Posted on 08/17/2003 7:59:54 PM PDT by Utah Girl
Not the least of the Democratic Party's problems in the presidential election ahead is the electorate's confusion as to just what the party stands for.
In the last presidential and congressional elections, many voters and perhaps even more nonvoters complained that they found no political philosophy, no idealistic glue that held the Democratic Party together.
If the Democratic Party is to have hope of recapturing the White House, it will be helpful if its candidates for the presidential nomination agree on some basic objectives that will clearly define the principal policies and goals of their party.
Those basic goals still would leave plenty of room for the candidates to debate how best to achieve them and to display what they have in charisma and leadership.
Establishing the party's general principles on which the election campaign presumably will be waged essentially is the job of the convention's platform committee. But the committee's meeting sometime next year will come far too late if, in their primary campaigns, the nine candidates have so muddled the issues that there is no cohesion of party objectives left.
Let me dare suggest 10 propositions to be put before the candidates. The proportion by which they accept, reject or modify these basic programs would help define the party and presumably, therefore, a Democratic administration.
1. That the purpose of a powerful military and a huge defense budget is not to wage war but to preserve the peace -- on our own shores and abroad.
However, our foreign policy and our military strength shall leave no doubt that we will answer promptly and decisively those who would challenge our democratic freedoms.
2. That we would match defense dollars with peace dollars to promote democracy abroad, and that we would conduct our foreign affairs in such a manner that other nations would wish to emulate our example and need not be bludgeoned into accepting our leadership.
3. That deficit financing is bad business, and that taxes must be fairly imposed, with the heavier burden placed on those most able to contribute.
4. That our Social Security and health services would be reformed so that no American need fear that mismanagement in Washington will bankrupt his or her pension funds, and equally that every American is guaranteed not just adequate health care but care worthy of this nation's medical profession.
5. That in all federal programs no excuses will be tolerated and all citizens will be treated equally as we know they were created.
6. That we realize that the success, indeed the preservation, of a democracy depends on an educated citizenry, and that teachers, on education's front lines, must be paid commensurate with their responsibilities.
7. That "no child must be left behind" is a commitment, not a campaign slogan.
8. That our environment shall be fully protected, and that the fortunes of no industry or special interest shall interfere with that mission.
9. That in the pursuit of a cleaner environment and a more rational economy, the government will undertake the massive program required to develop substitute fuels that will relieve our dependence on foreign oil and diminish the environmental danger from the byproducts of fossil fuels.
10. That Democrats will lock the door against the naysayers, pessimists and political cowards who will maintain that these Democratic goals are only the dreams of idealists.
There is nothing impractical about seeking the best for this nation's people, and the restoration of America as a beacon of freedom for the world.
” 9. That in the pursuit of a cleaner environment and a more rational economy, the government will undertake the massive program required to develop substitute fuels that will relieve our dependence on foreign oil and diminish the environmental danger from the byproducts of fossil fuels. “
Do you mean like those windmills off the cost of Martha’s Vineyard that YOU have opposed????
The DEMONCRATIC party has a political philosophy.
It can be found by reading the Communist Manifesto.
Actually the idealistic glue that holds the Democratic Party together is crystal clear to any student of political history or philosophy. The problem is, it simply doesn't sell in post-Cold War America.
1. The military should only be used as the UN dictates.
2. We must give money to dictators that oppress their people and want to destroy the US in an attempt to buy peace.
3. Raise taxes on the rich. (Aren't all of the 9 dwarfs already saying this?)
4. Resurrect Hillary's failed health care plan and Al Gore's lockbox.
5. All citizens will be treated equally except in the case of Affirmative Action and hate crimes and elected officials where some are more equal than others.
6. Pay the teachers more so that the union can give the Democrats more. Who cares if they can't pass the same tests the children are failing.
7. It's for the children (even though the Clinton years left plenty of children behind).
8. When it comes to the environment, the only special interest we care about is the enviro-nazis.
9. Kyoto is only the beginning of the damage we will do to the economy.
10. We're stupid if we think we can win on this platform but we think the voters are even more stupid.
This must be Uncle Walter's second weekly column. Last week, he wrote a simpering piece thanking the Philadelphia Inquirer for giving him "a forum".
Evidently, the Tribune has signed on for this weekly mess of pottage -- from the newscaster in his dotage.
The clintons have turned this into an art form.
It's called Malignant Narcissism
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