a strong sense of democracy, but it also means that our entire system is almost identical to what occurred in 1787 during the revolutionary war. So in saying that it is difficult to define politics, it is equally difficult to figure out where and how it began. I hope that by reading through this article you get at least an appreciation of what politics means and that you can connect the dots yourself on its history. In conclusion, politics is a great thing to study, but it is not necessarily what you are looking for. Even though it can be difficult to define, it is better to be informed about politics than not. After all, if you are not writing your ballot papers in English, did you learn anything about politics in school? If I were to look around my elementary school district and try to list the candidates for mayor and mayor-elect, I would run the risk of throwing away my vote entirely, even though I knew who I was voting for. Who cares? I would much rather talk about the political system of America, and how it differs from countries like Canada and Australia so that I am sure I will not lose a vote.