I saw a Kucinich bumper sticker just now -- you know, "Strength through Peace." And I thought, "Yeah!" Isn't peace just an unarguably good thing? Why aren't any other presidential candidates talking about it? Because it doesn't sound "tough", that's why. Candidates, if they're "serious", have to be tough on this, tough on that. The amazing thing is that this essential quality of toughness is really a hanger-on from the 1950's when the crucial thing was to determine who would be toughest on communism. We still have this image of our President being in some sort of negotiation with the president of another country, and the tenor of his (translated) words, the look on his face, will make all the difference. He must never back down.
Of course, no one can picture Dennis Kucinich making Nikita Khrushchev crap his pants. And so we don't vote for him.
Nevertheless, Kucinich represents the values want in a President, far better than my stated choice, Obama, does (at least publicly). So as an exercise in honesty, I will hereby declare what I support, even though I'm not always going to vote for it:
- abortion on demand
- unlimited legal immigration
- peace over war, almost always
- marriage for anyone who wants it, including polygamy (uncoerced, not like FLDS does)
- power to the states to control guns
- internationalism (a renewed commitment to international institutions and treaties)
- freedom of drug use
- free trade (getting rid of export subsidies, tariffs, etc.)
- fair trade (build workers' rights, the environment, etc. into every free trade agreement)
- a tight cap-and-trade system for GHG's
- higher and higher gasoline and diesel taxes, giving alternatives a chance to break in
- putting Yucca Mountain to use, but disallowing any more nuclear power plants until the waste issue is solved
- freedom of suicide for the terminally ill
- affordable health care, but with fewer resources going toward end-of-life care
- assumption of consent for organ donation
- real commitment to the long-term health of Social Security, Medicare, and other "entitlement" programs
- unilateral nuclear disarmament
- making executions humane, if not abolishing them
- wide-reaching laws for government transparency
- full protection from search and seizure without probable cause or a court-issued warrant
- an end to CAFO's
- aggressive protection of public lands, air, water, and endangered species
- true aid to developing nations, to make them less, not more, reliant on us
- high taxes on wealth, low taxes on corporations and small businesses
- stringent separation of church and state -- especially in matters of science and education
Maybe I can use this list as a blueprint for further posts...
1 comment:
wow, that's quite a list. i'm curious about some of your positions there. maybe you can use it as inspiration for future in-depth conversations with your girlfriend, too. :)
-r
Post a Comment