I have often wondered why I am a liberal.
I was raised in a middle class family where my parents voted Republican. I heard about "lazy people who do not work" and others who abused the welfare system. I am a Family Physician who finds myself in a profession where most of my colleagues are Republican. I pay taxes at the top rate, and paid the Alternative Minimum Tax for the first time this last year.
I used to consider myself more moderate, but as the Conservative/Republican Party has moved to the Right, I find myself moving relatively Leftward.
I find I have both specific policy reasons and general philosophic reasons for my political views. Specifically, I believe that our government should act as a force that promotes the common good. It should act as a safety net, and provide opportunity for all. Philosophically, our government should represent everyone equally. The individuals in Big Business/Wall Street/Corporations may have only one vote, but they certainly control our government with political donations and lobbying. Our current Democratic system has accepted ever increasing plutocratic elements. I am truly afraid that class warfare will be the next step.
Lots more below the squiggle
First the specific reason. I believe that our government can and should act as a safety net for our society. Our government should not only provide the infrastructure we all use (roads, military defense, local police, public schools, etc.), but also promote policies that protect those without a voice or who are vulnerable (disabled, the environment, homeless, etc.).
We should all agree on the common good of services that protect us all. Public schools are one of those services. Even if you have never had a child in public schools, a strong public school system will benefit you. Public schools give ALL children a chance to succeed. The more brilliant minds that are out there inventing and creating, the better our lives will be. America is a world power and major economy in part due to our entrepreneurial and creative spirit. You never know where great ideas are going to come from, but you do know that the more people are out there thinking, the more great ideas you will have.
A recent trend in the Conservative/Republican jargon is to "protect taxpayers". This implies that those who work in the public sector (teachers, county workers, police officers) are somehow "stealing money" from the taxpayers. Public workers deserve the same respect and pay as private workers. It should not be a surprise that a country that values educators (Finland) can have the best education system in the world at less cost per pupil. See this 2010 NBC news report.
In Wisconsin, do we want our eduction system to reflect the POOR results of the conservative southern states or the SUPERIOR results of the liberal northeastern states?
The most important issue is to spend our public money wisely. I believe that money spent on public education will give more children the tools they need to succeed and decrease our prison population. Money spent on public transportation will lessen our dependence on foreign oil and help curb global warming. Money spent on a social safety net is just the moral and decent thing to do. (We are either going to let people die on our streets, or give them help. If you are not willing to ignore those in need on your front doorstep, then you need to be willing to help them.) These are all issues where public funds contribute to the common good.
In general, rural and southern states receive more federal tax dollars than they pay into the federal system. For rural states, this probably represents the expense of providing transportation and utilities over long distances. For southern states, I believe this is due to their poor social safety nets and education systems. It is often more expensive to fix a problem after it has developed, than proactively address it.
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Now the philosophic reason. Our government should represent everyone equally. My challenge for my conservative friends is to find one example of an economic issue where their Republican party has chosen the "common good" over the interests of Corporations/Big Business/Wall Street.
In case after case, the Republican party has advocated for the wealthy and powerful, rather than the common good. Their perspective has really distorted the public debate.
Did you know that our current budget crisis is really due to two wars, a tax cut for the wealthy, and a recession caused by Wall Street's unethical (but not unexpected) profit driven behavior? It was not due to increased spending on social programs.
Did you know that the wealthy recovered their wealth after 9/11, but the middle class has not? I would argue that the wealthy do not want to see a recovery, as long as the recession has depressed the salaries they need to pay their workers, and therefore increased their profits. The wealthy (and some would include me in this group) have done very well over the last 30 years. There are many minimally discussed "subsidies for the wealthy" in our tax system.
Did you know that the wealthy can prosper even with tax increases? The last federal tax increase during the Clinton presidency (1993-2001) lead to a prolonged period of prosperity and improvement in all wealth classes.
Did you know that if we look at total taxes, we all contribute a fairly similar percentage of our total income for those taxes? This is true even for those who pay little or no federal income tax.
Did you know that the "Rich" do not actually create jobs with their tax breaks? Businesses are sitting on record amounts of cash now, with little incentive to "create jobs"
Here is a longer article by Professor G. William Domhoff that discusses Wealth, Income, and Power.
http://www2.ucsc.edu/...
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There are some common sense solutions out there. These are brief answers to some very complex problems.
1) Dysfunctional Government - Need to take the money out of politics. Publicly funded elections would do the trick. It actually might save money. It would most likely save $50,000,000,000 (billion) in tax subsidies for the oil industry. I am sure there are other subsidies that can be directly linked to political donations. As mentioned above, there is no way to return our government to the people without eliminating big donors. (corporate, Hollywood, unions, wealthy individuals, or otherwise)
2) Health Care - most of the rest of the developed world has adopted some type of governmental health care system. This may serve as the only system available, or just be a base plan in which individuals can purchase more coverage if they wish. A single payer system is the most efficient way to run a health care system, and will certainly allow the government to control expenses. Costs are controlled by what is covered. The less you cover, the less you pay. Elderly folks may not get their dialysis covered, but all women will get prenatal care, and all young children will get basic health care. Health care needs will be prioritized, and policy will follow. There will be winners and losers. Again, this is best done without the influence of money in the political system. A universal health care system will relieve the burden of providing health care from our businesses and allow them to better compete in the international market.
3) Education - see above. We need to value teachers and our public education system. Private schools should be allowed to compete with public schools only if they play by all of the same rules (accept all students who apply, or use an independently run lottery if they do not have enough room for all of the applications, assume all costs of those students for the remainder of their K-12 education, follow all public school reporting rules, etc.). Any other scenario devalues our public education system as we create additional burdens that only the public schools have to overcome. There are so many bright kids out there who just need a chance to succeed. Some of them are going to invent some amazing things. Others will just be awesome at what they do.
4) Collective Bargaining - workers need the right to organize and collectively discuss issues with management. There will always be some conflict between management and workers. There will always be disagreement between political parties. Disagreement is not always bad. If both sides will listen and problem solve, good things can occur. Collective Bargaining can be done under a union or some other label. Collective Bargaining provides a moral conscious for business where profits are not the only consideration in a decision. Both sides should agree that they want safe, healthy, and productive workers.
5) Environment - the environment needs an advocate. The "profits now" business motive will not protect our world. In keeping with the model above, developing an advocacy group for the environment that interacts and challenges our government to protect the environment is a good idea. It will cost a relatively small amount of money, and it will cause our government to sometimes plead its case in court. But since "the environment" is not a person and does not make political donations, it needs a forum to express its views and concerns.
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In general, I do not consider myself a socialist, but you can label me anything you wish. If the country is doing well economically, then we all should share in that prosperity. If the country is not doing well, then we all should pay the price. That is just expressing typical American values of fairness. Now, some cutbacks are more damaging than others. So we do, by necessity, need to take a logical approach to our local and federal budgets, prioritize services, and not make blind across the board cuts. It is only logical that those who prosper the most in good economic times are asked to pay more in poor economic times.
I believe that there is general agreement that increased income disparity in a country will eventually cause great conflict. We need to empathize with others and develop a determination to provide economic stability for all families. We need to frame our political debate in terms of what will help "us all", rather than "us vs. them". We need to fight the current political environment that serves to divide us and find scapegoats for our problems. We need to get the money out of politics, so our representatives can represent everyone equally, rather than just their donors.
Why am I a liberal? I am a liberal because I believe in a level playing field when groups are competing. I am also a humanist. We all deserve a fair shot at creating our lives. We all have a right to basic human needs such as food, shelter, and a living wage. We all deserve a government that considers itself employed by its citizens, not corporations. We deserve political parties that are not afraid of science or data, even if it contradicts what they previously thought. We deserve a republican party that does not keep repeating the same deceptions in order to keep wages low and different groups fighting one and another. We deserve a democratic party that does not cower in front of Wall Street. We deserve an economic system that values inherited wealth (capital gains) less and entrepreneurial wealth (earned income) more.
Even though I am generally an optimist. I am afraid that things will get worse before they get better. I keep hoping the next generation will save us from ourselves. I believe they are more open to new ideas and much less judgmental of others. They get their news from different sources, so they will be less able to be manipulated. They are not afraid of their differences, and realize that there are options to "stepping on each other to get ahead". My hope is that they believe that groups can prosper together. We have done that for short periods on time in our history. Hopefully we can eventually find our way to do it again.