It is getting time that we need to do some serious thinking regarding the candidates. We can come here day after day and bash the ones we do not agree with or we can stop and think in a rational way about just who would best serve the goals of the Democratic party.
It does not matter if you are a Democrat or a Republican, this election is a very critical one as far as what our country will be like and what our kids and grandchildren will face in the rest of this century and beyond. We are at a place where we can choose either more of the same corporate growth and CEO wealth over food and groceries for those who are not in the upper earning groups. We can choose an America that is a good neighbor to the world and build a better relationship globally which would do far more to combat poverty and hopelessness which would do more to contain terrorism than all the wars the Neocons would wage.
More below.
When it comes to anyone in this country who is not making at least a half million dollars annually, they need to understand that to continue with business as usual in Washington will only result in a continued lowering of the standard of living for the middle income and others in the working class. That is because as long as the lobbyist on K Street are not there for the benefit of the working class. To get any gains back for the working middle class, the way things are done in Washington has to change.
One does not have to be anti corporate and hate the rich to believe that it is time to put a stop to the insane widening of the gap between the corporate world and the rest of the country. In their rage to take more and more of the nations wealth they are ignoring the fact that a nation is stronger when most of it's citizens have a standard of living which meets their needs and gives them hope for a better life for them and their children, not more worrying about how to continue to hold onto their home and send the kids to school.
What middle America needs to do right now is look at who among those running in either party is offering a real change in the way things are done in Washington.
On the Republican side we see only with the exception of one more war crazy blood thirsty protect the rich and give them more tax breaks. We also see more drilling of oil here in America and no plans to really move us away from an oil based energy program which does nothing to counter global warming. Hell they don't even believe that Global warming is happening.
On the Democratic side we have a bunch of good candidates yet there are things about each one that some of us do not like or agree with. I think what most of us here on this site can agree with is that we can not afford another Republican Adninistration to follow this one.
That leaves us with the situation of doing some serious thinking in relation to which Democratic candidate would best serve goals. First I think we have to look at what those goals are and I am sure that some of us put more priority on a particular agenda than we do others. The key we need to remember is that we should not base our support on how a candidate comes across on just one of the goals, but rather how that candidate would be on most if not all of them.
I can not speak for others as to what goals are inportant to them,but in general I think the list below are some of the things that both the progressives and the liberals on this site may think are inportant. I am listing ten goals in no certain order other than the top four in my opinion are of top priority. I know there are others and you can freely add them in the comments.
1.. End the Irag war and bringing our troops all out of there there.
2.. Enacting Universal health care, preferable one that would be single payer or at least something that would soon lead to single payer.
3.. Changing our foriegn policy and start using diplomacy instead of trying to bully the world into doing our bidding.
4.. Put and end to the corporate greed controlling the legislative process of our nation.
5.. Enacting a more equitable taxing system that would finally give the working class a long deserved break.
6.. Launching a manhattan project to combat global warming.
7.. Do away with No Child Left Behind and create a world class education systewm which would eventually insure the best education possible for every child including at least two years of college regardless of family financial situation.
8.. Creating a union friendly enviroment in this country.
9.. Stopping the involvement of religion in government
that seems to have gained a foot hold in our government process.
10.. Insuring equal rights to all including the Gay and Lesbian citizens.
Now the question is which of our candidates would work to give us these and the other goals that would improve the situation for all the citizens of our country.
I will quickly admit that either one of our candidates would be good on some of these and possibly better at one particular goal than the others would be, but would that candidate be good on more of them than the others? That looks to me like the thing we have to look at.
I do not see one candidate out of all of them that would be a perfect match with the goals, but if we look close we can find the best match and if we really want to advance our agenda, then we need to give serious consideration to getting behind that person which would best serve us on all of them.
I personally have problems supporting in the primary those who for whatever reason have shown or expressed the following.
Voted for and supported legislation that favored corporations while hurting the working and less fortunate such as the bankruptcy bill.
Have supported the free trade agreements that have gutted our manufacturing and technical jobs here by creating an enviroment encouraging corporations to take the jobs off shore and overseas.
Have supported this administration's lust for invading other countries for corporate greed. Some exception can be allowed if that person has seen the error of that support and has since changed their stand on it.
Has voted for legislation which endangers our cival and privacy rights such as the Pratiot act and allowing this administration to freely spy on us with no recourse.
Has not done what they could to stopp this administrations abuse and stripping the power of the legislative branch of our government. It could be stopped by supporting impeachment hearings.
I am sure others have other points to add to this list and some may even dissagree with the ones I have listed. However that is what makes up the Democratic party, the fact that we are not robots that simply follow the dear leaders wishes.
So have at it and add your goals to the list.
Above all I urge that we put aside the petty bickering over the candidates and look at the whole picture to get the support behind the candidate that would best serve all of us and not just our own personal desires.