Fred – some quick notes on how the Dem positions have been evolving. My own thoughts are indicated, although they are not strictly relevant to a discussion of Dem preparations:
Taxes – Problem for the Republicans is that billionaires only get one vote each in a democracy, so their tax breaks don’t really do much for the normal Americans. The Dems would rollback some of the goofier tax breaks given to the top .1% set and reinstate/protect many of the tax breaks that meant a lot for normal Americans. The breaks for low-income families saving for retirement, for teachers for books and supplies often paid for out-of-pocket, breaks for students, for the middle-class Americans, etc. would be strengthened.
Defense – The realignment of military forces is fine, except where the Republicans have decided to implement a policy by which some 150,000 troops have been stuck in a quagmire unrelated to U.S. security. The Dems support smart spending. Democrats believe we have to support our troops by modernizing our military to that it better meets the threats of the 21st century, but we need to make sure we never send them to war without telling them (honestly and not in the traditional mealy-mouthed Republican lying sort of way) the reasons they are being sent, giving them clear goals, supplying them with the best equipment available to keep them safe, and keeping our commitments to them when they return from war. Dems will continue to stand up for the families of those who serve our country, including income security and access to affordable health care. Dems will continue to stand firmly against efforts by Republicans to implement VA-cutting measures that will delay or deny health benefits to our wounded troops.
Education – the Democratic Party supports the recommendations from the task force formed by the Center for American Progress and the Institute for America’s Future:
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Expand time in school – The 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. school day with lengthy summer breaks was set in an agrarian age in American history, when kids were expected to come back to their farms to help out with chores. However, this doesn’t match in with what we now know about how kids learn and retain information and it doesn’t match in with the education needed for American kids to be prepared to participate in the economy.
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Standards – develop voluntary national standards, expand national accountability, and press for adequate and equitable funding across the states. Increase assistance to low-performing schools/districts and promote school construction and modernization. No more goofy un-funded setups like the disgraceful “No Child Left Behind” scam offered up by the Republicans – we need to ensure that the American kids growing up are able to do more than work in McDonald’s or as diamond-tipped cane polishers for members of the Republican “base”.
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Recruit and retain good administrators and teachers – Improve the training for teachers and administrators and set up market-oriented and accountable compensation structures. Make teacher and administrator salary and promotion responsive to market forces.
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Connecting schools with families and communities – Improved support for struggling families, encouraging greater involvement of parents with their kids’ education.
Free Trade – Democrats support free trade. There are cranks on both sides of the aisle who don’t like it, but NAFTA and WTO are key parts of U.S. policy.
Foreign Policy – I don’t understand why on earth you would support “staying the course” in Iran, given the complete failure of Bush’s policies there. If you meant “Iraq”, then doubly so. However, the Dems will do what the Republicans have so far shunned – we’ll work with other powers to mobilize increased pressure on the countries trying to get or retain weapons of mass destruction, we’ll use accountability and leadership to ensure we can again serve as a desirable example and standard-setter for the world.
NATO – Nato ought to become as flexible as possible, but perhaps we ought to consider the purpose of the organization given that it no longer exists as a counterpart to the Warsaw Pact nations. It’s doing good work in Afghanistan and has done good work in the past to keep the Serbs from launching forth on more execution sprees.
Welfare Reform – Up for worker retraining and other projects intended to get people out of dead-end industries and into jobs where they can contribute to the economy again.
Late-term/partial abortions – Unlike your position in which you stand categorically against all such abortions, I support the right of doctors to take steps to safeguard the lives of mothers. I’m personally against abortion, but then I don’t know any Dems (or other people, really) who are “pro-abortion” in any sense.
Privatization – I’m in favor of privatization anytime it makes economic sense to do so. If privatizing garbage collection in New Jersey forces us as a society to spend more resources to monitor the awarding of the contracts in a fair, non-corrupt way, then so be it. We don’t want to run any mafia entitlement programs here, but we can watch out for that. However, if this is just going to be the setting up of crony-run, no-bid arrangements for Republican donors, then I’m not up for it. Regarding Amtrak, I’d scrap that cobbled-together system of freight tracks and put together a superfast system with routing and schedules that make sense for passengers – set up a BOT or other mechanism by which to get this moving forward into the private sector ultimately. Current offers to “privatize” social security amount to a Republican-led scam that’s gone over like a lead balloon despite Bush’s packed “town-hall” meetings screened to ensure only party faithful get to attend and ask questions.
Bridges to Nowhere – I think nobody’s in favor of this. Furthermore, Democrats are against awarding no-bid, multi-year, multi-billion-$ contracts to cronies – something that’s become a Republican policy in recent years. Although the “spend, don’t tax” deficit-driven policies of the GOP has created a huge problem for the nation, the Democrats will be there again to push for sane fiscal policies. I’d like to see smaller government, and that can start by the Dems putting a stop to the Republican efforts to stick the long arm of the law up every American keister.
Abolition of government departments – This might sound or feel good to folks who dislike the federal government, but several of the listed issues frankly have effects on interstate commerce that make it unrealistic to think your personal laundry list of departments is ever going to go away. Frankly, this is a bit like hearing a guy with no knowledge of anatomy talking about what organs he can do without: “Salivary gland? Hell, I don’t need that! Pancreas? Unnecessary!” As far as I can tell, this is a viewpoint so far not even endorsed by the GOP and I haven’t seen any Democrat position on this. The Republicans have been in charge of the house, senate and executive for years now, and they haven’t done this. Why would they?
Privitization of Social Security – Raising the retirement age in line with demographics (increased lifespan, improved health, etc.) makes sense. However, the GOP plans for social security so far appear to be a scam. Democrats want to close the loopholes that allow companies to under-fund their pensions and protect Social Security from privatization so American workers receive the benefits they have earned through a lifetime of hard work. If you want it, there’s plenty of “privatization” for those who have the money to invest for retirement – it’s called “buying a house,” “investing in an IRA” or even “buying stocks, bonds and mutual funds.” Given that the Dems tend to give a crap about our society, why would they buy into anything that screws our average citizens?
Agricultural subsidies – I’d like to see an end to these as well. However, neither party is going to do it no matter how much they all say that they “favor” free trade. A few farmers benefit, but all our consumers lose out from agricultural subsidies. It’s also a big source of anti-American sentiment among agrarian nations who know we’re blocking them out of our markets.
Tax – The Dems want tax policies that make sense for Americans, and that means pandering to the 99.9% of Americans who are not billionaires and not pandering to those who wish to create multi-generational inherited empires of the sorts of ne’er-do-wells featured in certain reality shows. Under such circumstances, it’s highly unlikely that the Dems (or I myself) would ever support the notion of a flat tax no matter how wonderful it sounds to be able to fill out a tax form in 5 minutes. (By the way, isn’t filling out tax forms quickly and cheaply precisely why we have access to Mumbai-based accounting firms? The way things are going, I’m going to be spending no time filling out tax forms!) Most of the policies currently center on trying to offer tax relief to what remains of our middle class.
Civil Liberties – Books will be written about what the Bush administration has done to stripmine the landscape of our civil liberties. The Dems absolutely stand against the destruction of American privacy and rights. As Truman and Kennedy realized very well, we would only win the greater war of ideas against communism by fostering a better society at home. Likewise, our best route for beating the terrorists is not to forego all our freedoms but to use it as our strength. Our use of indefinite detentions and torture is a disgrace.
Problem Solving – The Dems listen to experts, seek them out, try to understand complex problems and reach solutions based on nonpartisan and bipartisan data and sources. If Solomon had been a Republican, he’d have actually split the baby in two. Had Abraham been a Republican, he’d have still sacrificed his son just to show he was willing to “stick it through to the end.” At the EPA, the Republicans have made a concerted effort to override any research from scientists because facts, time and again, are inconvenient for the Republicans. Working without facts and without any desire to reach consensus across the aisle, the Republicans keep reaching solutions that ultimately fail.
Nation First – The Dems stand strongly against the Republican policy of putting their party above the national interest. Exposing key weapons-proliferation intelligence officer Valerie Plame as part of a political sucker-punching of Joseph Wilson is beyond the pale. However, it’s routine among the GOP set who feel it’s their entitlement to hand out key Homeland Security posts to Arabian horse pals like FEMA head Brownie. Hekuva job, GOP!
