Here's What I Want - Democratic Underground

Prophet 451

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Wed Oct-31-07 05:49 PM
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Here's What I Want

I want the troops out of Iraq in the very near future. No, that doesn't mean the day after taking office but it does mean that my preferred candidate would start making arrangements to withdraw them as soon as s/he took office.

I want universal healthcare. I'm a Brit. We already have universal healthcare here so I don't understand the whole debate about transfer payments, single-payer and so on. I do know that if I'm sick, I can call up my doctor, get an appointment probably on the same day and get a prescription. I take that prescription to the pharacist and I pay £7 (roughly $15) as a contribution to the cost of the drugs, the rest is paid for out of taxes. You guys have the most convuluted, expensive system of healthcare I've ever seen. Our way isn't perfect, there's a crisis over dentistry for example (which is why Brits traditionally have bad teeth) but it is a damn sight better than the "free market uber alles" crowd would have you believe.

I want a candidate who is committed to working with the world, not lording it over the rest of us. Do you guys realise that you are the only nation on earth which, via your mass media, tells the rest of the world on a nearly constant basis, that you are the greatest country on earth? Leaving aside whether that's true or not, does that not strike you as a little fucking obnoxious? To steal a line from Lewis Black, if someone came into your office every day and said "I'm the greatest motherfucker here and all you snivelling shits would die without me", you'd have killed him by the end of the week. So I'd like to see a candidate who realises that leading the world actually means engaging with it, not just ordering it around.

I want a candidate who believes in peace. Really, this should be a no-brainer. You already have two unfinished wars (three if you include the fact that the Korean War never officially ended) and teh current junta is champing at the bit to attack Iran which could concievably trigger World War III. So I'd like to see a candidate who actually says that you will only use your obscenely bloated military when someone actually attacks you. While we're on the subject, climbing down from the permanent wartime economy would probably help too.

I'd like to see a candidate campaign on the issues instead of on personalities. I realise the mass media shares much of the blame on this one but you now have an electoral climate where you select candidates on the basis of whether you like them or not. Is this an election or a reality show?

I'd like to see the USA grow the fuck up regarding sex but I admit there's probably very little a president can do about that.

I want to see happy gay couples getting married. I don't really give a crap about whether you call it "marriage" or something else (here, we call it "domestic partnership" but in all legal respects, it's identical and people have been calling it "marriage" since day one anyway) but restricting the package of legal rights and responsibilities to people who marry someone of the approved gender really is a special right. I can understand restricting it to two people for sheer practicality but if the government can say I can only marry a woman, why can't they say I can only marry certain women, or this woman, or this aardvaark?

I want to see a candidate who recognises that the purpose of government is not to serve business. The US is starting to resemble one of those nightmare nations in cyberpunk novels where the USA has been replaced by the Corporate States of Profit. I'm by no means a socialist but allowing business to run unregulated is a big part of what has caused the other problems on this list (and on this one, we're only two steps behind you).

I want to see a candidate who actually listens to science. Remember that? How many times do we have to listen to someone proclaim that global warming isn't happening or isn't largely caused by humans? On evolution, I can understand the guy who quibbles with the specifics, arguing about the exact timescale or the exact details, that's fine. I can understand the guy who says that God created humans using the evolutionary process, that's my own position. Bot the guy who says the jury is still out on evolution? No, I can't vote for you and I don't think anyone else should. If you can't accept that Darwinian evolution is more-or-less accurate or at least the best hypothesis we have to go on, you're an imbecile.

I'd like to see people actually vote for the candidate they agree with on most of the issues. Remember that? The candidate I agree with on most of these issues is Kucinich. Yes, yes, I know: "I like his positions but he's unelectable". Here's the thing: If everyone who agreed with Kooch's positions actually voted for him, he'd damn well be electable. The late Molly Ivins once said that in the primary, she voted to change the world; in the general, she voted for the lesser evil. That's all I'm asking here. In the general, vote for the Dem candidate or, if you really can't bring yourself to, stay home. I can respect that. But in the primary, forget tactical considerations and vote for the wo/man you agree with on most things.