Who was your first vote when reaching the legal voting age? How has politics changed since then?

[RDKirk]

One might say, that Goldwater was when the Republican party slowly began to shift further right, but it got worse in the 1990s, but especially so in 2016. But yes, the Republican party does seem to get into everyone's business nowadays, but the same could be said for the Democrats.

Goldwater had warned the GOP not to get into bed with the religious moralists. He may have been harkening back to the reason for the GOP's original period of defeat. The GOP was originally an alliance of libertarian-minded northern business interests and northern religious moralists, but with axes to grind against the South. After their Civil War success, the moralist faction of the GOP turned their sights on other targets in the latter 1800s, including expanded civil rights for blacks, women's rights, immigrants' rights, prison reform, labor reform, nature conservatism, and other issues "owned" by the Democrat Party today. That caused a rift between those moralists and the business interests resulting in Theodore Roosevelt pulling out the moralists to form the Progressive Party. That split caused both of them to lose the next election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

But, alas, in the early 80s the GOP did get into bed with religions moralists against Goldwater's advice, albeit those with the opposite politics from those of its origin.

 

[RDKirk]

I was not around at that time, so I never knew about this, except that Nixon founded the EPA. I loved that.

Nixon did push the creation of the Earned Income Credit, which IMO should be significantly enlarged rather that raising the minimum wage.

 

[AlexB23]

Goldwater had warned the GOP not to get into bed with the religious moralists. He may have been harkening back to the reason for the GOP's original period of defeat. The GOP was originally an alliance of libertarian-minded northern business interests and northern religious moralists, but with axes to grind against the South. After their Civil War success, the moralist faction of the GOP turned their sights on other targets in the latter 1800s, including expanded civil rights for blacks, women's rights, immigrants' rights, prison reform, labor reform, nature conservatism, and other issues "owned" by the Democrat Party today. That caused a rift between those moralists and the business interests resulting in Theodore Roosevelt pulling out the moralists to form the Progressive Party. That split caused both of them to lose the next election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

But, alas, in the early 80s the GOP did get into bed with religions moralists against Goldwater's advice, albeit those with the opposite politics from those of its origin.

Goldwater had some good advice that would have applied well to the 1980s. The GOP used to be more moderate, even liberal back in the 1960s and before.

 

[AlexB23]

Nixon did push the creation of the Earned Income Credit, which IMO should be significantly enlarged rather that raising the minimum wage.

How did the Earned Income Credit work, and how was it effective? Nixon did have good ideas, that should be applied today though.

 

[MehGuy]

I have never voted before. Politicians and politics in general for the most part strike me as vapid and phony.

I have never found myself fitting in with the left or the right. Hopefully someday the political landscape becomes more diverse. Although the very nature of politics probably discourages that.

 

[AlexB23]

I have never voted before. Politicians and politics in general for the most part strike me as vapid and phony.

I have never found myself fitting in with the left or the right. Hopefully someday the political landscape becomes more diverse. Although the very nature of politics probably discourages that.

If worse comes to worse, you can vote 3rd party (libertarian, American Solidarity Party, etc), and maybe convince others to vote 3rd party.

 

[RDKirk]

How did the Earned Income Credit work, and how was it effective? Nixon did have good ideas, that should be applied today though.

EITC still exists, but it's not great enough to be significant. Basically, if you can show that you worked a 9-5 but your income still falls below a certain level (based on other life factors, such as number of dependents), the government sends you a check instead of charging you taxes.

I think significantly enlarging the EITC is better than increasing the federal minimum wage because an increase in the minimum wage pits the people at the bottom of the stack against each other. It's mostly small businesses who hire people at the lower wages, but those small businesses are themselves already operating at razor-thin profit margins. Moreover, the people patronizing those small businesses are likely to also be low-wage earners. Raising the minimum wage puts all three at odds with each other. Enlarging the EITC raises the burden to the federal level where other monies can be appropriated to deal with it.

 

[AlexB23]

EITC still exists, but it's not great enough to be significant. Basically, if you can show that you worked a 9-5 but your income still falls below a certain level (based on other life factors, such as number of dependents), the government sends you a check instead of charging you taxes.

I think significantly enlarging the EITC is better than increasing the federal minimum wage because an increase in the minimum wage pits the people at the bottom of the stack against each other. It's mostly small businesses who hire people at the lower wages, but those small businesses are themselves already operating at razor-thin profit margins. Moreover, the people patronizing those small businesses are likely to also be low-wage earners. Raising the minimum wage puts all three at odds with each other. Enlarging the EITC raises the burden to the federal level where other monies can be appropriated to deal with it.

That sounds like a good system. The EITC should be expanded, plus also, the government should put limits on how much basic utilities such as phone and electricity could charge to folks who make under a certain income, as long as the people promise to keep their phone for long enough, and use under a certain amount of electricity.