Highest Rated Blog Posts

• We Need a Partisan Alternative

  • From: t.c. bowman
  • Description:

    Come November I will vote Democratic. I will hold my nose as always do always wishing there were a more intelligent alternative. But America appears to be philosophically, morally and intellectually incapable of making this a reality.

    [if !supportEmptyParas][endif]Actually I find myself pretty disgusted with both political parties and the influence that big business and special interest has over them. Simply put, I find it highly unlikely that anything positive will be achieved over the course of the next four to eight years. I’m surprised that more Americans aren’t clamoring for the addition of a third or perhaps fourth political party rather than to continually putting up with, and be disappointed by, what might best be termed Republ-ocrats and Dem-publicans. Both have become parties of the wealthy.

    [if !supportEmptyParas][endif] So why vote? Why bother you may ask?
    

    Because I cannot abide sitting by and allowing another four or eight years of free handouts to the wealthy who have placed us precisely in the mess we currently find ourselves in. Listening to the rhetoric on the Right it makes it pretty clear to me that we are not likely to find any solutions there concerning the impending economic downturn. Most Americans probably have not woken up to the fact yet, that this is sizing up to be an economic downturn the likes of which our country hasn’t seen since the Great Depression. The Right appear to have learned nothing since Herbert Hoover.

    
    That said, both Democratic presidential candidates are holding out a very feeble light in response to this creeping darkness. Timidly afraid of their corporate masters and what they will allow them get away with.

    As with many Americans, I would like to see bolder action taken. Excesses need to be corrected, regulation needs to be enacted and criminals need to be rounded up. We've had a 28 year long, unregulated party.

    Ronald Reagan told America, that "Government isn't the solution, government is the problem". Well, unfortunately it appears that without "the problem".....like children allowed to run loose in a candy store, we don't appear capable or regulating ourselves.

    [if !supportEmptyParas]

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 341

• Education Doesn't Always Pay

  • From: jachoteaja
  • Description:

    I'm 34 years old, graduated with BA, and am without retirement plan due to the fact that I have no job. How did I get here? Growing up in a low income family, I didn't have a happy childhood. When my junior year came, I heard, "College" but I didn't know what that was. I didn't know I should be asking questions, and no one told me exactly what it was.

    Even after visiting a college in New York, I still didn't understand the true purpose of it. I was a airhead robot who would follow the road that everyone's on without being inquistitive. I was "stuck" at that same college for 8 years, and one would think that I should have PHD by then, which I had nothing but a high school diploma.

    After leaving college, I, finally, was able to decide what I wanted to do, what I wanted to study, but it was almost too late. I moved southwest and got education financial assistance, and continued to pursue degree. While I was pursuing degree, I was seeking an income that could cover my living expense. Took me more than a year to find a job, even though I've a good number of job experience.

    I wasn't considered a candidate when I applied at fast-food restaurants, or car wash or gas station. It was that difficult because I'm "over-qualified" for any of these positions. With frustration riling up on me, I was encouraged by my ex-girlfriend to walk in Kinko's. I didn't think I'd be qualified because I felt that Kinko's was only for people who have college degrees. I applied and got the job, finally. While I was able to work graveyard shift, I'd still take college classes at a community college.

    All the income I've been getting were being sucked into inflation..food, apartment, books, clothes, and it goes on and on. No matter how frugal I tried to be, I wasn't able to save. From then, I was encouraged by my other friends to seek a higher paying job, which was at an insurance company as a data entry specialist. I made more, and I did try saving money. I couldn't save a cent because of the living expense inflation, even when I've been frugal.

    After finally gradauting from an university in 2003, I found a job which wasn't fitting to my degree and on the top of it all, those jobs that I was told that I'd be getting, I didn't get because I didn't have, "enough experience". Makes me wonder, "How in the hell am I supposed to get enough experience if companies wouldn't hire me?" I went seeking intern, same responds.

    So my point of this story is this: Why am I being punished for trying, for being honest, for actually believing that college degree would make a difference? As honest as I've been, captialists get rich quickly with schemes. Is that truly a American way of living? Makes people wonder why they're angry, frustrated.... many times would be willing to cheat the economy just to be able to get a breather.

    I moved back east from the west, because I left a job there since it wasn't benefiting me, especially when it's not associated with my college degree or my employment experience. After moving east, it took me 8 months to find a job, and the saddest thing is that it wasn't associated to my degree at all. After working 3 years, I left the job, because it wasn't bearable to continue there. It wasn't safe for me. I was very unhappy in that environment. I moved in with my family, and been without a job for a year, again.

    I've been encouraged to go and earn graduate degree, but my past experience has been making me reluctant to do so. Everytime I check out the universities or colleges, first thing I'd look at is, "Tuition". The representatives would say this to me, "In the long run, education will be invaluable to you," my respond, "Why does it have to be in long run? Why not now? Why does education have to be so expensive that I'd have to apply for the loan? How do I pay that off without the money I've not earned? With the living expense inflating ridicolously? Why are the cost of the books are always rising each semester, let alone each week?"

    I found out why. Captialism. It became a trend, and it's been good for a very few, but painful for MANY. Human behavior......What can we do to protect our humanity from ourselves? I'm worried.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 442

• Point out Genocide!

  • From: sakhalbaatar
  • Description:

    Dear friends,

    My name is Lee. I was inspired to become a teacher by a Holocaust survivor. I heard her tell how as a young teen her family bribed nazi guards to give her an adult work card to leave the ghetto for a day job. One day all the able Jewish adults left the ghetto for work. When they came back the nazis had taken away their children to be killed. She said the silence that day was deafening. Now for her, the sounds of children are the best music in the world. I agree. And I became a high school teacher so I can share how hate destroys communities and model acceptance for people from any background.

    You know the worst form of hatred manifests as genocide. We should not shy away from telling the truth and pointing out atrocities. My travels took me to Asia for almost 5 years. I was a teacher in China and a Peace Corps volunteer in Mongolia. Asia is close to my heart. Unfortunately, genocide has reared its ugly head once again. Peaceful Falun Gong meditators are being rounded up, tortured, and murdered in China for their faith. The death toll is getting higher as China wants to wipe out its "undesireables" before the Olympics. This is genocide since the whole Chinese government apparatus is geared to eliminate Falun Gong from all levels of society. News like this often gets brushed aside for economics. Look at our clothing labels and you will start to understand.

    I know there are many problems in the world. Yes, politicians need to prioritize. But, I would support a candidate who has the strength to point out genocide, no matter if we have economic ties with that country or not. It should be our first duty to humanity. Thank you for listening.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 470

• Death and Politics

  • From: Ralph Brauer
  • Description:

    Because of politics I almost never existed to write this essay.

    You see I am a first generation American whose father, grandfather and aunt came to this country to escape death sentences. My uncle fled the Holocaust and was the only member of his family who survived. My grandfather was a prominent German politician whose unequivocal hate for Adolf Hitler earned him a death sentence in 1933.

    After a harrowing escape worthy of a spy novel, my father and my aunt lived in exile while my grandfather worked for the League of Nations. But the Nazis followed him around the world.

    My father told me how two years later he and my grandfather were in a Paris apartment when he saw two Gestapo men enter the building. My grandfather protested, “They can’t arrest me here.” My father practically pushed my grandfather go out the fire escape as he retorted, “They’re not coming to arrest us.”

    My uncle, a Berlin Jew, managed to get himself out of Germany, but the visa he had worked so hard to secure for his mother arrived just after the Nazis put her on one of those trains whose destination was hell.

    As the son of political refugees who came to this country because this was one place the Gestapo could not follow them, you might say I absorbed my family’s belief the we must constantly defend democracy and the idea of the level playing field that sustains it, because they knew how freedom could disappear at the stroke of a pen.

    Keeping the playing field level means government serves to assure votes are counted fairly, to maintain a free “marketplace of ideas,” to provide an equal education for all, and to guarantee social and economic justice. Its values lie behind the ringing inaugural addresses of FDR and JFK as well as what is the single greatest American speech of the last century, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" masterpiece.

    My family fought for the idea of a level playing field all their lives. Only a candidate who promises to keep the playing field level will get my vote because she or he would have gotten theirs.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 808

• Ideology Impedes Solutions

  • From: wolfyb
  • Description:

    Few people could be raised more conservatively than me. My father was a lifer in the Army, I did a stint in the Navy and I went to college at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. However, I am what you might call a moderate for lack of better term. I have studied Marx and Smith and found both to have valid arguments and both to be lacking the scope to explain everything. In fact their landmark books do not have a cohesive ideologies spelled out. It is their interpreters, who have extrapolated theirtheories into ideologies.

    I tire from the constant struggle between left and right. This struggle is a stupid waste of time and resources. Unfortunately both sides have found self-serving supporters withinour societies to attach themselves to the ideologies and make money. Is it a suprise that military suppliers are conservative or that trial lawyers are liberal? And so the argument goes on ad nauseum.

    What I am most interested in is practical, efficient and affective solutions for the problems that face the Nation and its people. No ideology is robost enough to give us this, however history (accurately reported) and examples from other nations can. Ideology, campaign financing and special interests are the impediments to these solutions. Don't believe me, examine the health industry or the insurance industry.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 260

• Corporate Greed Hinders Democr

  • From: Lstgeorge
  • Description:

    In my middle-class mind, the primary cause for today's economic woes is corporate greed. Aided and abetted by government policies, corporate America has become richer on the backs of its rank & file employees, and ultimately, theconsumer. This crosses every spectrum of business. When Xcel Energy's CEO makes 11 million dollars a year, but the Public Service Commission grants them a rate hike to compensatefor renewable energy exploration, something is terrribly wrong. Economics 101 tells us that there has to be cash flow at all levels in order for a country to truly prosper. Not just 10% of the country, the entire country. We've lost our democracy. We've lost our government for the people. We've committed the third deadly sin and everyone BUT the rich are paying the price.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 260

• High Cost of Living

  • From: BLee
  • Description:

    There are so many things that are influencing my decision this election, I hardly know where to begin. My husband and I are struggling to keep up with our mortgage payment, parent loans (we have 2 daughters in college), rising cost of food & sundries and the gasoline we need to get to work each day.

    We bought our first home in 2000 with a 6.5% fixed rate. We were solicited by the mortgage company, to refinance, to get our equity out of our home. During the refinance procedure, we were misled repeatedly and at the closing, we were told untruths. Our loan is now 9.5% and probably more than the value of the home. Our son graduated from college in 2004 and during that time, our parent loans were only 5.5%.

    In 2005 one of our daughters began her college experience and our loans are 8.5% and our youngest daughter started college in 2007 and those parent loans are also 8.5%. Our son received student loans for 3.0% fixed but our daughters received loans for 6.2% & 6.8%.

    It is hard to be positive and optimistic with such debt. We are hard working Americans, with steady employment and 3 wonderful, productive children. I want to see our next President make borrowing for college and homes, affordable, get the gasoline prices down, ease the burden on middle income Americans and bring jobs back to our country. Thank you for listening!

    B. Lee

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 682

• Affordable Healthcare for All

  • From: cschwing
  • Description:

    Everyone deserves affordable health care. The current system has major gaps for the working poor.

    I have always had at least one job and served in the military after high school. About 10 years ago, I was working as a temporary employee after a move and didn't qualify for their health care coverage because I hadn't worked enough hours yet. I was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease (cancer of the lymph nodes) and had to make the choice between not getting treatment, getting treatment and declaring bankruptcy (and stiffing the doctors who'd saved my life), and quitting my job to go on Medicaid. I had to quit my job because the only coverage I qualified for was disability coverage. I racked up $70,000+ of medical bills in 10 months and those were covered under Medicaid, but I wasn't allowed to work to support myself and still qualify for medical coverage. I was 27 and my 7 year old daughter lived with her father during my illness so I didn't qualify for any additional assistance. I didnt qualify for SSI Disability insurance because you had to either be sick for at least a year, or be terminal. I had to live off of my family for the year I was sick. Thank God I had them.

    We need a system that works for everyone, and that will close gaps. We are the most advanced economy in the world that doesn't have a national health care plan. My vote will go to the candidate that will attempt cover everyone.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 751

• More Focus on Saving the Envir

  • From: greta k.
  • Description:

    I listen to NPR at work 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, so I feel I'm pretty informed about what's going on in the world. There are certain trends in the news and if you listen closely and connect the dots, you come up with a scary picture for the future.

    The environmental degradation, economic instability, political unrest, disease, and impoverishment, which have all existed for decades if not centuries, are reaching a critical moment. Many factors are playing and feeding off one another and there's not nearly enough time, resources, or harmony amongst our current leaders for any meaningful solutions.

    We are going to have to make monumental changes and sacrifices in how we live, especially those of us who are lucky enough to be living comfortably in the first world nations. This means more, MUCH more, than turning down our thermostats, paying a little more for bread and gasoline, and changing out a few lightbulbs.

    So what's it going to take to get my vote? Leaders who are able to see these problems for what they really are and implement timely, bold, and agressive solutions. These leaders need to tell the people the whole truth without sugar coating it or insisting that these problems are only temporary. These leaders are not likely going to be popular (to say the least), but please, don't kill the messenger. These kinds of leaders are necessary now more than ever.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 811

• Important Presidential Qualiti

  • From: MButterworth
  • Description:

    "We should be asking ourselves what mix of policies will lead to a dynamic free market and widespread economic security, entrepreneurial innovation and upward mobility [...] we should be guided by what works." (Barack Obama)

    I believe we, American citizens, in this day and age need a flexible and witty leader. Who is set on his or her plan towards improvement, but does not have an unwavering method of attaining that goal. In 2008 we must consider technology, world issues (oil, conflicts, ect.) and how the world is all connected and are involvement in that unity is important. The US has had a history of being a major player in world politics and economy, we must maintain that reputation.

    I am looking for a president who can represent the US well in foreign policies, and can also lead us out of recession and boost the economy. Achieving this goal by less government spending (pork & debt), less tax cuts, more business opportunities, a new plan for healthcare, and a solution for Iraq.

    In doing all of this the middle class which has been taking a lot of hits with taxes, social security, and healthcare struggles need to be considered. What makes America different from many other countries is our very large “middle class” which we need to focus on.

    Our gaze needs to shift from other countries to our own backyard that needs some cleaning up. I believe all of the candidates running in this election could do the job and are more then qualified for this daunting task, and they just need to apply what they say they will do to reality after being sworn in to office.

    I look to past presidents for views on what I think our president need to represent and resonate with. Teddy Roosevelt said. “The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife…The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything…Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.”

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 908

• Electric Over Gas-powered Cars

  • From: michaelmoore
  • Description:

    Until I decided I wanted to buy an electric car, my idea of politics was to vote for whatever meant less taxes for me. I became interested in EVs after reading online about the upcoming Tesla Roadster, a $100k electric sports car. I then watched Who Killed the Electric Car? and was reminded of the EVs that graced California's roads during the heyday of the ZEV mandate.

    A little bit of research made it painfully clear that switching America's commuter fleet to electric cars is the single most effective and practical step we could take to free ourselves from the menace of oil. So I decided to buy an EV and couple it with a rooftop photovoltaic system, which I figured I'd pay for with the money I'd save on gas. It's amazing what a perfect solution this is, both environmentally and economically, but for one small problem: It's impossible to buy an electric car.

    How could it be that 1000s of EVs, highly reliable and highly demanded, were on the road 10 years ago; but today, even in the face of $4/gallon gas and the ominous future of global warming and bloody oil wars, not one is for sale? This called for more research, still ongoing, and the results so far speak volumes about what's wrong with our country. One highlight: Chevron, yes Chevron , owns and is effectively squatting on the patent rights for the Nickel Metal Hydride battery, a battery which has been proven to power cars like the Toyota RAV4-EV over 100 miles per charge even after 100k miles of driving. As soon as Chevron acquired these rights from GM they sued Toyota and Panasonic to cease production of these batteries and effectively killed the electric car.

    More citizens need to learn about the story of the EV and get angry about it. The plight of this technology and the lack of awareness among the general public is emblematic of the ills of our nation as a whole. If we don't take back control of our government and make it serve the needs of the people we're in for an ominous future indeed.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 2335

• A change in political currency

  • From: frustratedlouisianian
  • Description:

    I have been reading quite a bit about the health care situation in the United States and it seems that everyone I have talked to or read is for a revised health care system which does not include the insurance companies as part of the new system. I then began to wonder why every politician who steps up to a microphone in this country talks about sitting down with the insurance companies to negotiate a better deal for Americans. It seems as if there has been a change in currency in the U.S to campaign dollars rather than votes by citizens. I think that what we really need is a way to reduce the dependence the individuals who are running for office have on campaign contributions. How would we go about introducing this change?

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 323

• My Awakening to Political Conc

  • From: Anne Greene
  • Description:

    I will share with you the moments when I felt a change in my world view. This is when I feel I became globally aware and concerned.

    In 1994, I was 25 years old, and at-home mom with my first son who was an infant. As was my habit, I was washing dishes at the sink in the late afternoon and listening to All Things Considered. The war in Bosnia was on-going. I was running the water to rinse dishes and the story being told was of women risking their lives, and some being killed, trying to get water for their families. I felt fear at the thought that I could have to do something so dangerous for my child, and shame that the clean water running down my drain was worth so little to me, but worth dying for in Bosnia.

    Was my transformation of thought due to motherhood and new maturity? Perhaps. I began to see and hear the news with sympathy that was sincere and different. Stories took on the question of how does that effect normal families and normal children who have landed in theirplace in the worldthrough no choice of their own.

    When the Oklahoma City bombing happened on April 19, 1995, I was 8 months pregnant with my second child. My older son, then 19 months old, was watching Barney and Friends on OETN (OK PBS station) which began at 9am. The bombing was at 9:02am. Were those 19 murdered children watching Barney along with my safe child? This was another moment that shaped me. My second son was born on May 19, one month after the bombing, and CNN and local newsreports and reflections filled my hospital room.

    Yes, my own growth has changed how I view politics and the world. I want to help families to be healthy and safe. I want to impower people through education. I want to protect the environment my children and others willlive in. I want to help pay for the quality of life of others to be improved because I have been blessed to be an American in the weathiest and most advanced time on earth. I am not an extremist, I am a realist. I feel responsible to invest inour collective reality.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 446

• Margaret Thatcher made me a li

  • From: E. Thomas Wood
  • Description:

    Soon after I arrived at the University of Leeds for a junior year abroad in September 1984, I sat on the steps of its main building and defiantly marked my absentee ballot for Ronald Reagan. It was the first vote I had ever cast.

    I had grown up in Nashville with little exposure to any politics other than the libertarian, business-oriented and Fundamentalist Christian strands of Republicanism. I was shocked to arrive in Leeds at a moment when the pervasive political environment was a militant, left-wing orthodoxy. The Miners' Strike was on, and support for the miners appeared to be universal. London wags branded the area "People's Republic of South Yorkshire."
    

    The campus branch of the Revolutionary Communist Party was much in evidence. Everyone I met, from the kindly old warden of my residence hall to shy girls in pubs, would query me politely about why on earth young people would support a president like Reagan. I remember the looks of horror on every single face around me in the dining hall when I was the only one to refuse to sign a black South African's petition calling for Nelson Mandela to be freed. "Communists don't deserve freedom," I told him.

    It took a few months for me to understand -- very gradually, with much gentle encouragement from a new friend who was a fundamentalist Christian and a socialist at the same time -- that I was living in a community pushed to the brink of desperation. The Thatcher regime had simply written off the North of England, once it realized it had no support there. The police and MI5 used crushing tactics against strikers who were losing the only way of life their communities had ever known.

    By the end of my year, I had fully realized that power wielded without responsibility equals evil. I became a liberal -- the term was already hurled as abuse in my Nashville circles -- and I have never looked back. The standard I apply to all activity in the public sphere is: For good or ill, what is the impact on the community? Many of my friends and loved ones here in Nashville consider me badly misled, and the feeling is mutual.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 475

• Threat to Democracy

  • From: me escobar
  • Description:

    As a woman, I like the idea of seeing a sister in the highest most honored rank in my country. However, I have big questions about THIS woman (Hillary, that is) in the White House. My feelings, though contoured by, have less to do with her experience and ability issues and more to do with a threat to democracy.
    
    For the majority of my politically aware life, there has been either a Bush or Clinton in the White House. It hasn’t really been since Hillary’s running that I’ve thought of it in these terms. For over 20 years, 1 of 2 powerful families have ruled my country.
    
    If I heard on NPR coverage on another countries elections where by 1 of 2 families have been in control for 20 years back to back and now another member of the same families was trying for another 4-8 years, it would make me question the legitimacy of their democracy. I would question the fairness of their election process. I would cringe as I imagine how disempowered the people in that country must feel. I would be thankful that I don’t have to live like that…wait a minute. I do live like that!
    
    The last 8 years of the Bush administration has really worn me down as a citizen. I feel disempowered knowing that money speaks louder than my voice in this country. I have lived with a chronic low-lying fear that has been come down from my government assisted by controlled media. I feel polarized because of my beliefs from the other half of Americans.
    
    A visit to the Constitution Center makes it clear that our founding fathers were trying to ensure unity through a definite shift from isolated power to power in the hands of the people. It’s insulting that any one person or political machine would ignore this basic American Constitutional right for the sake of continuing to keep power isolated. I don’t know why more people aren’t offended by this.
    
    I want to feel whole again. I want my country back.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 488

• Issues are Most Important

  • From: Jniel08
  • Description:

    Hello everyone my name is Jensen and i am 18 years of age and i attend Taylor High School in Kokomo Indiana. Last night i had the "So-Called" privilege of listening to Hillary Clinton speak at Kokomo High School. Although i am a registered Democrat, i was not proud to be one after listening to her live and in person. She insisted on sucking up to all of Kokomo for the first 30 minutes of her speech and not really focusing on the issues.

    But i am not here to bash her up and down this forum, i am here to tell everyone what it is going to take to get my vote. well first off, after this past republician reign of terror in the white house, i am going to find it extremely hard to vote rebublican. I want a president who is going to fix the mortgage rate. i want to be able to buy a house in the future without having to but down 25% as a downpayment.

    another thing that is happening now is the war in Iraq. i want a president who actually has a plan to get us out of there, not just someone who says we need to leave sometime. America is acting like Iraq is a big party and were too drunk to deive home so we will just stay a bit longer to sober up.

    i want a president who is going to fix socal security so that when i retire i can still live a half way nice life. i want a person who is not scared to stand up and say gay mariage is wrong. i want someone who is going to put america first, and in front of their own pocket books. i want a person who is going to bring jobs back to america instead of giving tax breaks to companies who take them out. i want a president who realizes that oil does not last forever and that we can basically grow our own Gas.{Ethonol}

    i want a strong leader who stands up for what is right but most of all, i want someone who will stand up for America.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 522

• Government Should Lead Towards

  • From: jkrotkov
  • Description:

    I don’t discuss politics much with my friends and neighbors in this tiny town in a big, red state, because they all think I’m pretty much a pinko-commie, bleeding-heart, liberal pansy. And they say it as though it’s a bad thing. They think of me that way because I believe we need to get back to discussing ideologies. I don’t think the role of a leader is to pursue expedience, but to rally people to the banner of our shared principles.

    I want a leader who reminds us that we’ve agreed, on principle that all our citizens should have access to a free, quality, secular education because it makes the citizenry more able to govern themselves. I don’t want a leader who says ‘well, our public school system is hopeless. Lets phase it out.’

    Despite the fact that the town I live in is tiny, we have a town government and while the valiant souls who volunteer to serve on it do their best, I think they’re crippled by that fatuous phrase that’s been drilled into their heads: “government should be run like a business.” No it shouldn’t. Our town’s goal is to provide services to its people, not to make a profit, and not even to spend as little as possible. Lots of my friends and neighbors think that the primary role of our town government is just to “keep the lights on,” and to fend off what they see as intrusive regulation by the State and the Feds.

    Of course its important to eliminate wasteful spending, and to keep the lights on and the water running, but that’s not the primary job of a Mayor or our President; it is to lead us toward the goals dictated by our shared principles – our ideology.

    There’s a lot of talk of “vision” and “change” in this Federal election season, but I think its just reactionary (see! I really must be a Marxist or something! I said “reactionary!”). It’s an ideology of politics, not of government. If any of the candidates want to get my vote they should get back to the basics and address those principles that underlie our constitution - which we’ve drifted so far away from- like freedom of speech, equal opportunity for all, secularism, caring for the less fortunate, and access to quality education and health care.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 568

• Conservative becomes progressi

  • From: Chad Giesinger
  • Description:

    My political viewpoints have evolved constantly along with different experiences in my life. Initially my story, as with most, began with my family, which came from North Dakota. Although I wasn't really aware of the political aspects at the time, my father and many other family members regularly made comments about how the government can't do anything right, can't be trusted, should be smaller or eliminated, shouldn't help support people, etc. - in retrospect, a very conservative perspective that informed my initial viewpoints as I became an adult.

    There were also many comments, socially accepted as I grew up, bashing gays, minorities, etc. that I initially took for granted. There were common jokes such as, “40 degrees below zero keeps the riff raff out.” By “riff raff” they meant minorities, especially blacks. Based on this upbringing, you could say I was a redneck in many ways when I graduated from high school.

    Because individual rights always mattered so much to my parents, they always stressed the importance of voting. So I dutifully voted for the first Bush. Then Bill Clinton came along as I was struggling to make a living and find money and time for college. I was transfixed by his charisma and speaking ability. This was the first politician I had ever seen reach out to young people. His rhetoric about the middle class inspired me. I guess you could say that was a turning point for me, when I began to consider the other side, and my viewpoints have evolved from there.

    As Igrew older, graduated from college, had children, and traveled to other countries, I realized I simply could not support ideologies of intolerance, religious politics, pure military solutions, and capitalism without responsibility. I have never been religious, so when the Republican Party began branding people like me as"godless", as a traitor to my country because I would dare question our government, as a murderer because I don't think abortion is a government issue, my transition to progressive politics was solidified. I guess I have become one of those "elite" progressives.

    Unfortunately my income belies my newly acquired "elite" status! Remember when elite meant you were good at something? Remember when facts were based on science and primary sources? I do.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 620

• Right to Protest Unjust Laws

  • From: Nate
  • Description:

    Our Nation was founded by people who challenged unjust laws, to the point of being seen as criminals. Those who started our Revolution broke the law to achieve a more logical and more just morality. And in the history of our nation, every social revolution that was to follow was preceeded by people who had to break law in order to protest against a great wrong in our society. Every step forward in the issues of Colour, Gender, and Sexual identity was preceded by people who boldly challenged laws to show there was a better path for our society to follow. Every step forward for workers conditions, or aid for the poor, or environmental issues was preceded by protests that crossed the law.
    
    Yet in the past 8 years, challenging status quo has become deemed unseemly, perhaps un-American, especially if it means breaking even the slightest of regulations. The country has been undervaluing protest done in the name of improving society; lumping protest with random acts of crime.

    I would be impressed with the Presidential candidate who talks about the history of dissent in our Nation. Perhaps even give the speech in People's Park, or in the redwood forests of Humboldt County, or at the The Stonewall Inn. Or, if the candidate be so bold, meet with organizers from different protests, and show they aren't afraid when people speak up and act out, with a genuine desire to push the nation forward.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 694

• Fix the Disparity of Wealth

  • From: Anne Greene
  • Description:

    I will be voting this year out of self interest and the interest of our larger society. I find the principels of the "Reagan Revolution" to be the base point of our economic failings. Government is needed to regulate our economy with fair and transparent regulations and protections for consumers and inverstors. The lack of government oversight for the last 28 years has unleashed a reign of free-market greed which has been devestating to our social fabric.

    I am very concerned by the disparity of wealth and control of resources in our nation. This explosion of power to an elite monetary class has been fueled by the tax policies and lack of business regulations of our government. I am not against people suceeding by their own merits. However, I am concered by the extreme chasm growing between the top 10% of wealthy Americansand the remaining 90% of the nation.

    I feel that issues such as health care affordability, public education, and price inflation are not personally felt by the politically powerful monied class, and therefore are not well understood or valued as having a real impact on the quality of life of average citizens.

    I want a government that educates its citizens, provides access to basic health care for all citizens, and offers protections for both consumers and investors. I want a tax policy that does redistribute wealth to helpbridge the gap between rich and poor in ways that improve the quality of life of all citizens through health care, education, and infrastructure.

  • Blog post
  • 1 year ago
  • Views: 733