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Rethinking the Democratic platform
2004.05.10 — Government | Issues | Campaign 2004 | by Derek Jensen
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Can he be a new new Democrat? |
For too long, Republicans have been able to paint Democrats as tax-and-spend liberals. It is time for Democrats to take back the high ground in American politics. Bill Clinton led the way for new Democrats. Now it's time to further that trend and take new Democrat ideas to their logical conclusions.
Economics
Republicans like to think that they know what is best for the economy because they are the friend of business (translation: they are not the friend of the working man). They make ridiculous claims about the Reagan economic policies that are flat wrong. Democrats need to stage an all-out attack on Republican supply-side economics and show that it is Democratic policies that have led to prosperity again and again, from the Great Depression to Bill Clinton, and that Republican policies have enriched the rich but soured the economy.
Taxes
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Americans hate taxes, and well they should. Taxes are bad. |
Americans hate taxes, and well they should. Taxes are bad. They take money from the people who will use it to enrich the economy and they appropriate it for government-approved uses that are too often pork-barrel projects and special-interest subsidies. Democrats need to stop complaining about reckless Republican tax cuts and start complaining about reckless Republican spending—especially in the form of unnecessary weapons systems and corporate Welfare. Democrats can do more with less by reforming existing programs instead of enacting new ones.
Education
The failure of Democrats to solve the problems with public schools in America has left the door open to Republican plans for privatizing education. Democrats need to step up to the plate to find new and better ways to fund education, manage schools, train teachers, and test students. We need to be less concerned about multiculturalism and more concerned with competency. That means more schools and smaller class sizes. That means funding education with something other than property taxes. And that means a national program for improving text books.
Abortion
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Just as brain death is legal death, brain life should be legal life. |
Democrats need to come to grips with the fact that a woman has an obligation to the child she is carrying as surely as she will have an obligation to that child after it is born. We need to take back the moral high ground by outlawing abortion beyond ten weeks, the point at which the fetus has a fully-developed and functioning brain. Just as brain death is legal death, brain life should be legal life. This doesn't preclude a woman's right to contraception, morning-after pills, or early-term abortion and yet gives the appropriate weight to the life of a developing fetus.
Social Security & Medicare
Now that Republicans have had control of Congress and the White House for several years and have botched Medicare reform, Democrats have the opportunity to take back control and reform Social Security and Medicare for the people instead of for the health care industry. Leaving Social Security reform to Republicans will only result in the gutting and privatization of the institution, which could easily lead to investment scandals and fund crashes that would force a bailout bigger than that of the savings and loan crisis. Small increases in payroll taxes should be offset by decreases in income taxes. Reduction of benefits to wealthy retirees alone could go a long way towards rectifying the problems Social Security faces. After all, Social Security is meant to be a safety net, not a full-scale retirement plan.
National Health Care
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It has been shown... that nationalized health care often creates long waits for urgent care as well as other problems. |
Democrats have used health care reform as a bludgeon against Republicans for a long time. Social Security, Medicare, and other programs have been successful, but the next step suggested, national health care for all Americans, is a dangerous one. It has been shown in Canada, Great Britain, France, and other parts of Europe that nationalized health care often creates long waits for urgent care and substandard care in general. Steps toward ensuring basic health care for every American should be gradual and careful and use market forces as much as possible.
Gun Control
Guns don't cause violence in a society; their use is a result of violence in a society. Switzerland does well with quite liberal gun laws. The UK, despite its strict gun control laws, is fast becoming as violent as the US. Americans embrace their right to bear arms. Democrats need to support that right as a civil liberty and stop trying to take guns away from law-abiding citizens. Instead, we should target illicit gun dealers and those carrying unlicensed firearms. Assault weapons are used in a minuscule number of crimes every year; let's take aim at the real sources of gun violence.
Immigration
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We should establish programs that encourage legal immigration in the form of easy-to-obtain work permits.... |
New Americans enrich this country with every passing year. Democrats have and should embrace them, but at the same time should recognize the wariness of those who fear that new Americans will not assimilate or fully contribute to society. We need to discourage the notion that new immigrants take choice American jobs. We should establish programs that encourage legal immigration in the form of easy-to-obtain work permits for those from select areas, such as Mexico, Central America, and Canada. And we should encourage English literacy among all Americans, new and existing. Moreover, we have a vested interest in helping poor neighbors like Mexico improve their own economies, thereby becoming able support their own people and to become stronger trading partners with the US, enriching all of us.
Civil Rights
Democrats have long championed the rights of minorities and women, but the time has come to stop seeking solutions in legislation that gives special protection for those groups. Gays and lesbians, blacks and Hispanics, women and seniors have all achieved basic equality as far as the government can enforce. Democrats need to abandon affirmative action as government policy and let market forces work with anti-discrimination legislation as a fallback. Government should encourage special consideration for employment and scholarships only for poor Americans. Gays and lesbians deserve some legal recognition of their committed relationships, but same sex marriage per se is antithetical to the institution.
Democrats need to take back the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans, who too often agree with the emotional appeal of conservative Republican politics and misunderstand its backward fear- and money-based policies. Too long, Republicans have maligned Democrats as hating industry and blaming America. We need to take back the high ground and fight for practical reforms and programs that work.
f e e d b a c k
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