If you were running for President, what would be on your platform?

[mvd]

I would address many issues. These are fairly short descriptions - I would go in detail in my policy papers:

War in Iraq - I would start bringing the armed forces in Iraq home this month, with everyone home by the end of the year. I would devote money to reconstruction and security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Taxes/spending - repeal the tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans, and make the top rate 50%. The top rate would be for multi-millionaires, and everyone else would be lower than the 50%. But high enough to enact single player health care and aid government social safety net programs. Increase money spent on education, science, and transportation.

Health care - single payer is what I am for. Health care should be a right in my opinion.

Guns - I'm for gun control, but not an outright ban. The problem with conservatives is that they are against gun control AND a strong social safety net.

Social security - no private accounts whatsoever.

Minimum wage - should be $10 an hour at least.

Affirmative action - keep the options for filing lawsuits alive, because while there's been progress, employers are not all perfect.

Abortion - keep it safe and legal, even in late term when the mother's health or the baby's health is in danger. Not much worry here, because late term abortions are almost always to protect the mother.

Gay marriage - everyone should be treated equally under the law, whether it be no federal recognition of marriage or recognition of both straight and gay marriages.

Death Penalty - I'm against the death penalty in the U.S. Our system of life in prison is acceptable: any small chance of a murderer escaping is offset by the chance of someone being innocent. I just read Grisham's The Innocent Man; great read.

Drugs - legalize Marijuana, but not many of the harder drugs. Keep jail terms for average users to a minimum.

Immigration - allow a path to citizenship for those working in this country. A citizenship test should be required. Watch our borders, but without excesses like fences.

Civil Liberties - I am a spiritual person, but keep the boundary between church and state strong. Repeal the Patriot Act, as it only was based on a fear campaign anyway and is ripe for abuse.

Global warming/environment - we need stronger mine safety, a return to better pollution controls, and action to get us away from fossil fuels. Make businesses pay for cleanup when possible, and give incentives for bringing the plants up to standards.

[BOSSHOG]

1. Nice list, I would add

Return of the Fairness Doctrine and start a national debate on hate crimes legislation. Conservatives are deathly afraid of both so obviously they would have merit in a liberals platform.

Why do they fear FAIRNESS?
Why do they want HATE?

Gosh!

[mvd]

2. Good additions!

:thumbsup:

[Texas Prison Boss]

7. Why do you assume....

...that everyone who is opposed to "hate crime" laws is by default in favor of hate? You are stereotyping and jumping to false conclusions.

[BOSSHOG]

28. Christians hate homosexuals

ergo christians fear hate crime legislation. Jumping to conclusions? If you don't hate and you are opposed to hate crime legislation good on ya. "Christians" also hate the constitution, the document that gives you the right to post here or elsewhere. That freedom just pisses them off. They want you to have to worship like them, believe like them, hate like them and fuck like them. Their Utopia is something far worse then any texas prison boss could provide.

[MethuenProgressive]

3. Tax the rich, feed the poor 'til there are no rich no more.

Ten Years After will be my Cabinet.

[bahrbearian]

4. Why should I run , when I have Dennis Kucinich running for me.

He has a better chance then I do too.

[mvd]

I see what you mean, but I'm interested in what DUers..

think would be good things on any platform.

[MethuenProgressive]

6. "He has a better chance then I do too." Really?

I'd say you both have the same chance - unless you're Canadian?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

5. Not Bad. I'd Vote For Ya.

[Ignacio Upton]

8. Let's see...

Iraq - Start withdrawal within next six months, and have our troops completely out by mid 2009.

Healthcare - Single payer. 'Nuff said.

Taxes - Repeal Bush tax cuts and provide relief to middle class households who will be hurt by the AMT.

Minimum wage - $8.50 and then pegged to inflation.

Drugs/Alcohol - Legalize Marijuana, lower drinking age to 18, and pour the enforcement money from those two substances into the real dangers such as meth and heroin.

Gay marriage - Support for it, but leave it up to the states.

Death penalty - Only keep it in cases of terrorism and other mass killings.

Civil Liberties - Repeal all but the necessary provisions of the Patriot Act.

Intellectual Property - Repeal the DMCA, shorten length of copyright from 97+ years to 40-50 years without renewal option. Support a constitutional amendment enshrining Fair Use and prohibitng patenting of life and math.

Other amendments for Constitution - A "right to vote" amendment that abolishes the Electoral College and gives citizens the direct right to vote for President. Also, a "right to privacy" amendment that preserves choice and prevents the SCOTUS from enacting an anti-choice agenda. Also prevents government from intervening in situations similar to Terri Schiavo's.

[mvd]

9. I realize that not all my positions would be popular right away..

but I would keep my getting rid of the death penalty to be consistent, and would say that those opposed to gay marriage are all discriminating. But I would make Iraq, economic fairness, and better health care my major issues.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

18. The Schiavo bill was completely unconstitutional.

Any law passed to benefit a particular person or persons, or that has the names of particular persons on it in order to punish someone without the benefit of due process, is called a bill of attainder and is completely prohibited by the Constitution.

[Ignacio Upton]

24. Thanks for the info

n/t.

[porphyrian]

10. Liberty and Justice For All.

I want both, for everyone.

[mvd]

11. That's a short and sweet answer - good one

:hi:

[porphyrian]

12. I think it would really work.

Who doesn't want liberty and justice? And, I believe that if we made the two our priorities, we could come up with the solutions to all of our problems together.

[mvd]

14. I'll like to suggest that to our nominee

It sums up the Democratic philosophy perfectly, both socially and fiscally.

[mvd]

13. Based on my positions, where would you put me on the political spectrum?

Just curious.

[Ignacio Upton]

15. Liberal-left

n/t.

[Left Hook]

16. Heres what I do

1. Order a new Constitutional Convention. Many ammendments are outdated, or need more better explanation. That could solve a lot of problems over what were the founders thinking 250 years ago.

2. Sign the Kyoto Treaty. The most definitive of enviormental laws.

3. Lift the Cuban Embargo

4. Repeal Patriot Act and Dissolve Homeland Security, thats a waste of tax money.

5. Keep abortion legal and make it part of the health insurance benefits.

6. Reinact the Fairness Doctorine

7. Legalize all drugs and prostitution, and keep them HIGLY TAXED

8. raise taxes on the wealthiest americans, and make early retirees (under 45 years of age) pay as well.

9. Minimum wage must be up to $15 hr. and inact a maximum wage

10. Outlaw all guns (including police) except for military.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Replacing the presidency with a Prime Minister subject to votes of confidence.

[mvd]

21. Oooh.. I like that votes of confidence idea

Bush's job would be in a lot more danger.

[Ignacio Upton]

25. Technically we would have Steny Hoyer as PM

Since the Speaker under the Westminister system is a figurehead, and assuming that such a system would rnder our Senate about as useful as the House of Lords.

[Swamp Rat]

19. Global Economic Justice

Forget "Minimum Wages," etc.

We need a more equitable, enlightened paradigm.

[Demeter]

20. Platform 9 3/4

and Severus Snape would be my Dick Cheney!

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

22. Here is mine,

War in Iraq - Re-Introduce the Draft with proportional representation by race, so 74.7% of those drafted would be white, 12.1% black and so on. From there I would take my cues from public opinion.

Taxes/spending - balanced budgets and debt reduction no matter what the cost.

Health care - Regulate HMO's to death, public malpractice insurance for independent doctors, medicare will pay the average price for drugs as calculated against the G7. Universal basic and catastropic medical coverage. Special chapter of bankruptcy code for medical bankruptcies exempt from the means test.

Guns - Assult weapons and low-grade weapons banned, those who provide weapons to a criminal will be charged as an acomplice.

Social security - I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole.

Minimum wage - adjusted to the rate of inflation each year with different rates for regions with high costs of living

Affirmative action - My administration will not support affirmative action on any grounds as it encourages prejudice against minority professionals.

Abortion - Constitutional ammendment protecting abortion and the confidentiality of abortion.

Gay marriage - I'm not touching that with a twenty foot pole.

Death Penalty - Abolition of the federal and military death penalty, full supreme court hearings required for all capital appeals.

Drugs - The war on drugs is already lost, if people want to fuck themselves up on crack or meth nothing I can do will stop them.

Immigration - Expand the NAFTA agreement to include labor, allowing Mexicans and Canadians to legally work in the United States with ease and vice-versa. Encourage assimilation, english and secularization.

Civil Liberties - Repeal the Patriot Act, except for the monitoring of religious organization.

Global warming/environment - I call for a common sense approach to the environment with measures such as replacing antiquated power-generation facilities and improved fuel efficiency. Not radical or reactionary environmental policies.

Transportation - Military airfields can not be re-developed into anything other than commercial airports. Amtrak is to be privatized or abolished. The US will open the transportation industry to foreign investment and unilaterally end ancient transportation agreements that place limits on access to US ports. Cabotage will be allowed by sea and air.

Education - States that do not conform to minimum standards of ciriculum will be subject to the federalization of their school system. Academic credentials from private schools that do not conform to minimum standards will not be recognized.

[Cameron27]

23. Good list,

I'll just add -- Put a cap on the use of carbon offsets, I think they will end up driving a wedge between corporations and the wealthy who can afford them, and the poor who cannot.

[slackmaster]

26. Your gun control platform is so vague you'll be accused of being a gun-grabber

I suggest a plank that says you support the right to keep and bear arms, and to ensure its survival we need to do a better job of keeping guns away from the people who we already know can't be trusted with them (i.e. fix the real holes in the existing system of background checks).

[mvd]

27. That might be a good way of putting it

I support more than background checks and closing loopholes (like purchase limts per month, ban on certain kinds of assault weapons, tracking of guns used in crimes, crackdown the black market) and licensing. But where I'm on your side is that we shouldn't emphasize gun control very much in certain states. Just enough for them to see where I'd be coming from.

[blm]

Good - and please add Will OPEN THE BOOKS on BushInc - ALL of it.

We cannot afford any more coverups for the Bushes, their secrecy and privilege.


http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

Democrats, the Truth Still Matters!
By Robert Parry
(First Posted May 11, 2006)

Editor's Note: With the Democratic victories in the House and Senate, there is finally the opportunity to demand answers from the Bush administration about important questions, ranging from Dick Cheney's secret energy policies to George W. Bush's Iraq War deceptions. But the Democrats are sure to be tempted to put the goal of "bipartisanship" ahead of the imperative for truth.

Democrats, being Democrats, always want to put governance, such as enacting legislation and building coalitions, ahead of oversight, which often involves confrontation and hard feelings. Democrats have a difficult time understanding why facts about past events matter when there are problems in the present and challenges in the future.

Given that proclivity, we are re-posting a story from last May that examined why President Bill Clinton and the last Democratic congressional majority (in 1993-94) shied away from a fight over key historical scandals from the Reagan-Bush-I years -- and the high price the Democrats paid for that decision:

My book, Secrecy & Privilege, opens with a scene in spring 1994 when a guest at a White House social event asks Bill Clinton why his administration didn’t pursue unresolved scandals from the Reagan-Bush era, such as the Iraqgate secret support for Saddam Hussein’s government and clandestine arms shipments to Iran.

Clinton responds to the questions from the guest, documentary filmmaker Stuart Sender, by saying, in effect, that those historical questions had to take a back seat to Clinton’s domestic agenda and his desire for greater bipartisanship with the Republicans.

Clinton “didn’t feel that it was a good idea to pursue these investigations because he was going to have to work with these people,” Sender told me in an interview. “He was going to try to work with these guys, compromise, build working relationships.”

Clinton’s relatively low regard for the value of truth and accountability is relevant again today because other centrist Democrats are urging their party to give George W. Bush’s administration a similar pass if the Democrats win one or both houses of Congress.

Reporting about a booklet issued by the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank of the Democratic Leadership Council, the Washington Post wrote, “these centrist Democrats … warned against calls to launch investigations into past administration decisions if Democrats gain control of the House or Senate in the November elections.”

These Democrats also called on the party to reject its “non-interventionist left” wing, which opposed the Iraq War and which wants Bush held accountable for the deceptions that surrounded it.

“Many of us are disturbed by the calls for investigations or even impeachment as the defining vision for our party for what we would do if we get back into office,” said pollster Jeremy Rosner, calling such an approach backward-looking.

Yet, before Democrats endorse the DLC’s don’t-look-back advice, they might want to examine the consequences of Clinton’s decision in 1993-94 to help the Republicans sweep the Reagan-Bush scandals under the rug. Most of what Clinton hoped for – bipartisanship and support for his domestic policies – never materialized.

‘Politicized’ CIA

After winning Election 1992, Clinton also rebuffed appeals from members of the U.S. intelligence community to reverse the Reagan-Bush “politicization” of the CIA’s analytical division by rebuilding the ethos of objective analysis even when it goes against a President’s desires.

Instead, in another accommodating gesture, Clinton gave the CIA director’s job to right-wing Democrat, James Woolsey, who had close ties to the Reagan-Bush administration and especially to its neoconservatives.
>>>>>

Parry allows DU to repost the article in its entirety, but, I'll be mindful of bandwidth. The entire article is a must read to understand the importance of accountability and prosecuting crimes of office. Democracy demands it and needs it to continue in any healthy form.

[blm]

29. Good - and please add Will OPEN THE BOOKS on BushInc - ALL of it.

We cannot afford any more coverups for the Bushes, their secrecy and privilege.


http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

Democrats, the Truth Still Matters!
By Robert Parry
(First Posted May 11, 2006)

Editor's Note: With the Democratic victories in the House and Senate, there is finally the opportunity to demand answers from the Bush administration about important questions, ranging from Dick Cheney's secret energy policies to George W. Bush's Iraq War deceptions. But the Democrats are sure to be tempted to put the goal of "bipartisanship" ahead of the imperative for truth.

Democrats, being Democrats, always want to put governance, such as enacting legislation and building coalitions, ahead of oversight, which often involves confrontation and hard feelings. Democrats have a difficult time understanding why facts about past events matter when there are problems in the present and challenges in the future.

Given that proclivity, we are re-posting a story from last May that examined why President Bill Clinton and the last Democratic congressional majority (in 1993-94) shied away from a fight over key historical scandals from the Reagan-Bush-I years -- and the high price the Democrats paid for that decision:

My book, Secrecy & Privilege, opens with a scene in spring 1994 when a guest at a White House social event asks Bill Clinton why his administration didn’t pursue unresolved scandals from the Reagan-Bush era, such as the Iraqgate secret support for Saddam Hussein’s government and clandestine arms shipments to Iran.

Clinton responds to the questions from the guest, documentary filmmaker Stuart Sender, by saying, in effect, that those historical questions had to take a back seat to Clinton’s domestic agenda and his desire for greater bipartisanship with the Republicans.

Clinton “didn’t feel that it was a good idea to pursue these investigations because he was going to have to work with these people,” Sender told me in an interview. “He was going to try to work with these guys, compromise, build working relationships.”

Clinton’s relatively low regard for the value of truth and accountability is relevant again today because other centrist Democrats are urging their party to give George W. Bush’s administration a similar pass if the Democrats win one or both houses of Congress.

Reporting about a booklet issued by the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank of the Democratic Leadership Council, the Washington Post wrote, “these centrist Democrats … warned against calls to launch investigations into past administration decisions if Democrats gain control of the House or Senate in the November elections.”

These Democrats also called on the party to reject its “non-interventionist left” wing, which opposed the Iraq War and which wants Bush held accountable for the deceptions that surrounded it.

“Many of us are disturbed by the calls for investigations or even impeachment as the defining vision for our party for what we would do if we get back into office,” said pollster Jeremy Rosner, calling such an approach backward-looking.

Yet, before Democrats endorse the DLC’s don’t-look-back advice, they might want to examine the consequences of Clinton’s decision in 1993-94 to help the Republicans sweep the Reagan-Bush scandals under the rug. Most of what Clinton hoped for – bipartisanship and support for his domestic policies – never materialized.

‘Politicized’ CIA

After winning Election 1992, Clinton also rebuffed appeals from members of the U.S. intelligence community to reverse the Reagan-Bush “politicization” of the CIA’s analytical division by rebuilding the ethos of objective analysis even when it goes against a President’s desires.

Instead, in another accommodating gesture, Clinton gave the CIA director’s job to right-wing Democrat, James Woolsey, who had close ties to the Reagan-Bush administration and especially to its neoconservatives.
>>>>>

Parry allows DU to repost the article in its entirety, but, I'll be mindful of bandwidth. The entire article is a must read to understand the importance of accountability and prosecuting crimes of office. Democracy demands it and needs it to continue in any healthy form.

[Hippo_Tron]

30. Here's mine

Iraq War - Home as soon as we can get our troops and equipment out. The US Military is just a target at this point.

Taxes/Spending - I'd have the top rate between 40-50% but we need to make sure that the rich don't get out of paying that rate by making their money in things like capital gains instead of income. I think making the rich actually pay a rate above 40% instead of the ridiculously low capital gains rate is a good start.

Health Care - I'd do what I can to make health care accessible to low income people as soon as possible. But I would also recognize that no real reform will happen as long as the special interests can buy our congressmen. Thus, the first domestic measure I'd introduce is to ban PAC contributions and fix the public financing system. After the special interests are gone, then we can talk about health care reform.

Guns - I wouldn't enact any new measures at this point but I would certainly take on the NRA for being an arm of the GOP.

Death Penalty - Federal executions are rare and so while I'm very anti death penalty, I wouldn't try to change the law on the federal level. I'd investigate state level practices to stop wrongful executions.

Drugs - Legalize marijuana and reduce small possession of other drugs to a fine. Divert our efforts to combating the supply of real drugs and not marijuana. After a few years of this I would re-evaluate the policy to see if it is working or not. If not, I would consider all-out legalization. But currently I think that we haven't given effective drug policy a chance in this country.