US Election 2012: Purpose of Community and What Is Good for Them - Essay Example

The two individuals and their parties hold divergent views and positions on the political economy of the American Nation. This essay will generally view the whole country as one single national community. The paper will analyze and argue the ideas of what is good for the community and review the party and candidate positions in the presidential elections campaigns. The Community and the American Vote In the ongoing political campaigns, both candidates are seeking the votes of various groups. They are seeking the votes of young people, seniors, the wealthy, the middle-class, the poor, professionals, and the jobless, among many different other categories of voters.

In wooing the different voters, the candidates and their parties are proposing different policies that they feel will better suit the whole American community while at the same time benefitting some special interest groups. A government's budget is more than a mass of numbers; it reveals a nation's priorities and aspirations. The Obama and Romney budget proposals offer two starkly different visions of America's future, making this election the sharpest contrast between competing economic philosophies since Lyndon Johnson routed Barry Goldwater in 1964. (Blinder) For example, one strategy proposed to achieve the good of the community is President Obama’s Medical Care program that was signed into law in 2010.

The law seeks to afford every American citizen universal health care. The Democrats have been in full support while the Republicans have been critical about it. Obamacare seems to respond to Bentham's theory of Utilitarian rights as explained in his book, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. The most common criticism of Obamacare is that it encourages a culture of dependency and undeserved entitlement. Distribution of Power and Wealth for the Good of the Community Morath (2012) aptly captures the differences the two politicians and their parties approach the campaigns and issues affecting the voter.

Kevin Hassett, the adviser to Mitt Romney, said the Republican nominee would take a hard line on entitlement spending that would create the “sigh of relief effect” needed to encourage businesses to expand. Obama adviser Jeffery Liebman said the president would spark job growth, and ultimately consumer demand, through targeted spending on infrastructure, schools and public safety. (Morath) Taxation is one area where the two presidential aspirants widely differ in the policy. Both parties offer taxation policies that work according to the philosophies of distribution as expounded by Aristotle in his views on distributive justice.

“Yet the true friend of the people should see that they are not too poor, for extreme poverty lowers the character of the democracy; measures, therefore, should be taken which will give them lasting prosperity.” (Aristotle, Politics, in Sommerville, p.93) Rousseau asserts that the general will is most importantly enforced by the rule of law and is for the good of both the individual and the community. The general will serve first the community of citizens, rather than the rich minority. This seems in line with the taxation proposals by Obama’s team to tax the rich more.

The 2012 election seems to represent some contest between the rich and the poor.