[one_third]Liberal – Daniel “Rick” Cruz

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfares, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity. “

This is the preamble of our constitution and, in my opinion, the heart of what governing is meant to accomplish. To translate into present times, the government has an obligation to have a fairly moderated justice system that isn’t rooted in racial, ethnic, or gender discrimination. To ensure “domestic Tranquility”, the government has implemented social programs such as social security and improved access to healthcare. Taxation provides essential services such as social programs, funding of the military for national defense, infrastructure, and public education; taxation helps both defense and in improving the general Welfare. The government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality, provide immigrants with a clear-cut pathway to citizenship, and protect the environment from toxic entities that pollute the air, water, and soil.

While there is more that I would want my government to perform, that depends entirely on who gets elected to office and whether those elected officials share my beliefs on how this country should be run. If those in office believe that it’s more important for corporations to get tax cuts instead of low income families to receive affordable housing or protecting the economy over protecting the environment, then those ideas become law and reality.

[one_third]Independent – Babatunde Ojo

The government’s role in society is to keep people in check, to ensure that if someone was to intentionally harm, he/she would be penalized by the terms set by laws already in place. Thinking of it this way, the government should be “passive” in that it should not interfere in the lives of its citizens to the point of interacting with them in their everyday life.

For example, there really is not a need for there to be law prohibiting citizens from collecting rainwater that falls within their property line. In this case the government is overextending itself by playing a unnecessary part in an individual’s life.

The times where government should play a more active role is when it should keep the playing field even. The biggest example of this is the Antitrust law and the government’s ability to break up powerful monopolies.

The difference between both examples is that in the former, the potential threat to the average citizen is at its lowest and should be overlooked. In the latter, a monopoly can impact the everyman’s way of living depending on the corporation’s hold in their area of business and how often the consumer relies on that.

[one_third]Conservative – Adrian Wong

The government serves the people as a means to protect them.  Government is needed to protect its constituents from foreign and internal threats and from themselves.  It is essential for a government to have a powerful military and strong allies to protect itself in the event of war.  It is also crucial for a government to have regulatory mechanisms to protect its own people.  In exchange for these protections, the people pay money in taxes to help fund it. In addition, the government is often the country’s largest employer of its people.  Most people agree that having a government is preferable to having a chaotic state of anarchy.  

Having a fair and organized government allows the people to maintain their freedoms while still ensuring their safety.  It is crucial to have a government that can adapt to changes that occur in the world.  In the United States, we have an amendable constitution in conjunction with a democratic republic model which allows citizens to elect others to represent their interests on many different levels.  This allows citizens to have a say in what happens with their government.