In-Class Discussion on Freedom of Choice and Responsibility:

Because human beings are free to choose between what is morally right and what is morally wrong, they are held accountable or responsible for their actions and behavior. This holds both for individual and social ethics. Thus whether someone votes for a Democrat, a Republican or any other (independent) candidate to represent her/his interests, s/he is making an individual decision that reflects not only her/his personal choices but also contributes to a final collective outcome, such as the election of the next US President.
As you think of the main issues on their agenda (such as the war in Iraq, immigration, health care, global warming) try to think of possible ways of relating those to contemporary moral problems and how you could argue for or against some of their contentions. It is particularly important to avoid facile reductionisms such as identifying issues with conservative, liberal or radical positions, just as one argues for or against abortion, affirmative action and same-sex marriage.

Terrorism:
“The first responsibility of any president is to protect the American people. Yet, more than five years after the 9/11 attacks, our country is still unprepared. The 9/11 Commission gave the government five Fs and 12 Ds on the implementation of its homeland security recommendations. As president, Barack Obama will take every step to make our homeland more secure (…) There is no reason we cannot fight terrorism while maintaining our civil liberties.”
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/pdf/HomelandSecurityFactSheet.pdf
Health care:
“Hillary's American Health Choices Plan covers all Americans and improves health care by lowering costs and improving quality. It speaks to American values, American families, and American jobs. It puts the consumer in the driver's seat by offering more choices and lowering costs. If you're one of the tens of million Americans without coverage or if you don't like the coverage you have, you will have a choice of plans to pick from and that coverage will be affordable. Of course, if you like the plan you have, you can keep it.”
http://www.hillaryclinton.com/feature/healthcareplan/

Immigration:
“Immigration is one of those challenging issues that touch on many aspects of American life. I have always believed that our border must be secure and that the federal government has utterly failed in its responsibility to ensure that it is secure. If we have learned anything from the recent immigration debate, it is that Americans have little trust that their government will honor a pledge to do the things necessary to make the border secure.” (McCain)

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/68db8157-d301-4e22-baf7-a70dd8416efa.htm
--N. de Oliveira

If you would like to find out more about Social and Political Philosophy, you might want to attend our Summer course on this topic:
http://geocities.com/nythamar/politics.html

--Prof. N. de Oliveira
<http://geocities.com/nythamar/politics.html>