American Politics and Christianity

In the late 1970’s a political powerhouse was forming. It was made up of Conservative evangelicals, anti-communists, and pro-capitalists. While this movement had been building for decades it truly came into focus when Ronald Reagan ran for and won the Republican nomination in 1980 (he had tried twice before this in 1968 and 1976). This political coalition is still incredibly powerful in American politics today. Because of this coalition, it created a dynamic that quite frankly was very dangerous and ill-advised. It harnessed the tremendous excitement of millions of conservative Christians, but this also created a link between issues that quite frankly did not belong. During the 1992 Republican national convention Pat Buchanan quoted Al Gore saying that the central role of the government is the protection of the environment. Pat Buchanan said “wrong, the central role of government is the protection of freedom.” This is the famous culture war speech in which he never actually says culture war.

So why do I bring this up? So many issues have been linked to a Christian worldview that quite frankly do not belong. Don’t get me wrong, I am a Christian and I am pro-life, I also believe that being a Christian is about being a good steward, and this has led me to support responsible spending practices and also support pro-environmental standards. To my conservative Christian friends, if I said “I think anyone that does not support a tax increase on the wealthy or tougher environmental standards isn’t a moral Christian,” I imagine you would not take it very well, and I would be wrong to say it. Using moral arguments has its place and should be used but they should not be used for every, single, issue. Take Obamacare for example, the entire federal government was ground to a halt for two weeks because it was suddenly viewed as a moral imperative to stop it at all costs. The sort of rhetoric I see used against Barack Obama should be reserved for the most heinous of war criminals, not a mediocre center-left politician.

This leads me to the left and a huge problem that has crept into it. Since 2000 a growing number of Democrats are what many pollsters call “nons”, people who are Atheists, agnostics, spiritual but not religious, etc. The Republican party has become God’s party and the Democrat’s have become the Godless party. To be clear, I am not saying that Democrats are immoral, I am saying that Democrats are increasingly being governed by a different moral code. One defined largely by what we would call secular humanism. When a liberal talks about getting morality out of government what they are really saying is get Christian morality out of government. No one in their right mind would want a truly amoral government that is only beholden to the letter of the law and care nothing of intent or how it affected people.

This has created a huge rift in America today, one that has existed since before I was born. Whole generations have been brought up with this other America, wholly alien and immoral that doesn’t really share our values, they aren’t normal Americans like me and you. It has been destructive, counter-productive, and damaged all movements that have stuck their noses into it. It has also allowed both Liberals and Conservatives to demonize and use increasingly harsh tactics that dehumanize their opponents, after all, they don’t share my values, they are Godless or primitive and we should do whatever we can to break them. Screw Ted Cruz, what a right-wing nut job, he has no idea what he is talking about, or Nancy Pelosi, what an immoral Feminist, I wouldn’t want her anywhere near my children let alone as Speaker of the House. When we think of our opponents this way, it cheapens us all and makes any meaningful political discourse virtually impossible. I am not saying you can’t have strong feeling about issues. By all means strong convictions are what makes this country great.

We however cannot forget that one of the things that makes this country great is our Republic, and a Republic cannot stand when the parties involved hate each other so much that they would have a scorched earth policy when it comes to politics. Have strong convictions, write your Congressman, make impassioned pleas, campaign for the people that share your ideals, but do not forget that your opponents are not your enemies.

This has had a horrible effect on the American Church. Christians have become synonymous with Republicans and vice-a-versa. It has given the impression that the Church is nothing more than an extension of the Republican party or sometimes even more disturbingly the other way around. By becoming so closely linked with the Republican party it creates a stumbling block to the lost. Christians forget one of the biggest lessons of the crucifiction of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees take Jesus to Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor of Judea, and the book of Luke says:

“66 both the chief priests and the teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them. 67 “If you are the Messiah,” they said, “tell us.” Jesus answered, “If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.” 70 They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?” He replied, “You say that I am.” 71 Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips.”

Now this is important because the Jews thought of the Messiah as King of Jews, and the Romans could not resist asserting authority over the Jewish community, and how could the Romans assert more authority than executing the king of Jews who was sent by their one God? The reason I am talking about this is because earthly authority cannot resist gaining as much power as possible, and by the Church aka “the bride of Christ” becoming so closely tied to the Conservative movement, it does just that.

We are at a critical moment, both politically and religiously. As long as the Church continues to be so closely tied to the Conservative movement it will harm both the growth of Conservatives, and the Church. The Church must be willing to say what is close to God’s heart by being willing to talk about issues with ALL politicians across all movements. If the Church is to stay relevant and the endless moral sermons of both Liberals and Conservatives are going to be even remotely productive, we must as a country, as a movement, as political parties, must realise, that putting words in God’s mouth, or thinking that anyone who we disagree with me immoral, we must accept our own moral imperfections, and acknowledge that we all fall short of our own standards. That “united we stand divided we fall” is more than a slogan, it is fact. This goes for Liberals, Conservatives, Christians, Atheist, and even political bloggers.

Common Core: A Critique

Source

Common Core has been a very controversial topic, uniting parts of the left, right, and even center in both promoting and attacking it, but before we talk about Common Core it is important to get some perspective in the tortured reality of education reform. Education reform is a topic that has been raging on for a very long time. Plato, in The Republic, argued that compulsory learning would never actually work because it doesn’t foster an environment for children to want to learn. The Roman Catholic Church even gave it a shot. Then there was educational progressivism which spawned in the 20th century. But education reform in the US as we currently experience it started sometime in the 1950’s and the Civil Rights Movement, and again in the 1970’s. Indeed, much of the educational reform, and the ideas behind it, were from progressives, pragmatists, and philosophers who believed that education was essential, and so was a love of learning, and to top it all off, the idea that everyone deserves to have one regardless of sex, and race, and age. Then, in 1994 Congress passed GOALS 2000: Educate America Act, which was a project that began under President George H.W. Bush under the guise of the National Education Goals Panel (NGEP), and America 2000. During the same time, four states adopted their own systems (California, Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington). These systems shifted from traditional education, which focused on grades and student rankings, and instead shifted over to an outcomes based education (OBE) system that focused on standards. Then, in 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was passed that further strengthened the OBE method, and still serves as the current set of National Standards for Education in the United States. Finally, in 2009, through the National Governor’s Association (NGA), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – a set of standards were created that were subsequently adopted by 45 states.

Few people would argue that education reform is not important, and theories and perspectives are diverse and broad. Libertarians tend to believe that there should be no government involvement, and should be left in the hands of the people, parents, etc. Liberals and Conservatives tend to focus on the necessity for standardization, although the scale for governmental involvement is obviously a matter of debate. To what extent should local, state, and the federal government be involved?

While the debate between governmental involvement is an important one to have, we tend to think that the level of involvement is a complex interaction between all levels of government. It isn’t as simple as saying “the federal government should outline all standards,” because that fails to account for geographical differences – a problem that states can handle on their own, and again at the local level. And it’s not as simple as saying that the federal government should stay completely out it as that erodes oversight, and to some extent national interests. Still, this is a debate for another day – the real debate right now is over the current system.

So what is Common Core? The short definition is that Common Core is a list of standards and guidelines for teachers to follow. It was largely funded by Bill Gates and is not a government program. It is approved from state to state and the Federal Government gives out funds under the Race to the Top program. For more information on Common Core feel free to go to the horses mouth. The information on the website tended to be pretty non-specific which worried use greatly.

Essentially, proponents say that this is the overhaul that is needed, and say that teachers aren’t forced to follow the standards. Opponents say that this is nothing more than a continuation of the NCLB, that they are vague, and will no improve test scores, or achievements for students.

There are many critics of the current system, and many of the critiques towards the NCLB can be made towards Common Core – that being the emphasis towards standardized tests. Indeed, many critics of Common Core point towards tests being more rigorous, and that they are supposed to become even harder. Before we tackle content, let’s tackle concept and creation.

Back in 2009, Anthony Cody looked at how the “standards” were created – indeed, six were from college boards involved with test-making, five were from ACT, 4 were from Achieve (a nonpartisan, nonprofit consulting firm in support of standardized education and tests), and almost all of the 35 feedback participants were college professors. In all, out of 135 people involved, there was only one teacher that participated. Any other teachers involved were brought in for purposes of endorsement to make the standards seem more legitimate.

Still, while there are Common Core standards for Math and Reading, there aren’t any for humanities and physical sciences, and apparently there is no standard for teaching other concepts within math- like Pi, or Triangles.

This leads us to Diane Ravitch’s blistering indictment on Common Core, that being their avoidance of standard setting as set by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). She outlines how the creation of the standards avoids due process, transparency, all interested parties, and a process for repeal and revision. Of the other standards necessary for ANSI approval is that the process cannot be dominated by a single interest. This is a particularly important component considering the huge push towards standardized testing. When 11 of the 25 main people involved in the process happen to be test-makers, it seems to us a bit imbalanced. Another question that we should ask ourselves, is why those in the feedback groups were college professors and not actual teachers – those that will be implementing these standards in order to send kids to college. Indeed, Ravitch states that there are good and bad qualities to Common Core – of which cannot be tweaked due to a lack of appeal and revision processes. More importantly, she makes the statement that we simply cannot, nor should we, test these standards (which were not tested prior to implementation) on a whole generation of kids.

According to an article by Politico contributor Stephanie Simon, while implementation of the standards has occurred in 45 states and DC, Indiana, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Michigan are on the precipice to back out of the standards, or at the very least engage in scathing debate over the standards. The National Education Association, who at one point had suggested giving Common Core a chance recently said that these were botched standards, and according to one estimate some 70% of teachers believe that implementation of the standards are going horribly.

While that’s the case, implementation wasn’t all that easy in some states. Ohio and Michigan, for example, saw bills introduced that would have blocked, or paused implementation of Common Core Standards. Ohio saw a particularly large turnout of parents and teachers that called the standards how they saw it: Anti-American in context – you can read about it here. The Tennessee House passed a bill to delay Common Core Standards for two years on March 15th, although Lamar Alexander and Governor Bill Haslam both disagree with this. The debate rages on, though apparently there is a compromise close to being made that would halt implementation.

Supporters of Common Core tend to say that the failures we see now are due to the material being taught wrong – it isn’t the standards that are at issue – it’s their implementation. While there may be merit to this argument, there’s little merit to their other stance, and that is the idea that higher standards will mean higher performance, i.e., higher test scores. Jay Matthews from the Washington Post outlined, at least to some degree, why this thinking is flawed. He pointed to two studies from the Brookings Institute that compared states with high and low content standards. The logic goes like this, at least with respect to proponents of Common Core: the more complex and rigorous the material, tests, and lesson plans are, and the higher the grade necessary to pass is, and the higher the learning targets are – the student will learn more. But when researchers compared states with low content standards to states with high content standards, they found that there was no statistical difference between National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test scores. To further this, those with higher standards didn’t even do better than states that allow a passing grade after missing half of the questions. In other words, the research suggests that high standards don’t produce more learned, educated students, but that teachers, good curricula, and the proper mindset do.

Clearly, we at Willis and Law have a hard time supporting Common Core. Making a test more rigorous doesn’t create a smarter student, and creating higher standards doesn’t necessarily mean a smarter student either. Stan Karp recently stated that Common Core was created in the aftermath of the No Child Left Behind Act, which has in many cases been deemed as a complete failure. There are many things that seem to be perpetuated on the part of Common Core – the largest of which seems to be the overwhelming emphasis on standardized tests. Still, Common Core will just perpetuate and continue to exacerbate the current atmosphere surrounding education in this country when it comes to teacher evaluations being based on student test scores.

Still, there’s also a matter of contention with the statement that Common Core has been internationally tested. Some point towards Finland’s core program – which you can read here. But those that point towards Finland as a model for educational standards fail to take into account the whole picture. Finland doesn’t just have standards, they tackle education differently altogether. Their system is by no means the same as the Common Core, failed NCLB, OBE method that puts results over knowledge. No, kids in Finland don’t start first grade until they are 7 years old – in the U.S. they start at 5 or 6 (Canada also starts at 6). Kids in Finland have 190 day school years. They aren’t tested for the first six years of their schooling – and they are done by the age of 16 whereupon they are put into a different system of basically college or vocational school. They tackle math, and science, and reading – differently. You can check out some other differences here. If you want something to compare Finlands core system to, you can check out New York’s core plan, as well as take a look at a letter from an angry mother over tests that her daughter brought home.

Making its rounds across the internet is this photo of Jeff Severt’s son’s math homework. His frustration was over the number line, a matter of a lot of contention. While simplification is important, so is complication, but this is important to discuss, and to have a dialogue over. Regardless, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction created a document to help educators teach this information which can be viewed here. Some proponents, responding to critics, simply assert that people are against Common Core because it’s both new, and different, and that fear shouldn’t stand in the way of success. There may be some merit to this argument, but there’s far too much at steak to simply frame a rebuttal around fear. There are a lot of flaws with Common Core, and to ignore them would be detrimental. Also, you can take a look at a first grade math test to find a variety of issues with it here.

The debate around education reform is sadly taking place in the shadow of free market principles, careerism, and corporatism, rather than independently as a topic to be respected. Teachers, educators of all degrees (K-12, early childhood) have largely been ignored, even though they are the experienced people teaching your kids. The debate on reform is about driving achievement, as measured by test scores produced by companies that facilitate the crafting of education standards. That’s a bit much. But education reform shouldn’t just be about standards, and what those should look like and entail, indeed it should also be able to tackle funding in a nonpartisan way (finland spends 30% less per student than the rest of us, has a 17% higher high school graduation rate, with a 66% rate of college attendance).

Education reform should also tackle geographical differences in funding, attrition, and graduation – and why it is that poor people seem to be shafted when it comes to getting an education. Mark our words, and mark other critics’ words – Common Core will not facilitate the learning and subsequent achievement of children. These standards – which aren’t even complete, and were rushed in order to get grant money – are about putting kids in the workforce. An education system based on future monetary gains will never succeed – and that’s what we see now. Finland, again, has only one national test, which they take at 16. Kids in America seem to have a test for every grade, followed by the ACT, or the SAT, and if they want to go to graduate school, they must take the GRE, followed by the LSAT, MCAT, etc. There are so many standardized tests that stand in the way of success that we fail to grasp the detrimental outcomes from it. The American education system should be fairer, cheaper and more effective than it is now, Common Core achieves none of these objectives, it is time to take a step back instead of trying Common Core or as we at Willis and Law call it No Child Left Behind.

Crime & Education in Tennessee

We at Willis & Law thought we might discuss crime on various levels. Just a couple of years ago we were reading articles praising a decline in crime rates – a trend that was indeed occurring, even beyond the dark figure of crime, which represents the crimes not reported (not all precincts report crimes, or have the same reporting methods, so it’s safe to say that any official crime rate is more than likely not the complete figure). Needless to say, we weren’t too thrilled when in late October of last year (2013) USA Today reported on a second consecutive rise in crime rates: particularly the 15% increase in violent crime, and the 12% increase in property crime. Indeed, the crime rate had been falling (with obvious fluctuations depending on the specific crime) since 1993.

So what might be the cause of some of this? Well for one thing, unemployment. According to 2002 study that compared crime rates and local labor markets between 1979 and 1997, found that a 3.05% increase in unemployment prefaced (authors say “predicted”) a 7.1% increase in property crime, and 3.8% increase in violent crime. Following this, and tied to indicators of poverty, is that a 23.3% decrease in wages of men who were unskilled workers correlated (“predicted”) a 12.5% and 25.1% increase in property and violent crimes respectively. Another way of wording that, is that higher unemployment rates saw a greater rise in property crimes, whereas a decrease in wages among unskilled male laborers led to an increased rate of violent crime – though both types rose. According to the authors of this study, between ’79 and ’97, there was a 29% increase in property crime, and a 47.2% increase in violent crime (adjusted figures). Wages of non-college-educated workers explained 43% of the increase in property crime, and 53% of the increase in violent. And the unemployment rate of those workers explained 24% of total increase in property crime, and 8% of the increase in violent crime. Indeed, the authors attribute the falling crime rate between ’93 and ’97 to unemployment rates. In effect, they concluded that their analysis (essentially comparing less educated men within a labor market and crime rates), and were able to account for more than 50% of the increase.

While that analysis tackles pretty old data, the analysis is still particularly important, and doesn’t just vanish. The association between crime, poverty, and unemployment, has not only been hypothesized, and found to exist for quite some time.

That being said, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Report on the Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2012 shed some important figures, along with other household data:

The number of people with a high school diploma or less makes up about 4.4 million people, respectively, those with a high school diploma had an unemployment rate of 7.5%, and those without an 11%. Indeed, they are the highest unemployment rates. While there are critiques on the use of unemployment rates, we’ll continue to use them for the remainder of this article, as that figure alone can explain crime rates.

Still, that’s not the only problem, among those 25 and older working full time, median weekly earnings for those without a high school diploma fell by 20% between 1980 and 2012, 7.6% for those with a high school diploma, and 7% for those with some college or associates degree. While the difference in median earnings is about $120 per week, per increase between no HSD and BS, the trend is that the less educated you are, the less you make in more ways than one.

To break that down even further though, men saw a decrease in wages of 28.2%, 15.2%, and 9.7% respectively to education (no HSD, HSD, BS). As for women, they saw a decrease of 11% for those without an HSD, and an increase of 5.2% and 7.5% for those with an HSD, and BS. (these numbers are based on constant 2012 dollars).

The point is, being less educated doesn’t just mean that you make less money – it means that you are also losing money.

This brings us to Tennessee, and also back to crime. Tennessee’s unemployment rate stands at 7.7%, which is a bit higher than the 6.7% nationally for December of last year. According to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission’s Higher Education Profiles & Trends 2012 report, 17.5% of the TN population did not have a high school diploma, and only 54% of adults had completed either high school or some college. Unfortunately, 2010 is the most recent year with respect to educational attainment numbers – but we are skeptical that much has changed in the last three years. Furthermore, Tennessee has a 17.9% poverty rate, a bit bigger than the national average of 15.9%.

This brings us to some other interesting trends, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, population changes have been occurring in Tennessee. For instance, in 2008, the greater Nashville area’s population was 4.5 million. In 2012, this increased to 4.9 million. Among these trends are various fluctuations in crime. In 2008, Nashville saw a violent crime rate of 1,443.9 and a property crime rate of 5436.5 per 100,000 people. Between 2011 and 2012, forcible rape increased by 46.56%, the raw numbers being that in 2011, there were 332 accounts, and in 2012 there were 520 (an actual change of 56.63%. Aggravated assault also rose in that year. Overall, violent crimes increased that year by around 6.7%, even with a decrease of reported crimes by about the same margin (6.9%). In other words, property crime went down, and violent crime went up for Nashville.

According to City-Data.com numbers, Clarksville, TN has a significantly higher rate of crime than the US average when it comes to violent crime: Clarksville had a rate of 365.9, to U.S. average of 214 (a difference of 70% in violent crime), and that gap has increased from the 23.5% difference in 2000. Another way to look at this, is that the gap between Clarksville and the overall U.S. Average in terms of violent crime rates has increased by 196.7%, with a current population of 142,519. To further this point, all areas reflect a common trend with respect to overall rates, but clearly something isn’t right in Clarksville when the violent crime rate is falling much, much faster nationally. The property crime rate is almost even, although there were some strong differences, with Tennessee having more crime.

Neighborhoodscout.com offers a bit of a comparison to TN, with not much difference to be had. The most important number that we’ll take from this, however, is that on a scale of 0 – 100, 0 being most dangerous, and 100 being safest, Clarksville got a whopping score of 20 (whereas Nashville got a score of 7). In other words, Clarksville is safer than 20% of cities, and more dangerous than 80% (whether or not that is only with respect to Tennessee, or nationally, is unknown, but either way, that’s a low number) in comparison to anything. To top that off, according to a TBI report, and other news stories, human and sex trafficking is actually a pretty big problem, with 16-25 cases in Montgomery county alone, but more than 4,000 victims statewide.

That being said, the economy is very much tied to crime rates, and vice versa, and while this article focuses on it generally, and outside of the context of drug related crimes – a whole other issue in and of itself – Tennessee has a problem brewing, and its legislative leaders need to consider the options, regardless of partisan politics. We once were a party that set the standard for state based health care systems – and because of partisan politics, that title vanished.

*This piece is part one of a series tied to education and economics.

The Time for Tax Reform is Now

Taxes…just saying it gives you a mix of boredom, and dread, but Dave Camp can’t stop talking about them. Dave Camp is the chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, which is responsible for writing and overseeing the country’s tax policy. He just released a draft of a plan to reform the tax code. This is not some election year garbage either that is designed to drum up support from the base, this is a real attempt to reform this nations maze of a tax code. How do I know this is serious? Because he is attempting to move the vast majority of corporate taxes away from small business to large ones. He has also introduced a tax on Wall Street that has enraged wall street so much that they have dispatched a small army of lobbyists to kill this bill.

I will not go over the specifics of the bill but if you want here is a copy. What I will go over is the need for such reforms now. The economy is sluggish and the deficit will start creeping up again in 2 years. Tax reform has the potential to help both. By shifting taxes away from smaller businesses you encourage growth in small businesses which account for 99.7% of all employment in the country. One of the big problems this country is facing right now is slow growth in the job market. Tax reform has the potential to change that by pushing the country out of slow growth, by both creating jobs, and increasing tax revenue which reduces the deficit.

So if this has the potential to help so many people and on so many issues what is the problem? To sum it up in one statement: election year politics. Many Republicans are worried they will change the narrative of this election cycle from talking about how poorly Obama is talking about yet another fiscal issue that only helps the Rich. Democrats will kill it to keep Republicans from getting an election year win. It is horrifying to think that after all the horribly fiscal fights we have had over the last 4 years that both parties would turn down an opportunity to make their lives easier and benefit the country. After all, it was not too long ago that is was Republicans unwilling to work with Democrats to keep the President from getting a win. We have to move past this insanity if we are going to become a functional democracy again.

The timing is perfect for tax reform. Republicans have wanted it for decades and this is Dave Camp’s last year as Chairman of the Ways and Means committee. A retiring chairman can be a powerful force and should not be wasted. With Democrats in control of the White House and the Senate we have a chance to get tax reform on the most favorable terms possible, while Republicans get the huge win of taking taxes off the table in any future fiscal fight. Don’t get me wrong, many large corporations will fight this tooth and nail, and many people from the far right and left will try to kill for their own reasons, but at this point it is better to try and fail than to have not tried at all.

In case both parties had forgotten, the national debt will start climbing at an alarming rate, and the deficit will once again start growing in 2016, largely due to slow job growth, and increasing cost of entitlement, mainly medicare, and social security. We already need cuts in both medicare and social security but by not tackling this now we will be forcing even more painful cuts in the future. If Republicans do not push for tax reform it will confirm my suspicion that all too many are in Washington to protect big business which is something that tax reform will hurt. Meanwhile if Democrats attack Republicans for pursuing tax reform before they even have a chance to get it out of committee they will prove they don’t care about government and only care about winning elections. The time for action is now Washington.

Putin the Tyrant: An Update on Ukraine

We at Willis and Law feel an update on Ukraine is necessary in light of the Russian occupation of the Crimea. The intent of our first article was to convey that events in Ukraine would by and large affect only Ukraine. Had this been any other part of the world it would have been a major shift in Government for a country and nothing more. We did not take into account that Russia sees Ukraine as part of Russia, and will go to great lengths to ensure its dominance over the Eastern European state.

A little information on the region first. The Crimea is a near island in the south of Ukraine. It is over 60% Russian speaking and is home to the Russian Black Sea fleet. To be clear, many of the people in Crimea probably want to be a part of Russia. I would be surprised if some of the people storming government buildings in Crimea were not from the region. Right now a new government is forming in Crimea. Crimea will first want to be only autonomous from Ukraine. This is what happened in Georgia in 2008 with south Ossetia and Abkhazia. It is possible he might move into western Ukraine which also has a large population of Russian speakers.

Putin has found a system that works. By exploiting local ethnic issues he can move in and annex part of his neighbors. This is not a new strategy, though, as Hitler, Bismarck, and the Czars have used this to great effect. He will undoubtedly try something similar again if given the chance. This is the critical point. There is very little anyone in the west can do to help Ukraine keep Crimea but we can help save Ukraine.

Russia’s actions show something that many in the West thought was over. The mentality of Empire. An empire does not just see national boundaries, it sees spheres of influence. An empire will annex parts of its neighbors and call it a liberation. An empire cares more about prestige than what is best for its own people. An empire does not care about words like democracy and rights, only power. Russia is an empire in all but name, and it is time we started treating it as such.

How does one treat an empire? The first thing you don’t do is break off talks in areas of agreements and this means putting up with them in talks on Iran, North Korea, and Syria. The Russians do not want to see a proliferation of weapons of mass destruction any more than we do and we should still work with them to limit this spread. Next, sanctions, big ones, specifically on Russian natural gas and oil. With the shale oil boom we should give european firms preferential treatment so they can start getting their oil and natural gas from the U.S. instead of having to rely on the Russians. Next, begin putting N.A.T.O. troops in Poland and the Baltic states, as well as offer immediate assistance to Georgia and Ukraine so that Russia cannot simply march into these nations whenever it feels like it. We should also offer immediate financial assistance to the Ukrainian government has it struggles to build a working economy. A strong Ukraine will make it harder for Putin to annex anymore of it. All of this put together will show that the West is not going put up with anymore of Russia’s territorial ambitions in the region, and he will have to cause world war 3 to realize them.

With all that being said however, Crimea is lost to Ukraine. With a majority of the population in favor of a Russian occupation it is hard to see how Ukraine could retake it without outside assistance and the west will not risk war with Russia over Crimea. We can however stop the bleeding ,and right now that is what we must begin doing. The time for Criticizing Putin is over, now is the time for action, that is the only thing that will stop Russian aggression in the region.