Too hippy-dippy left for you?

Me:

I am against the death penalty.

I Have no problems with Gay Marriage.

I Realize that bigotry and racism still exists and the war against them needs to be fought to a conclusion.

I'd be happy to see similar gun laws as the UK has here.

I am Pro Choice.

I would punish the cause of illegal immigration only.

I want to see Universal Health Care.

I want a strong and just system of social programs that assure all of education.

I would like a strong watch on our corporate citizens with increased emphasis on monopoly and windfall profits on products deemed necessary for survival in our society.

I feel we need a foreign policy based on attraction over retribution.

I would fight for a foreign policy that would not trade with countries that have serious civil rights issues.


While I'm sure that many of you disagree with many of my feelings, I am sure that I disagree with yours as well. However, there's one party that seems to allow... no encourage debate on these things. It ain't the Republicans.

There are very few questions we face today that are strictly black and white. There are many shades of gray and by my simply saying that all of the above items must be endorsed by any candidate that I will support is nuts. AND, by my simply stating my opinions above and dismissing any arguments that disagree is just as nuts.

We are a "Big Tent" party here with people I would love to pop in the nose and people I would love to hug. I guess the reason for this ramble is that as diverse as this party is, we should never stop embracing it for just that... It's diversity.

Democrats. When you want to be the very best.

:toast: DU, you are a cross section of America that represents its very best.

paper ballots

legalizing hemp products

enforcement of US landuse royalty laws (Exxon, anyone?)

enforcement of the Bill Of Rights (impeachment of Bush/Cheney)

WPA-based system of repairing infrastructure

Star Wars-level investment in alternate energy/conservation

...funding for the latter two through radical reduction of Defense Budget

There's nothing on your list that I wouldn't support.

reminds me of 96, when I voted for Nader

wonder what Gore has in mind this time

will he break free from his corporate masters?

will ANY dem, and still have a chance at the nomination

oh! that reminds me of perhaps the most important fundament, besides honest balloting:

PUBLIC FUNDING of ELECTIONS

also

removal of the electoral college (constitutional amendment, I know, but still....)

And on the influence of the wealthy on our elections.

I'm still out on the removal of the elctorial college though.

Great post.

Let's feel good about ourselves and stay vocal!

I agree with everything you mentioned but would add

A nation where working people and their unions have enough clout to demand a living wage and the pensions we have worked for all of our lives

Yes, the marketplace has changed, but we cannot compete with societies that use government sanctioned sweat shops.

We need to cut those people off at the knees by not buying from them and having trade embargoes.

because I live in the wild west, which is still bear, cougar and rattlesnake country. There is nothing like a handgun for dispatching a rattlesnake on the back patio. Folks out here need those guns. They don't shoot the bears in their garbage cans, but they have to be ready to if the warning shot doesn't work. Bears can do a lot of damage.

However, I think they're inappropriate in the city. I refuse to own one because my eyesight is rotten and I'd be a menace with one. I'm sure most of my neighbors are armed, though, this 'hood has a rotten reputation.

As for the illegal immigration question, there have been truckloads of them busted going across this city, 90 since Friday night. These people are being actively recruited by scumball employers in Mexico and transported here in a very organized fashion. We need to raise the minimum wage and start enforcing the laws against corporate pigs who want something for nothing and workers who will work for less than it takes to feed them. Those are the problem, not the poor folks getting caught in the middle.

Work that PAYS. Universal healthcare. Punitive tariffs for offshoring jobs that should stay in the US (meaning the market is here). STop offshoring the paychecks and importing the bills. Out of Iraq. No laws against what consenting adults do with their own bodies.

Works for me.

And still support the greater good. While I doubt any of us will ever get our perfect candidate, we still seem to be able to put aside these differences for the hope of a better Country for all.

I am against the death penalty
I am against the drug war
I support gay marriage
I Realize that bigotry and racism still exists and the war against them needs to be fought to a conclusion.
I am Pro Choice.
I support open immigration and support reforming immigration law. I oppose hr4437.
I want to see Universal Health Care.
I support free education for all.
I would like a strong watch on our corporate citizens with increased emphasis on monopoly and windfall profits on products deemed necessary for survival in our society.
I feel we need a foreign policy based on collective security
I would fight for a foreign policy that would not trade with countries that have serious civil rights issues.
.

I agree with your points and with the additional points of the other posters above

Makes me think a picture I saw of a protest sign posted here on DU ages ago,,,,

"I'm so liberal, I hate myself" :)

I don't fully agree with you, for instance while I agree that the death penalty is screwed as it's used today there is the rabid dog type that will always be a danger to anyone around them no matter what. We don't take the dog down out of vengeance, we do it because we've got no other option. Used in that sense I've got no problem with it, but as used today I don't much like it.

Little details like that, but mostly I could work with it at least as a basis to start. More in how we'll do the details than in the basic wants of what you posted.

it's called























Prison!

Yeah, I know, it's a hobby of mine to research the industry and other parts of the drug war ;)

If you'd like I could give you some links that include video and audio of what goes on inside, personally I'd rather die than go through what someone does in max security and a lot do commit suicide or lose their minds.

If we can find a humane way to do it, great. We don't have that now though.

It seems to be all about punishment these days, not on stopping problems. People go in for small crimes and end up with no better effect than coming out better trained for bigger ones, and with roadblocks in their way if they try to live straight. We could learn a lot from how other nations are handling things, and go a few steps past that in a few cases. There's good trial programs on a lot of this stuff out there showing promising results.

my sister has worked on death penalty cases.....represented pro bono DP inmate at the Lousiana prison where the Dead Man Walking guy was from.....and I know how bad it is.

no argument from me on the state of (especially corporate...see Wackenhut) prisons, or drug reform

I've seen your posts and I didn't take offense, no worries. I'd kind of expect to have to explain what I said, the opening you offered was more polite than some might have been. Thanks ;)

things have a tendency to accelerate fast around here, and I'm glad you didn't take instant offense, as many here often do

Death penalty.

my .02

O/P -Not too hippy dippy. Turns out the hippies were right all along.
Gee, I wonder how liberals and hippies got such a bad name?

I'm not talking about the type of cases we see executed most of the time under our current system. Most of those we could handle different, no doubt. There is a type though that insists on being as dangerous as possible. If they can be handled in another way such as with psychiatric care or with humane imprisonment then I've got no problem with that. If it just results in more deaths and injuries of guards and inmates though, then we've got to deal with some choices.

I'm not talking about where there are choices or doubts, just about the very rare case where they really are that dangerous and the type of confinement you'd need would amount to cruel and unusual punishment in itself. If you've got an option for that type that doesn't kill others or just condemn them to slow insanity I'm all ears, I'm not in a rush to kill anyone.

plenty humane and not playing god.
if further evidence develops or ceases to be repressed, then we are able to set him/her free.
once dead, we ARE murderers, not him -if found innocent. Then we would need the death penalty, by logical extension of warranted punishment.

I'm not sure I wouldn't rather be dead. The system is pretty rough at times.

But, I'll grant that the system as it stands is screwed and maybe in a better one it's not needed. Wouldn't hurt to try, and stopping what we're doing now is needed in any case because it's got out of control.

If we end up with some who we can't control though and keep taking damage, I wouldn't keep it off the table just on principle. Go with results and see what happens. Fair enough? I figure it's not needed at least 99% of the time, but I'm not so sure about at least part of that last percent.

Please?

Damn, it's be a 24-7 fuckfest with Fox if I ever ran!

I would also say that I look at the solution to the health care problem being not in "cut and drugs" of traditional medicine but in a holistic approach which stresses wellness and having doctors prescribe a wellness program for each individual based upon blood work and health history.

in your post I disagree with.

T-Grannie

Even tho' I'm to the left of you.

The leadership is. The leadership may agree with you but they don't seem to do anything about it. The Democratic leadership is very disappointing. I am waiting for someone with your leanings, which are mine, to come out say so.

figuring out that the proletariat is as viable as the corporatocracy.

I agree with all of your items and I don't consider myself hippy or dippy. Good list.

my wife and I are both gun owners, and like 80% of gunnies, we don't hunt, so we don't really care if we're "allowed" to own hunting rifles or skeet guns...

I agree with every other thing on that list but please leave the guns alone. There's a couple of things the absolutist hippy dippys need to give up if we're going to have a chance here. Flame away.

Won't someone think of the killer bees!? :rant: :hurts: