What now?
I’m averse to the whole “pass it on” meme thing, but I offer a challenge to the small audience here:
As a result of the recent changes in our country’s political makeup, 1) what immediate impact do you see as a result (economic, Iraq, domestic, education, whatever), and 2) what impact do you see for the country in 2008?
Comments are open 24-hours-a-day. Here’s something to get you started.
Tags: Politics
November 9th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
I’m still thinking it over, of course, but here are some ideas:
1) Get us the hell out of Iraq. Adopt a plan with a timeline and stick to it.
2) Get to the bottom of the domestic spying issue and punish whoever deserves to be punished.
3) Solve the Guantanamo Bay fiasco. Charge people with crimes and try them, or let them go. Stop acting like some third-world dictatorship that tortures and holds people without charges.
4) Work on extending health care to a larger segment of the population.
5) Take some steps to start paying down the debt that the “fiscally responsible” conservatives ran up.
6) Take steps to restore confidence in government. I think this victory was as much about corruption as it was about Iraq. Put teeth back in congressional ethics rules. Ferret out corruption and refuse to tolerate it, regardless of party.
If we can make some progress on a subset of these, we stand a shot in 2008. It’s unfair that we have two years to solve problems the Republicans had six years to create, but that’s the hand we’ve been dealt. We have a real chance to make a change for the better starting right now.
November 9th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Here are my own musings:
1) (a) With our military solution to the Middle East failing, the yoke is on the Democrats to lead us to a long-term solution that takes into account our own national security as well as the security of the global community. How to withdraw without the whole region collapsing is the bazillion-dollar question.
(b) Return America’s dignity. By “dignity,” I mean somehow redeeming ourselves from the “Pro-Torture Regime.” I do agree that there is an “axis of evil” in the world; I don’t believe that water-boarding is going to fix it.
(c) Reinstate the Bill of Rights.
2) 2008 . . . I’m no fan of the two-party system. Within a narrow range, it seems to me that you’re only voting for one set of lobbyists and special-interest groups over another. I think America is ready and willing to vote for real change, but no one wants to throw his vote away again re Perot, Nader, etc. I see evidence of this in NWA, where the Green Party received appx. 12% of the vote in two-way races against Dems, but barely registered in three-way races. Could 2008 be the year of a real alternative? Obama is generating a lot of interest, but so far, it’s been all buzz and little substance.
November 13th, 2006 at 9:40 am
I would add to those fine lists the following: if everybody is so pissed off about Iraq, how about channeling that energy into a real committment to weaning ourselves from foreign oil? I’m thinking a massive, culture-wide committment, something similar to public campaigns during the depression or WWII, or even the space race. Sponsor contests, thousands of scholarships, government grants and tax incentives. Slap up posters and commercials asking people to recycle and donate used objects to the cause. Add a box on our tax returns for donating money. Hell, a bold move toward hybrids might even save one of the big three American automakers.
Maybe I’m naive, but it seems to me nearly everybody but the oil companies and defense contractors could get behind the idea of no more blood for oil.
November 13th, 2006 at 10:52 am
My biggest fear that that whatever “political capital” was earned will be wasted on some drawn-out impeachment proceedings. I’m not a Democrat, by a long shot; but there’s not currently a political party that I can say represents my ideology, nor do I realy think there ought to be. In my perfect world, the government really doesn’t do a lot. “Branding” a party as being “pro-choice” or “anti-gun” makes as much sense to me as branding it “Ford” or “Chevy.” These are, at best, personal decisions, and at worst, states’ rights to regulate (choice and guns, not Ford or Chevy, although I am a Ford Man). The most offensive piece of campaign literature I have ever seen came from the Washington Co. Republican Party. It was a “voting guide” that sought to draw a bright line between “God-fearing” Republicans and “Democrats who wanted complete separation of church and state.” It came in the mail the day after the election, which is too bad, because I had no idea that the whole “church and state” thing with the Constitution had been repealed.