Jesus of Nazareth: Quit his carpentry job at 30 to run around preaching his "Gospel." Food stamp application: DENIED.

Socrates: Refused to work his entire life. His mooching was ended with his execution. Survivor benefits application: DENIED.

Buddha: Abandoned his rich, "successful" upbringing to become a penniless monk. SSI application: APPROVED (for "mental illness").

Gandhi: Quit practicing law to become a political activist. Supported by devoted followers. Housing application: DENIED.

I could go on and on, but why? Clearly all of these work-refusing bums felt they were just too good to go down and get a job at McDonald's. It's people like these who need to be left on the streets to starve or freeze. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

An Economic Bill of Rights

* Universal Social Security: Taxable Basic Income Grants for all, structured into the progressive income tax, that guarantee an adequate income sufficient to maintain a modest standard of living. Start at $500/week ($26,000/year) for a family of four, with $62.50/week ($3,250/year) adjustments for more or fewer household members in 2000 and index to the cost of living.

* Jobs for All: A guaranteed right to job. Full employment through community-based public works and community service jobs programs, federally financed and community controlled.

* Living Wages: A family-supporting minimum wage. Start at $12.50 per hour in 2000 and index to the cost of living.

* 30-Hour Work Week: A 6-hour day with no cut in pay for the bottom 80% of the pay scale.

* Social Dividends: A "second paycheck" for workers enabling them to receive 40 hours pay for 30 hours work. Paid by the government out of progressive taxes so that social productivity gains are shared equitably.

* Universal Health Care: A single-payer National Health Program to provide free medical and dental care for all, with freedom of choice for consumers among both conventional and alternative health care providers, federally financed and controlled by democratically elected local boards.

* Free Child Care: Available voluntarily and free for all who need it, modeled after Head Start, federally financed, and community controlled.

* Lifelong Public Education: Free, quality public education from pre-school through graduate school at public institutions.

* Affordable Housing: Expand rental and home ownership assistance, fair housing enforcement, public housing, and capital grants to non-profit developers of affordable housing until all people can obtain decent housing at no more than 25% of their income. Democratic community control of publicly funded housing programs.

Grassroots Democracy

* Community Assemblies: Ground political representation in a foundation of participatory, direct democracy: a Community Assembly in every neighborhood, open to all of its residents, acting as a grassroots legislative body, with its own budget for local administration, and the power (in concert with other Citizens Assemblies who share a representative) to monitor, instruct, and recall representatives elected to municipal, state, and federal office.

* A Proportional, Single-Chamber US Congress: Abolish the disproportional, aristocratic US Senate. Create a single-chamber US Congress, elected by a system of mixed-member proportional representation that combines district representatives elected by preference voting and party representatives seated in proportion to each party's vote.

* Environmental Home Rule: Establish the right of every state, county, and municipality to restrict or prohibit the production, sale, distribution, storage, or transportation of any substance it designates as dangerous or toxic.

* Average Workers' Pay for Elected Officials: Pay elected officials average workers' salaries so that they understand the needs of average people and stop being an elite of professional politicians with separate class interests.

* DC Statehood: Full self-government and congressional representation for the people of Washington DC.

Fair Elections

* Proportional Representation: Elect legislative bodies by proportional representation where each party has representation in proportion to its total vote.

* Preference Voting: Elect single offices by majority preference voting where voters rank candidates in order of preference and votes are distributed according to preferences in instant runoffs until a winner receives a majority of votes.

* Public Campaign and Party Financing:Equal public campaign financing and free broadcast media time for all candidates who agree not to use private money. Equal free broadcast media time for party broadcasts. Public financing of parties through matching funds for party dues and small donations up to $300 a year.

* Fair Ballot Access: Federal legislation to require each state to enable a new party or any independent candidate to qualify for the ballot through a petition of no greater than 1/10th of 1% of the total vote cast in the district in the last gubernatorial election, with a 10,000 signature maximum.

* Eliminate Mandatory Primaries: Allow parties the right to nominate by membership convention instead of state-run primaries.

Ecological Conversion

* Ecological Production: Set goals and timetables to phase out and ban the production and release of synthetic chemicals and to convert all production to materials that are bio-degradable, bio-inert, or confined to closed-loop industrial cycles. Use federal investments, purchasing, mandates, and incentives to:

o Phase out most chlorinated and other synthetic petrochemicals and phase in natural, biodegradable substitutes.

o Phase out synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and phase in organic agriculture.

o Shut down waste incinerators, phase out landfills, and phase in full recycling.

o Require manufacturers to be responsible for the whole life cycle of their products by taking back used packaging and products for re-manufacturing, reuse, or recycling.

o Legalize industrial hemp as an ecological source for wood pulp, paper, cloth, lubricants, fibers, and many other products.

* Renewable Energy: Invest non-renewable energy sources in the creation of self-reproducing, renewable energy systems. Use federal investments, purchasing, mandates, and incentives to:

o Shut down nuclear power plants.

o Phase out fossil fuels and phase in clean renewable energy sources.

o Reduce auto-based transportation and expand pedestrian, bicycle, and rail transportation.

* Biotechnology-No Patents on Life; No Transgenic Organisms:

o Ban patents on life forms in order to preserve genetic diversity and common access to our common inheritance of nature, including farmers' access to seeds and breeds.

o Ban the release into the environment and the use in food production of genetically modified organisms that result from splicing the genes of one species into another.

* Environmental Defense and Restoration:

o Full funding for anti-pollution enforcement and toxic sites clean-up

o Preserve ecosystems and biodiversity by strengthening the Endangered Species Act and expanding areas designated as wildlife refuges and wilderness areas.

o Ban old-growth logging, clear cutting, and strip mining.

o End all commercial exploitation of public lands by private timber, mining, and cattle grazing interests.

o Ban off-road vehicles on federal lands. Decommission National Forest logging roads.

o Restoration of public lands degraded by commercial interests.

o Manage federal lands primarily for ecosystem protection and restoration.

o Support large-scale ecological restoration based on conservation biology.

* Environmental Justice: Strengthen and enforce laws that prevent toxic industries, toxic dumps and air pollution from targeting ethnic minority communities.

* A Just Transition: A Superfund for Workers to guarantee full income and benefits for all workers displaced by ecological conversion until they find new jobs with comparable income and benefits.

Sustainable Agriculture

* Fair Farm Price Supports: Reform farm price supports to cover the costs of production plus a living income for family farmers and farmworker cooperatives.

* Subsidize Transition to Organic Agriculture: Subsidize farmers' transition to organic agriculture while natural systems of soil fertility and pest control are being restored.

* Support Small Farmers: Create family farms and farm worker cooperatives through a homesteading program and land reform based on acreage limitations and residency requirements.

* Break Up Corporate Agribusiness: Create family farms and farmworker cooperatives through a homesteading program and land reform based on acreage limitations and residency requirements.

Economic Democracy

* Eliminate Corporate Personhood: Legislation or constitutional amendment to end the legal fiction of corporate personhood.

* End Corporate Limited Liability: Make corporate shareholders bear the same liabilities as other property owners.

* Federal Chartering of Interstate Corporations

* Periodic Review of Corporate Charters: A public corporate charter review process for each corporation above $20 million in assets every 20 years to see if it is serving the public interest according to social and ecological as well as financial criteria.

* Strengthen Anti-Trust Enforcement: Require breakup of any firm with more than 10% market share unless it makes a compelling case every five years in a public regulatory proceeding that it serves the public interest to keep the firm intact.

* Democratic Production: Establish the right of citizens to vote on the expansion or phasing out of products and industries, especially in areas of dangerous or toxic production.

* Workplace Democracy: Establish the right of workers at every enterprise over 10 employees to elect supervisors and managers and to determine how to organize work.

* Worker Control of Worker Assets-Pension Funds and ESOP Shares: Pension funds representing over $5 trillion in deferred wages account for nearly one-third of financial assets in the US. 11 million workers participate in employee stock-option plans (ESOPs). Reform ERISA, labor laws, and ESOP tax provisions to enable workers to democratically control their assets.

* Democratic Conversion of Big Business: Mandatory break-up and conversion to democratic worker, consumer, and/or public ownership on a human scale of the largest 500 US industrial and commercial corporations that account for about 10% of employees, 50% of profits, 70% of sales, and 90% of manufacturing assets.

* Democratic Conversion of Small and Medium Business: Financial and technical incentives and assistance for voluntary conversion of the 22.5 million small and medium non-farm businesses in the US to worker or consumer cooperatives or democratic public enterprises. Mandate that workers and the community have the first option to buy on preferential terms in cases of plant closures, the sale or merger of significant assets, or the revocation of corporate charters.

* Democratic Banking: Mandatory conversion of the 200 largest banks with 80% of all bank assets into democratic publicly-owned community banks. Financial and technical incentives and assistance for voluntary conversion of other privately-owned banks into publicly-owned community banks or consumer-owned credit unions.

* Democratize Monetary Policy and the Federal Reserve System: Place a 100% reserve requirement on demand deposits in order to return control of monetary policy from private bankers to elected government. Selection of Federal Reserve officers by our elected representatives, not private bankers. Strengthen the regional development mission of the regional Federal Reserve Banks by directing them to target investments to promote key policy objectives, such as high-wage employment, worker and community ownership, ecological production, and inner city reconstruction.

Progressive and Ecological Taxes

* Ecological Taxes: Tax pollution, resource extraction, harmful products, and the use of our common wealth of natural capital (land sites according to land value, timber and grazing lands, ocean and freshwater resources, oil and minerals, electromagnetic spectrum, satellite orbital zones).

* Simple, Progressive Income Taxes: Enact a no-loopholes, graduated personal income tax with equal taxation of all income, regardless of source. Provide an income tax credit for each dependent to replace and fully compensate for the current exemptions and deductions that benefit to the average taxpayer, such as the home mortgage deduction and medical deductions.

* Eliminate Regressive Payroll Taxes: Fund Social Security, Health Care, Unemployment Insurance, and Workers Compensation out of progressive income and wealth taxes.

* Guaranteed Adequate Income: Build taxable Basic Income Grants into the progressive income tax structure to create a Universal Social Security system that ensures everyone has income for at least a modest standard of living above the poverty line.

* Maximum Income: Build into the progressive income tax a 100% tax on all income over ten times the minimum wage.

* End Corporate Welfare: Target subsidies for worker- and community-owned enterprises, not absentee-owned corporations. Put subsidies in the public budgets where they can be scrutinized, not hidden as tax breaks in complicated tax codes. Progressively Graduated Corporate Revenue and Asset Taxes

* Wealth Tax: Enact a steeply progressive tax on net wealth over $2.5 million (the top 5% of households).

* Inheritance Tax: Replace the loophole-ridden estate tax with a no-loopholes, progressive inheritance tax on inheritances over $1 million.

* Stock and Bond Transfer Tax: Encourage a shift from speculative to productive investments through a federal stock and bond transfer tax on all securities transactions.

* Currency Speculation Tax: An internationally uniform tax on currency conversion to discourage speculation. Revenues from the currency speculation tax should be channeled through international agencies into ecologically sustainable, democratically controlled development in poor countries.

* Advertising Tax: A tax on advertising to fund a decentralized, pluralistic media system of real public broadcasting, public service broadcasting on commercial media, and independent nonprofit, noncommercial media.

* Federal Revenue Sharing: Reduce state and local government dependence on regressive sales and property taxes through federal revenue sharing that combines centralized collection of progressive and ecological taxes with decentralized decisions on spending.

* Ecological and Feminist Economic Accounting: Expand the Bureau of Labor Statistics into a Bureau of Household, Labor, and Environmental Statistics with revised national economic accounts, statistics, and indicators that include stocks and flows of natural wealth, household production, and labor time values. Existing national income accounts and indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP) ignore the ecological foundations of the economy and the value of household production. Ecological accounting will identify the true costs of resource depletion and pollution and hence appropriate eco-taxes to internalize full costs. Social accounting will identify the true value of household production and its contribution to the economy and social well-being. Labor time accounting will record and publish the current and dated labor time for goods and services, establishing the average labor time required for each product. These labor time values will serve as shadow prices against which to judge the fairness of actual market prices.

Human Rights and Social Justice

* End Institutionalized Racism, Sexism, and Oppression of People with Disabilities: Strengthen civil rights, anti-discrimination, and affirmative action laws, programs, and enforcement.

* African American Reparations: A national commission on reparations for African Americans.

* Indian Treaty Rights: Honor all treaty obligations with Native Americans and Chicanos.

* Immigrant Rights: Support the rights of immigrants to housing, education, health care, jobs, and civil, legal, and political rights.

* Reproductive Freedom: People should be free from government interference in making their reproductive choices, including abortion, which should be covered by all publicly funded medical insurance programs.

* Comparable Worth: Legislation to enable women and minorities to receive equal pay for work of equal value.

* End Discrimination Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered People: Outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in housing, employment, benefits, and child custody.

* Same-Sex Marriage: Legal recognition of same-sex marriages.

Criminal and Civil Justice Reforms

* Abolish the Death Penalty

* Prosecute Police Brutality-The Jonny Gammage Law: Require independent federal investigation and prosecution of law enforcement officers charged with violating the civil rights or causing the bodily injury or death of a human being.

* End Political and Racial Persecution by the Criminal Justice System: Freedom for all political prisoners and prisoners of racial injustice. Clemency for Leonard Peltier. New trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal.

* Restorative Justice: Establish a humane criminal sanction system based on prevention, restitution, rehabilitation, and reconciliation rather than vengeance, forced labor, and profits for the Prison-Industrial Complex. Restore full funding for college degree granting programs in state and federal prisons. Jobs and justice, not more police and prisons.

* Legal Aid: Expand funding of legal aid and public defender programs so all people can have competent legal representation.

* Fight Corporate Crime: Strengthen laws and enforcement against corporate crime with penalties that include incarceration of executives and revocation of corporate charters.

* Oppose Tort Reform that Limits Class Action Lawsuits and Caps Victims' Compensation: The threat of high victim compensation awards by civil juries must be maintained as an important deterrent to corporate crime.

* Civil Liberties: Support the Bill of Rights. No compromise on civil liberties and due process for "national security," "anti-terrorism," or "the war on drugs." Repeal the 1994 Crime and 1996 Anti-Terrorism bills. End domestic political spying by police, military, and intelligence agencies.

* End the "War on Drugs:" Decriminalize possession of drugs. Regulate and tax drug distribution. Release nonviolent drug war prisoners. Treat drug abuse as a health problem, not a criminal problem. Drug abuse treatment on demand.

Labor Law Reforms

* Repeal Repressive Labor Laws: Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act, the Landrum-Griffin Act, the Hatch Act, and state "Right-To-Work" laws which have crippled labor's ability to organize by outlawing or severely restricting labor's basic organizing tools: strikes, boycotts, pickets, and political action.

* A Workers' Bill of Rights: Enact a set of legally enforceable civil rights, independent of collective bargaining, which (1) extends the Bill of Rights protections of free speech, association, and assembly into all workplaces, (2) establishes workers' rights to living wages, portable pensions, information about chemicals used, report labor and environmental violations, refuse unsafe work, and participate in enterprise governance, and (3) establishes workers' rights to freedom from discharge at will, employer search and seizure in the workplace, sexual harassment, and unequal pay for work of comparable worth.

* Expand Worker' Rights to Organize and Enjoy Free Time:

o Majority Card-Check Recognition of Unions

o Strong and Speedy Penalties for Employers Who Break Labor Laws

o Ban Striker Replacements

o Triple Back Pay for Illegally Locked-Out Workers

o Unemployment Compensation for Striking and Locked-Out Workers

o Binding Contract Arbitration at Union Request

o Full Rights for Farmworkers, Public Employees, and "Workfare" Workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act

o Ban Prison Slave Labor: End the use of US prisoners to produce goods and services for sale to the public.

o Double-Time Pay for All Overtime

o Prohibit Mandatory Overtime

o 6 Weeks Paid Vacation Annually in addition to Federal Holidays

o 1 Year Paid Educational Leave for Every 7 Years Worked

o 1 Year Parental Leave for Each Child Born with No Loss of Seniority

o Right to Work Short Hours: No discrimination in pay and promotion against workers who choose to work short hours.

Revitalize Public Education

* Equalize School Funding with Federal Revenue Sharing: Federal financing of all public education (instead of by regressive local property taxes) so that every school has the resources it needs to provide the highest quality education for every child. Use a simple formula based on student population with adjustments based on need to help bring up school quality and student performance in poor communities.

* Decentralized Administration: Cut through stifling centralized administration with site-based planning, policy-making, and management with participation by parents and teachers with release-time. Maintain central support staff for decentrally administered schools.

* Class Size Reduction: Federal legislation and financing to reduce student-teacher ratios in classrooms to 15 to 1 in all public schools.

* Preschool Programs: Federal legislation and financing for public schools to make available Head Start-type programs for pre-Kindergarten children starting at age 3.

* After School Programs: Federal legislation and financing to make available after-school recreational and educational programs for all school age children.

* Children's Health: Clinics in all schools to check eyes, teeth, and general health at all grade levels. Healthy food at breakfast, lunch, and after school programs. Birth control information at middle and high schools.

* Improve Teacher Training and Pay: Improve the quality of teachers with support for career-long training. On-the-jobs apprenticeships for teachers-in-training. Teacher pay scales comparable to other professionals with similar education and responsibilities.
* Multicultural Teaching Staffs: Strengthen affirmative action programs to recruit and support ethnic minorities to enter teaching at every level: teacher, aide, assistant, apprentice.

* Tuition-Free Higher Education: Federal legislation and financing for tuition free education at public universities and technical schools for everyone who wants it.

* Oppose the Privatization of Public Schools: We oppose all schemes for corporations to pursue private profits at the expense of public schools and schoolchildren.

o No School Vouchers: No school vouchers from public budgets for private schools.

o No For-Profit or Religious Charter Schools: Stop the diversion of public funds to for-profit corporations or religious organizations running charter schools with unaccountable administrations, uncertified teachers, and segregated student bodies.

o No Commercialization: Stop turning school children into a captive market for commercial marketing interests with franchises that undermine democratic funding and accountability.

o No High-Stakes Testing: Stop the curriculum takeover by commercial standardized test and test-prep corporations. Stop linking administrator and teacher pay and student graduation and retention to standardized test performance. Stop reducing education to answering multiple choice questions. Put teachers back in charge of ongoing, genuine assessment in the classroom.

* Curriculum for a Multicultural Participatory Democracy: We support a democratic public school curriculum that fosters curiosity, critical thinking, and free expression, that explicitly promotes democratic and egalitarian anti-racist, anti-sexist, and multicultural values, that replaces Eurocentric with multicultural textbooks and other curriculum materials, that does not sort children into academic and non-academic tracks, and that is academically rigorous with high expectations for all children.

* Support Bilingual Education: Minority-language children with limited English proficiency must have instructional programs that build on their native language and culture while building English proficiency.

Free, Diverse and Uncensored Media

* Infodiversity: An uninformed people is not free. Create a vital, democratic, diverse media system, delinked from corporate profit objectives and able to present a wide range of issues and ideas in their full complexity, free from censorship by government or by private corporate power.

* Support Nonprofit and Noncommercial Media: A decentralized, democratic system of public funding of diverse nonprofit, noncommercial media, including broadcast, print, film, website, and other cultural production. Funding to exceed existing support for for-profit media, including lower mailing rates and tax deductions for donors. Guarantee free, universal Internet access.

* Real Public Broadcasting: Complete public funding for real public radio and television broadcasting, with no advertising or grants from private corporations or foundations. Support a decentralized, pluralistic system of multiple national networks and local stations, all independently controlled by boards elected by their publics and their workers.

* Regulate Public Airwaves in the Public Interest: Reassert the public's right as owners of the electromagnetic spectrum used as broadcast airwaves to regulate their use in the public interest. Re-appropriate 6 prime-time hours a day of commercial broadcast time on each station for real public service broadcasting: ad-free children's and news/public affairs programming. Fund this liberated time by charging commercial broadcasters rents for the bandwidths they use, a tax on sales of commercial stations, and a tax on advertising. Program this ad-free time under the control of artists' and educators for the children's programs and journalists for the news and public affairs programs. Restore the Fairness Doctrine. Free time for all candidates for public office. Prohibit paid political ads or require free ads of equal time for opponents. Redistribute substantial bandwidth concessions to public, nonprofit, and locally owned commercial stations, including low-power stations. Increase stakeholder representation on and public accountability of the Federal Communications Commission.

* Antitrust Actions to Break Up Media Conglomerates: Reform antitrust legislation to require the break up of corporate giants because their concentrated power threatens democracy, not just competitive pricing, especially with regard to media concentration where a few media conglomerates control the public's access to information. Require separate, independent firms for all TV stations, TV networks, TV show producers, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, book publishers, film producers, music recorders, Internet service providers, cable TV systems, cable TV stations, amusement parks, retail stores, and so forth. Repeal the pro-conglomeration Telecommunications Act of 1996. Subsidize the existence of multiple newspapers and magazines to express a diversity of opinion in all communities.

International Solidarity

* A Global Green Deal: Build world peace and security through a Global Green Deal. First, the US should finance universal access to primary education, adequate food, clean water and sanitation, preventive health care, and family planning services for every human being on Earth. According to the 1999 UN Development Report, it would take only an additional $40 billion to Fund Global Basic Human Needs, an amount that is only 13% of the 2000 US military budget. Second, the US, which now spends half of the world's military expenditures by itself, should demilitarize its economy and reinvest the Peace Dividend in financing and technical assistance for an Ecological Conversion of Human Civilization to Sustainable Systems of Production.

* Peace Conversion: Cut US military spending unilaterally by 75% in two years to establish a non-interventionist, non-offensive, strictly defensive military posture and save nearly $250 billion a year.

* Peace Dividend: Dedicate the $250 billion a year Peace Dividend to the Global Green Deal, Ecological Conversion, the Economic Bill of Rights, and providing full income and benefits for all workers and soldiers displaced by demilitarization until they find new jobs at comparable income and benefits.

* Unilateral Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Disarmament: These weapons of mass destruction have no place in a non-offensive military. The US should set the example and demand that other nations match our lead before the proliferation of weapons to countries around the world leads to mass destruction.

* Cooperative Security: Pursue a "cooperative security" strategy that seeks mutual arms reductions, progressive elimination of cross-border offensive capabilities, and further cuts in military spending. The goal is to progressively demilitarize down to a non-offensive defense of U.S. national territory using a coast guard, border guard, national guard, and light air defense system, which would cost about $3 billion, or less than 1% of current US military spending.

* Democratize the United Nations: Cooperative security cannot work as long as the United Nations remains a US puppet. Support reforms to democratize the United Nations, such as more proportionality and power in the General Assembly, an elected Security Council, and the elimination of the Great Power Veto on the Security Council.

* A Pro-Democracy Foreign Policy: We call for a fundamental shift in US foreign policy, from supporting repressive regimes in the interests global corporations to supporting the pro-democracy labor, social, and environmental movements of the people.

o Support International, Multilateral Peacekeeping to Stop Aggression and Genocide

o No Unilateral US Intervention in the Internal Affairs of Other Countries

o Close All Overseas US Military Bases

o Disband NATO and All Aggressive Military Alliances

o Ban US Arms Exports

o Abolish the CIA, NSA, US Army School of the Americas, and All US Agencies of Covert Warfare

o End the Economic Blockades of Cuba, Iraq, and Yugoslavia

o Cut Off US Military Aid to Counter-Insurgency Wars in Colombia and Mexico

o Freedom for Lori Berenson and All Political Prisoners

o Require a National Referendum to Declare War

* End Global Financial Exploitation: Cancel the debt owed by poor countries to global banks. End the exploitation of poor countries by IMF "structural adjustment" policies. Abolish the IMF and World Bank and replace them with a democratic international financial institution for balancing international accounts and financing short-term current account balances.

* Fair Trade: Withdraw from the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, and all other corporate-managed trade agreements that are driving down labor and environmental conditions globally. Establish an internationalist social tariff system that equalizes trade by accounting for the differences among countries in wages, social benefits, environmental conditions, and political rights. Tariff revenues to a democratic, international fund for ecological production and democratic development in poor countries in order to level up social and environmental conditions to a high common standard.

Yeah, I was wanting a pony - if by a "pony" we mean the same things the rest of the First World already enjoys - universal single-payer health care, an immediate end to the wars, meaningful regulations on corporations and business, a robust restoration of the social safety net, equal rights for ALL citizens, and real representation and accountability in government.

Of course, I wasn't naive enough to expect all of this (heaven forbid), but a little bit of it would have been nice. We voted for "CHANGE" and what we got was just another load of triangulating centrist DLC lip service.

Yeah, I wanted a pony. What I got instead was this:

How does it not make sense that someone whose situation is actually bad wouldn't want to trade places with someone whose situation isn't?

Can't you folks understand that sympathy and empathy are for people who actually have significant problems?

By far the #1 thing wrong with the Democratic Party today is that there are too many people who have money, and too many brainwashed sympathizers who don't have money, but who defend the wealthy class because that is what American culture has indoctrinated them to do. It is the single solitary biggest reason the Democratic party is striking out year after year and the right wing is taking over this country.

Repeat after me: the wealthy are our enemies. If you don't understand that, ask yourself why. Democrats 50 years ago did.

"I want to deny a free-ride to others as well as do most people."

Yes, I know. The translation of that is "work or die," and I'm well aware that most Americans favor it. America is an inherently regressive country, where the entire political spectrum is shifted significantly rightward. Here, the idea of allowing people to starve or be without the basic necessities of life due to economic non-compliance is not yet controversial even on the left, which is an unfortunate indication of how far right our "left" has drifted.

"Why should anyone get a free ride?"

Primarily because it is absolutely insane to imagine that of all the six billion people on Earth, each and every one shares a desire to spend the majority of their waking lives pursuing economic activity. In reality, of course, many do not - and if they are forced to do so anyway in order simply to survive, then they are literally enslaved. Yes, enslaved. No lesser term will do, because that is the simple fact of it, and no amount of indoctrinated propaganda can make it go away.

"Do you have 'values-chauvinism' when you attempt to force others to live by your certain standards?"

No, because unlike yourself and most Americans, that is exactly what I *do not* do. I believe that every single human being should be entitled to the basic necessities of life without qualification or obligation. Without regard to color, creed, values, beliefs, employment status, or ANY other factor. In my view, there is nothing more progressive than this view. America is not yet ready for it (even on the left), but I believe that it will someday be the only morally acceptable position.

"I'm tired of the everyone who has different political desires being declared evil by the other side."

You're probably on the wrong website then, because DU opposes right-wing views, often in the strongest possible terms.

"It goes both ways and is destroying our country. We need to find common ground and work to let people live as freely as possible."

I'm not interested in "common ground" with regressive people who hate everything I value. Nor am I interested in "living as freely as possible" (a pretty obvious libertarian giveaway) unless "freedom" is meaningfully defined - and in current American culture, it is most certainly not. Your support for the "work or die" enslavement (and the support of most Americans for it) is ample proof of that.

"The conversation turned to healthcare. My friend's new hubby started the GOP mantra, "Well I don't want to see MY tax dollars go to help some woman who won't get off her ass and work for a living" He went on to say how he was in back of a woman in a grocery store who used food stamps and then got into a waiting nicer car, blah blah blah..."Well I don't think US policy should be written to appease YOUR sense of spite". I told him and my girlfriend to go quit their jobs and go on welfare if they think it's such a high fallutin' lifestyle."

Exactly. These people never, ever stop bitching about the non-working who collect some sort of meager, bottom of the barrel benefit from the government. If they think it's such a great deal for those collecting the benefits, they are wholeheartedly encouraged to quit work and sign up.

Otherwise, shut the hell up.

Email from Kucinich received today:



Why didn't we fight to elect this man President? Why did we allow the media and the tyranny of public opinion to successfully label him "unelectable" and make our choices for us? Maybe it's true that he could not have won, but shouldn't we have fought for him anyway? Fought for ourselves? Wouldn't it at least have sent a message that the left is willing to stand up, make our voices heard, and demand representation?

Oh well, we didn't. We all fell in line and got behind the media-approved "frontrunners" eventually. And this is what we got for our trouble. Democrats control both the White House and Congress and they refuse to give us even a public option, much less single-payer. Would Kucinich have let this happen?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Dear opponents of "socialized medicine,"

You guys are a pretty interesting bunch. You love to quote the Founding Fathers and the documents they wrote, and some of you know many of the lines by heart. But you seem to have trouble reading between the lines. For your edification and amusement, let me present you with a free ticket to the clue train.

Life

This is kind of a biggie. Without life, there's not too much you can do with the other unalienable rights. So, if we have a Creator-given right to life, then how come 18,000 Americans die every year due to lack of access to health care? Looks like the right to life is pretty alienable after all, if you can't afford it.

It's funny how the "culture of life" extends primarily to unborn fetuses and people who can afford to buy the right to life which was declared "unalienable" and "endowed by the creator" in 1776. I know this might be a little too abstract for you, but as it turns out, health is essential to life. A lack of health results in death. Go figure, eh?

Liberty

Ah, here's where a lot of the trouble starts. You guys define "liberty" primarily as freedom from having to pay taxes. But, constitutionally speaking, that freedom never existed, because the preamble of the Constitution itself says that one of its six specific purposes is to "promote the general welfare."

Yeah, I know you guys hate that bit and would rather pretend it didn't exist or try to explain it away with elaborate rationalizations. But it's important, because if the general welfare isn't promoted, liberty actually means nothing. What's the use of freedom when you can't get out of bed due to a treatable illness?

Pursuit of Happiness

I dunno if you realize it or not, but it's kind of hard to pursue happiness while you're incapacitated by an illness - especially one that would be treatable or preventable with access to health care. It's tough to pursue happiness when you lose your life savings to medical bills, or when you get denied a necessary treatment by your HMO.

The Founding Fathers were not stupid. They realized that each of these "unalienable, Creator-endowed" rights depends on the others. Without health care, 18,000 Americans per year are being denied the Creator-endowed, unalienable right to life. Many more are being denied liberty and the pursuit of happiness by the for-profit HMO system.

And you know what? According to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, that's just un-American.

1. Figure out what you really want. Preferably something most Americans want.

2. What? Are you kidding me? Forget about that. You'll never get it. Don't even try.

3. Figure out a major compromise that gives away at least half of what you really want.

4. Negotiate, meaning give away most of the rest to Republicans and lobbyists.

5. Pretend the totally toothless legislation is a major victory for all Americans.

6. Announce the "victory," raise your own salary, and go on vacation.

7. Ignore those objections from Dennis Kucinich. He saw a UFO and is crazy.

These images were taken in Mexico when 18,000 people showed up to pose nude for a photographer. This is what a crowd of 18,000 people looks like.









This is also the approximate number of Americans who die every year from treatable illness due to lack of health care coverage.

How long will we allow our leaders to continue looking out for the insurance industry instead of Americans?

My fellow Americans,

In these times of economic uncertainty, ordinary Americans everywhere are feeling the effects of liberal policies which have undermined the free-market foundations of this great nation and fostered a growing sense of entitlement. The traditional American values of hard work, personal responsibility, and individual ownership have fallen by the wayside.

Now, a new threat to American families has emerged. I am speaking of the outdated liberal policy of oxygen welfare handouts. Even as we dig in and tighten our belts in response to the economic crisis, our children are being taught that breathing the air is a "human right" which they are entitled to without work or effort. My friends, I think it's time we did something about this.

The idea that the atmosphere "belongs to everyone" is exactly the kind of entitlement-based thinking we must oppose in order to restore America's traditional values. When bottled water was introduced, many left-wing idealists protested that water should never be a commodity to be bought and sold. But now, we have a thriving bottled water industry which creates jobs and contributes to American prosperity.

My proposal, the Atmospheric Independence Resolution (AIR), would end the atmospheric welfare system as we know it by restoring air to its rightful place in the free market. Each citizen would purchase a specially designed breathing mask from a manufacturer of his or her choice which would meter oxygen consumption and charge the consumer an appropriate fee. Hard-working Americans don't want a handout or a free lunch. My AIR proposal will restore the pride and dignity of personal responsibility to every American family.

There is no place in our cherished democracy for the failed socialist ideas of Karl Marx and the anti-American left-wing movement. Our ability to instill responsible, self-sufficient values depends on our willingness to combat the poisonous ideology of collectivism wherever it is found. We must act now to put an end to atmospheric socialism, before we become a nation of freeloading oxygen queens.

Thank you, and God Bless America.

So, what do Canadians on the right-wing side of Canada's political spectrum really think about socialized medicine?


http://www.cmha.ca/bins/content_page.asp?c...

Hey Canada, I'll trade you our Blue Dogs and DLCers for your conservatives. Deal?

Meet Bob. Like many hard-working, responsible Americans, Bob has a good private health care plan. Bob never worries about getting sick, because he knows he's taken care of. Bob doesn't want the government getting in between him and his doctors, making decisions about his health care.

Today at work, Bob started feeling ill. Luckily for Bob, it wasn't a work-related sickness, because some government bureaucrat got in between Bob and his employer and made sure Bob had safe working conditions. "It's probably just a cold," Bob thought to himself. After work, Bob got in his car and drove to the doctor's office. Luckily for Bob, his car didn't blow up or break down on the way because some government bureaucrat got in between Bob and the automaker, demanding safety standards. And when Bob got on the Interstate to save some time, it was a good thing some government bureaucrat had meddled with the free market and ensured it was there to be used. Bob didn't notice any of this, though. He wasn't feeling well.

Arriving at the doctor's office, Bob stopped by the water fountain to cool his throat. Happily for Bob, he didn't get poisoned because some government bureaucrat had gotten between Bob and the water supplier to ensure safe drinking water. At the receptionist's desk, Bob was told that the doctor was very busy and he might have to wait several hours to be seen. Bob was glad America has the best health care system in the world, unlike Canada, where his favorite "fair & balanced" news network had told him he might have to wait days or weeks to be seen. This wasn't actually true, but Bob had no way of knowing that. A long time ago, some government bureaucrat had gotten between Bob and the networks to make sure there was fairness and truth in broadcasting. But then Bob and his friends voted for a famous movie actor as president, and they got rid of that un-American government interference.

When Bob finally saw the doctor, he was diagnosed with a rare type of infection and prescribed drugs to clear it up. Bob didn't even look at the prescription, because he trusted his doctor's judgement. Luckily for Bob, some government bureaucrat had gotten between him and the drug companies and demanded extensive safety testing to make sure the drugs wouldn't harm him. On the way back to his car, Bob took a deep breath of fresh air. He didn't start choking on all sorts of toxic fumes because some government bureaucrat had gotten between Bob and heavy industry and decided Bob had a right to clean air.

Bob stopped by the pharmacy on his way home to fill the prescription. Sadly for Bob, however, the pharmacist informed him that his HMO would not cover the drug. Bob had to fork over $363.72 out of pocket for the prescription, which meant he would really have to tighten his belt next month. Luckily for Bob, if he didn't have enough money for food he could get government assistance, because some government bureaucrat had gotten between Bob and the free market and decided Americans should never have to go hungry.

Bob arrived at home, switched on his favorite "no-spin" news network, and said to his wife, "Honey, I'm so glad we live in America, where we can stop the government from making our decisions for us. I don't need some government bureaucrat interfering in my life and deciding what's best for me."

This is the real economic axis in America, not the staged and managed "liberal vs conservative" meme.

Populists want regulated markets and greater economic equality. Libertarians want free markets and greater economic freedom. Populists want those with the least to have more, even if it means those with the most have less. Libertarians want to preserve the opportunity for those with the most to have more, even if it means those with the least have less.

Even places like DU are feeling the effects of this basic conflict which is widely ignored in the media.

POLL QUESTION: Would you identify yourself as closest to populism or libertarianism?