I'm Not Interested in Politics

How do I bring a person who has not been paying attention up to speed?  This is for D.

D is not interested in politics.  Neither am I.  Politics is the worst part of government.

What is government?
Government is people managing the behavior of other people.  Remember the key word is PEOPLE.  Good government depends on choosing good people.  Not choosing smooth people or charismatic people, but GOOD people.  People who can keep a promise.  People who can follow the rules.  People who respect the views of other people.  American governments (Federal, State, County, Local) are built from people making decisions, people respecting or not respecting those decisions, and people either serving the benefit of the people who elected them OR using their positions of power for personal benefit.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.  D... I ask you to read the wikiquote page on Lord Acton (John Dalberg-Acton).  In a letter dated April 5th, 1887 he wrote about the need of the common man to question authority and within that letter he said "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."  Acton was a great defender of personal freedom and liberty.  In a public speech he made on February 26th, 1877 Acton said these things:

"By liberty I mean the assurance that every man shall be protected in doing what he believes his duty against the influence of authority and majorities, custom and opinion."

"Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end."

My beliefs and desires for our government begins foremost from the belief that human beings should be free to choose their own actions.  Along with this understanding is the requirement that people be allowed to have personal, private property (to own things) and that their bodies are recognized as each person's own property.  If my desire to choose my own actions affects another person's property (either the things they own or their own body) then I need the other person's consent to pursue my choice of action.  In other words, rape is a violation of another person's property and their will.  Murder, assault, theft and slavery are also violations of these basic principles.  So my starting points are 1) personal freedom and 2) private property.  We find these two basic principles reflected in the declaration of Independence... Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.  I should have the right to live, to be free to choose my own actions, and to pursue happiness by my own definitions, including the power to decide my acquisition and distribution of private property.

This, quite frankly, is enough for me to see the world around me and decide upon the motives of other people, political parties, protest groups or any other way that people organize themselves.  Does "Occupy Wall Street" align with my world view?  No... they are against the idea of private property.  Taken to its extreme the group's philosophy results in anarchy, threats against the safety and security of people, and a weakening of trust and community.  Does any political party align with my world view?  Perhaps, but no one party is consistent enough to maintain even these two basic principles throughout their actions because ultimately the political parties are mechanisms to install PEOPLE into positions of authority and people are easily able to become distracted by the potential for personal gain.

So I choose to advocate for the things that will help me to maintain my personal freedom - to choose my own actions.  I distrust large government "solutions" because the larger the solution, the greater the power of the authorities administrating the "solution".  Medicaid and Medicare provide wonderful services to some people, but they have resulted in restricting people from making decisions that would advance their personal freedom.  They have equated medical services with money in a way that had not  previously existed such that Doctors are now unable to spend more than a few minutes with each patient in order to pay the bills associated with medical practice.  Previously physicians were able to truly care for their patients and did not bill patients for each individual item, test or service provided.  A one-size-fits-all approach to medicine compels doctors and patients to become adversaries instead of cooperating with each other.  Take any government program and investigate it closely - you will discover corruption, abuse of power and a reduction in the freedom of the people being served to choose their own actions.

But we need the government to do these things, don't we? 
Remember what I said before about PEOPLE... people do ALL of these things.  Government is just a small portion of all the people.  Why do the people who take care of our neighbors have to be government-people?  Why can't they just be us?  What is inherently better about government-people providing services that follow broad policies?  Why can't individual people choose to provide the services that different people need based on each person's individual need?  It's still just people working with people... but now it is people CHOOSING to be helpful to others, which instills a personal GRATITUDE to the helper from the person being helped.  When government-people help others, it is not by choice, but by policy (meaning that the helper isn't truly CHOOSING to help).  The help that is given results in expectation and dependency within the person being helped, not gratitude.  In other words, the person receiving assistance feels entitled to it and has no sense of giving anything back to the community themselves.

No.  We don't need GOVERNMENT to provide services to people... we need PEOPLE to see the needs, choose to act on them and then inspire a desire for the recipient to help others as well as themselves.  Free people CHOOSING to help one another leads to a world of cooperation.  Oppressive governments compelling action through policy leads to a world of interpersonal competition and corruption.

I choose freedom.

Please help me to pursue the goals of freedom and personal choice.  Help me to elect good people who desire to serve and to defeat people who use government for personal gain.  CHOOSE to get involved at least that much and I will be very happy.