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Edited on Fri Nov-21-08 07:20 PM by Ken Burch
they ask you what your vision for the country is, so I answered in in those terms:
1)Broad strokes: I'd like us to be a country where business was one part of life, but not above and beyond everyone and everything else. A foreign policy that defends us from outside attack but doesn't go looking to start a war in every possible situation just to prove "toughness".
A sense of social values in which the thinker, the dreamer and the artist matter as much as the money maker, and where no one's dreams are mocked and dismissed.
Specific policy suggestions short-term
1)Redifine our "national interests" so that they are focused on supporting democracy and self-determination, rather than imposing one economic model(also normalizing relations with Cuba would be good, as well as ending hostilities with Venezuela and Bolivia). 2)A "Statemenf of Renunciation", in which we apologize for all past incidents where we overthrew democratic governments and promise never to do that again, and also to never again oppose other people's liberation movements. 3)A "Green Cities" program in which depressed areas are revitalized through extensive use of alternative energy technology(with job training for the residents of those communities in the technologies involved). 4)Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, so that the rights of working people begin to be restored, with eventual repeal of Taft-Hartley as well; 5)Introduction of a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College and establish proportional representation for Congressional elections(with the removal of the 435 seat size limit on the U.S. House so the representation by population is reestablished) 6)Closure of the School Of The Americas, in addition to the closure of Guantanamo Bay(the base as well as the prison) and a commitment that the U.S. will never use or encourage the use of torture again;
Finally, I'd like to suggest the appointment of Jim Hightower as Secretary of Agriculture.
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