Post#80 » by doclinkin » Fri Sep 5, 2008 11:54 pm
I was a registered Independent since you get polled more often, but I switched over to have a say in what candidates were on the Democratic ticket. I saw Ralph Nader coming and knew that a vote for Mr seatblet was a pisspoor idea in the real world.
As for the rest: I don't care about the labels, Personally I like a politician that panders to me and my concerns. I don't own a corporation, have an IRA but not much else in the stock market. I'd like to be able to buy a house, I'd like for my wife to be able to start her little business. I have a hard time believing a rich guy understands my concerns. But my mom was a single mom, my schools were inner city schools, I got a crappy edumacation, I got free lunch, I benefited greatly from federal handouts and loans for college, I ate powdered milk and ate food paid for with government stamps when I was a kid. I trust the two politicians who have the least money of their own, the one guy in public service when he could have earned more I'm sure doing something else, the other who's young but so far has followed a similar path, raised on ideals similar to those I grew up with. Seems like they'd be better able to understand where I'm coming from.
I think it's crap that we're the only First World country that has no guaranteed health care until you're critical. Scares the helloutta me that one of my sons has no insurance because he's not living at home anymore and decided to work in a warehouse packing trucks instead of going to college. I've got health insurance and even they are threatening to charge me thousands of dollars for telling me my wife was covered for a procedure but not the prescribed medications that allowed the procedure to be possible.
I've seen Unions make things difficult to operate, I've also seen them save the jobs of honest hard working guys and ensure a basic cost of living increase guarantee for dozens of people in public service. I've seen hundreds of people who have no ability to advocate for themselves trying to tread water and dig their way out of situations where predatory companies and organizations with skilled lawyers took advantage of them. And they had nowhere to turn. I've seen government intercession make a positive difference, especially when pressured by Unions that helped elect them.
I've seen deregulation increase electricity costs up 70% for families struggling to make rent. I've had to pay that bill. I have friends who say their agency is no longer allowed to pursue any new cases against companies that are polluting their neighbors. I have friends who can't fish in those waters anymore.
As for W.Unseld's admonishment that suggests original thoughts are the only ones that matter, I call bullshxt on that. I'm pretty good at diggin' and finding data and asking interesting questions. But I happily cede the field to a few more highly trained, patient, or with more time on their hands to do the digging. And if they find a fact that rings true and I track it back to sources, and happen to agree, I have no problem repeating it as though it were my own. If you asked for footnotes, fine I understand, credit the sources.
But I don't live in Alaska. I wasn't at the church when she said God wanted that war in Iraq. I wasn't interviewing McCain when he forgot how many houses he owns. Still gave me a sick feeling inside wondering how my family could afford a house, just one pretty little one, given the proportion of our family budget that just goes to gas for the car and heating oil now, and expenses have started to nip into the savings after the wife lost her job.
I'm saying, most people agree we need government to safeguard our needs when you hear glass shatter at night and you reach for the phone. Most people think libraries and schools and student grants and loans are a good thing. Most people think clean air is probably a good idea. Paved roads. A safety net for old people who've worked their whole lives. Seems to me there are a few more things that the average guy can't do for himself, that it would be helpful to have a smart compassionate guy ensuring that some of the big picture things are taken care of while he's struggling to carry his own load. And it seems to me that the people-- no, the companies-- that have profited most by the american people can best afford to help pull the load.
Seems to me that Iron Rule of Oligarchy applies tenfold to corporations. Only one thing matters: profit. Capitalism works fine compared to say communism because it takes into account fundamental facts of human nature: greed, self-interest. Do I begrudge them their success? I don't. I love it. I benefit greatly from products and services delivered to me. But it seems to me these are the people who can best afford to help insure that the people who buy their products, who work to make and deliver them are, well, alive to buy them for instance. CEO's earn ungodly millions, the gap between what a CEO is paid and the workers for these companies has widened so far in the past few decades it's unconscionable. Maybe if that profit margin were slightly more sane we'd see that gap narrow a little. Fewer jobs get sent to asia perhaps with the proper tax controls-- though I dunno, the customer service peopl0e I've spoken to in India and the Phillipines seem friendly and nice and all, more polite than the 'Mericans.
Capitalism is the horse that pulls the plow, government is just the harness. Something like that. All I know is that life has gotten harder for the folks I know, working folk, while the largest companies report record profits, and a very few at the top of the ladder get exponentially richer and richer and lose touch entirely. Seems entirely fair that the government borrow the strength of the mighty to help those under their feet. The horse pulls the plow, to raise the grain the horse lives on.
--Tax relief for the middle class, first time home buyers.
--Better schools, better wages for better teachers.
--Incentives for the small business entrepreneur, since that's where the greatest job creation occurs and how people attain productive middle class status out of being working poor. Microloan programs and other small business incentives.
--Some program to allow preventive care, early care, so we're less vulnerable to any next-order epidemic. Some program to ensure that the most vulnerable are safe.
--Intelligent use and deployment of forces. And real diplomacy as a tool thereof. To bring pressure both public and private.
Just seems to me there a number of sane policies we could think carefully about and weight the costs and benefits of implementing. Seems to me we should have been able to use the Billions of dollars a month protecting Louisana and protecting that City from drowning. Or working for a better future, not satisfying the aims of empire as laid out by the would-be masterminds of American hegemony at the Project for a New American Century. I could have scripted a stronger defense for america's future than any of the Holy Roman Empire wetdreams of that legion of doom.
I'm as American as anybody else. The neo-cons have drowned the country I love and stripmined it for profit and I literally hate them for it. Seems to me we can't bear it much longer and shouldn't have to.
.
