The time is ripe for a "Democratic contract with America"

[niceypoo]

and I don't mean a bunch of hollow promises as a stunt to gain power. I mean real alternatives to the lunacy we have now. Alternatives that the democrats actually deliver on unlike Newt's phony contract.

Here are a few ideas:
1. De-americanize Iraq
2. Reverse the Bush tax cuts for rich
3 alanced budget amendment
4 A guarenteed minimum level of healthcare for all Americxans.
5 Push for Bush to appoint experts to head federal agencies
6 Outlaw no bid government contracts
7 Outlaw torture
8 Standardize all federal elections/vote counting with a guarenteed paper trail

The "Shame! Shame! Shame!" is a good start but now we need something tangible to show we mean business!!!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Sign me up. Good work.

[Zynx]

2. Does the Balanced Budget Amendment include exceptions for declared

war? It is impossible to run a surplus while fighting a major war, but I think the idea is generally sound with some problems when a state of recession exists and deficit spending is also waranted.

[niceypoo]

3. Yes, but that doesnt mean using war as an excuse to go bezerk spending

and there would be no exception for "optional wars". Deprivatizing the military would also be good. Privatization of the military effectlively makes war a profit venture.

[jackbourassa]

12. I agree with all except the Balance Budget Ammendment

The reason is that if, for whatever reason, we find ourselves in a deficit situation (war, recession, whatever) - we'd be forced by law to cut programs and/or raise taxes (on middle class/poor), which could make the situation worse.

[niceypoo]

15. Whatever I suggest is merely that....a suggestion...the point is we need

tangibles. Whatever those tangibles end up being is debatable at this point. The end result is whats important...

[jackbourassa]

16. I agree

I wasn't trying to be critical. Just throwing something out there.

[Ignacio Upton]

19. What about in another Great Depression?

One of the reasons why, for example, there was a second recession from 1936-1937 was because Roosevelt didn't spend enough money on his New Deal programs because he wanted to balance the budget. Deficits through supply-side and Bush means result in creditors wanting their money back and loss of money for needed federal programs, but deficits done for Keynesian, emergancy means are different.

[niceypoo]

22. I agree ignacio

Sometimes TARGETED spending works and is necessary when it goes immediately into the pockets of people who need it and will use it or, as it has been pointed out, we can't avoid it (war). Running deficits so we can have tax cuts for the rich is stupid and does not fit into either category. I am no expert on economy or politics BUT even I can do the math and realize that these tax cuts are actually loans, payable by our children. I'm sure many who tout them see it too but they have such a heavy emotional investment in their ideology that they feel they can't let it go.....even when its collapsing all around them. Its time to take this damn country back.

[Pepperbelly]

4. I will NEVER support a balanced budget amendment ...

It was bad policy when the bonehead gops suggested it and it is bad policy now.

If the budget should be balanced, then fucking balance it. Why have an amendment to make people do the right thing when we already have the ballot box?

[jobycom]

6. Living up to your name, once again, PB!

You said what I was trying to say with more pepper. :-)

[Pepperbelly]

7. I LIVE for succinctness ... nt

[jobycom]

8. I wish I could just manage it once! nt.

[jobycom]

5. Good talking points. I'd tweak a couple, plus call it something else.

Calling it a "Contract with America" will sound like we're following their lead, and then they'd come up with a new direction, probably stealing enough of our ideas to undermine our plan, and we'd look like followers. Need some new angle. I got no plan, except I think our plan should carry a "common sense" message and a hint of moving forward. "A bridge into the 21st century" style slogan. The Republicans are the ones who talk about restoring America, and returning to roots, and we talk about moving forward, progressing. So, we need a message they can't co-op.

The tweaks I'd make on your list. On 2) call for everyone to pay "their fair share," rather than reversing tax cuts for the rich. First, it sounds less like class warfare. Second, it doesn't highlight Bush's "tax cuts," which weren't really cuts, just loans that we all have to pay back, with interest. Maybe even make the central point "No more fake tax cuts."

On 3, a balanced budget amendment is a bad idea, practically and politically. People don't like to shackle the nation. Get the same message though, maybe tie it in to Number 2. A law condemning tax cuts without spending cuts, or a budget that can't be left to our children. Something like that.

I don't like 8. People have rigged elections for centuries with a paper trail. It's a false sense of security, and it provides a loophole for Repubs to use to cheat. What happens when paper and machines disagree? Paper is much easier to rig than electronics, as we saw in 2000. I'd rather a law forbidding hidden code machines, so that any expert or learned amatuer in programming can step through the codes on the machines and see what they are counting. No modem connections during the polling or counting. Any candidate can challenge results and require the machines to be tested. And make any cheating equivalent to treason. Life in prison, disqualification from any further service with the US government. Loss of all contracts. We have to make machines accountable without adding the confusion of parallel balloting. (for the record, I was one of the first proponents of paper trails on DU, even before anyone was talking about BBV, but I've come to oppose them.)

Anyway, definitely an A+ idea. We need an organized effort, led by our Congressional delegation, not by a grassroots effort. People don't respond to grassroots, because they want to know that our leaders are leading.

Just my thoughts. Probably wrong, as usual. :-)

[Zynx]

9. Hit them with the charges of, "Corruption, Cronyism, and Calamity" too.

It has nice alliteration to it like the Republicans used a few times in the past against us with great effect.

[Savannah Progressive]

13. Regarding your thoughts

Some are damn fine, some are not bad, however I have never found a thought that was completely wrong.

By tossing about ideals in a forum like this, everyone thinks. While some ideas may not work, or may have been tried in the past in less than successful manners, none are bad.

We move forward as a group by considering the issues from as many possible positions and points of view. This is what makes our party superior. A good idea need not come from a PHD but often will :).

I remember a story from my childhood. We lived in New Jersey at the time, and the story was told to me about then. A Trucker tried to take a trailer that was too tall through the Holland Tunnel. It got predictably stuck, and was wedged in tightly. While the various engineers and experts stood there debating how to minimize damage to the tunnel by pulling with tow trucks this way and that, a car passing by had the window down and a little girl sat in the back seat. The engineers overheard the girl ask her parents why they don't let the air out of the tires, wouldn't that lower the truck enough?

Of course, they did just that a short while later, and minimized the damage to the tunnel. I have no idea if the story is true, I was only a boy at the time, and the newspaper was for Dad, not me. However the lesson from that is obvious, look at the whole situation, the whole picture, and consider it from as many angles as possible before you act.

[niceypoo]

17. I agree with not calling it a "contract"....the name is irrelevent at this

Whats important is that we promise real change then deliver it. America doesnt want what we have now. The GOP agenda is being rejected. One more thing, we need not announce it til a few months before the election....

[brainshrub]

10. Technically, torture is illegal.

The Bush Administration is already guilty of breaking international law.

I like the balanced-budget amendment.

I also think term-limits should be added.

Whatever form a Democratic "Contract With America" takes, I hope the legislators would actually follow through with it.

[madame defarge]

11. Check out this Progressive Pledge...

http://www.democracycellproject.net/pledge.shtml

[nickshepDEM]

14. Sound ideas, but we have to work on our delivery first...

We say: Reverse the Bush tax cuts for rich - Average American hears: Raise taxes.

We say: Balanced Budget Amendment - Average American hears: Raise taxes.

We say: A guarenteed minimum level of healthcare for all Americans - Average American hears: Long lines and rationed health care.

We say: Outlaw torture - Average American hears: Weak on terrorism.

We Say: Standardize all federal elections/vote counting with a guarenteed paper trail. Average American hears: Democrats are sore losers.

How we deliver the message is just as important as the concept.

[niceypoo]

18. Only republicans are obsessed with taxes

And most people in the US do NOT believe the US should torture people. Thats Bush lite think and thats what got the democrats into their Bush lite mode.....worrying what republicans will think. Screw what they think.....

[nickshepDEM]

23. Your subject line is probably the funniest thing Ive ever heard.

I know a ton of people who are obsessed with taxes. I know people who vote Republican solely because they believe they'll get a lil' tax break. Either that or their afraid Dem's will raise their taxes.

[niceypoo]

24. People who are obsessed with taxes vote republican.......

because they ARE republicans. Normal people see the deficit and shit their pants. You are stuck in Bush lite mode.

[bluedawg12]

20. Here's my big Three pick:

Pro-growth Initiative For A Strong and Secure Democracy.

1.) The Economy- Pride and strength for our working middle class.

Good paying jobs with a future.
Support for the American Working Middle Class.
Affordable, high quality, health care.
Vouchers for working families who chose a stay at home parent option.
Keeping good jobs here at home- American workers are our priority.
Affordable energy.

2.) National Security- Pride in a Strong America

A rational strategic plan for security here at home.
Safe and secure national borders.
A strong military.
Support for active duty troops.
Support for the families of over seas active duty troops.
Support for veterans.
A ratioanl foriegn policy based on diplomacy, as well as, military might.


3.) Human rights-

Access to voting in America is free, no poll tax or costly voter ID's- a living Democracy in action.
Support for families and the rights of "all" American families.
Fairness in work, housing, and benefits for all Americans.
Less government interference in the private lives of Americans and a smaller government.
Good stewardship of the environment for ourselves and for future generations.

.....
Check out this Pew Poll:
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=948

[Neil Lisst]

21. niceypoo, I agree with your post and applaud your efforts

You are so right. We must have a cogent Contract for America.

We must be able to articulate our vision, and it can't simply be "us in charge."
------------------------
You wrote this:

Here are a few ideas:
1 De-americanize Iraq
2 Reverse the Bush tax cuts for rich
3 Balanced budget amendment
4 A guarenteed minimum level of healthcare for all Americxans.
5 Push for Bush to appoint experts to head federal agencies
6 Outlaw no bid government contracts
7 Outlaw torture
8 Standardize all federal elections/vote counting with a guarenteed paper trail
------------------------------


I like your ideas.


-----------------------
progressive political comic
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/