Today on his blog,
Juan Cole proposes a
Covenant with America for the Democratic Party. This is similar to the infamous
Contract with America that the GOP pulled out in 1994, only Juan's will build up America for the benefit of her people, not tear America apart for the benefit of the GOP's special interests.
Excerpts below...
1. The American people do not want their courageous intelligence personnel endangered by politics at a time when international terrorism remains a real threat. If elected we will strengthen the law to make it easier to obtain indictments against those, like White House advisers Irv Lewis Libby and Karl Rove, who play politics with intelligence officers' lives.
2. The American people do not want dirty money in politics. To address misuse of funds such as that of former Republican congressional leader Tom Delay, we pledge to make it easier to prosecute money laundering for the purpose of fixing elections.
5. The Bush administration misused and misrepresented intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and repeatedly asserted or implied an operational link between Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda. Congress was systematically misled by briefers sent over from the executive branch. We pledge that if elected we will establish by law a panel of lifetime appointees to review intelligence for the president and congress, and to advise when they perceive any branch of the government to be distorting the professional intelligence community's findings for political purposes.
6. Americans should be secure from warantless invasions of their privacy. The Bush administration's abuses against the fourth amendment of the US constitution must end. If we are elected, we pledge to protect Americans from unreasonable and unauthorized government snooping by bureaucrats. Some of these practices are authorized by the so-called "PATRIOT" act, which we believe to contain provisions that defile our revered constitution and would have shocked and dismayed the founding fathers. Exceptions will be made for clear threats to national security, but those exceptions, too, must be promptly reviewed by a judge.
I recommend you visit Juan's site for the rest, and pass the word. This looks like a good jumping-off point to get a coherent progressive Democratic package in front of the American people.