Now is the time to move the county to the left.

[RDANGELO]

In my way of political thinking, there is time for winning elections and there is time for taking the progressive argument to the American people. We have about a year before the Presidential elections really kick into gear. Now is the time for bloggers, radio talkers, and people like Kieth Olberman to get out and make the case.

The Economy:
The current conservative regime and congress has put the nation almost nine trillion dollars in debt. The growth that has resulted from this is the equivalent of taking out a big loan and spending all the money. Now we have to pay it back along with the interest. The meager growth that we have had from the supply side economics has all gone to the richest Americans. Our current trade policies, which consists of outsourcing and free trade at any cost, have stripped the country of countless middle class jobs. It is time to start bringing manufacturing jobs back to America - period! In short, the policies of trickle down economics and total free trade, have been disastrous to our country. It is time for economic policies that truly strengthen the working class, such as raising the minimum wage and tax incentives to create jobs in America instead of the opposite.

Gay and Lesbian issues:
There used to be a notion among many that black Americans could never have the same rights as the rest of us because all they would ever amount to is children. Obviously, this was wrong. Today, there is a notion among many that homosexuality is an aberrant behavior that is harmful to our society. Currently there are probably hundreds of thousands of gay and lesbians who are raising children. There are no credible studies that show that there is any negative impact from this. Scientific studies show increasingly that this is the way people are born rather than simply a learned behavior. It is time to expose the conservative attitude toward gays and lesbians for what it is - bigotry. There is no logical reason to discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Guns:
In recent decades, the NRA and other gun groups, have successfully convinced paranoid hunters and sportsman that the liberals want to take your guns away. A national gun registration and licensing program would limit gun accidents and help law enforcement officials across the country catch criminals.

Civil Rights, Torture:
When the founding fathers drew up the Constitution, they envisioned a government of checks and balances, where each branch held check over the other two. The current executive branch seeks to operate from the notion that it can operate without checks in the name of fighting terrorism. We are to take their word for it that the people they are detaining and eavesdropping on are all deserving of this. Congress and the courts must be involved to insure that the rights of Americans are not being violated. If we do not conduct the war on terrorism in a moral way that is not respected by the rest of the world, it will isolate us in the long run.
If our government is involved in anything that could be conceived as torture, it is not only immoral, but could lead to the endangerment of our own troops, if we eventually ended up in a conflict with countries such as Iran or Syria.

Foreign Policy:
The Neocon agenda espoused the idea that force should be the main tool of foreign policy, and that diplomacy is secondary. Talking to our enemies is appeasement. The notion that a country can be molded into the desired makeup at the barrel of a gun, has been has been dis proven again in Iraq as it was in Viet-Nam. Our current foreign policies have made the world a more dangerous place, destabilized the middle east even more, and created more terrorists. Every avenue of diplomacy should be exhausted before turning to force when differences arise between nations, even one on one talks.

[elocs]

1. We need to move the country to the left willingly and not force it too fast.

There are many independents as well as liberal Republicans who are resistant to rapid change. Let's take what we can get and move forward brick by brick, building a strong and lasting foundation that will not be overturned by the next election.

[lcordero2]

2. !!!!!!!!!!!!

NO on guns

Both parties are really quick to take credit for the reduction in murders from the early 90s in NY when it was simply that two criminal elements that rubbed each other out into extinction. Even today, the average wait time from 911 to arrival of authorities is 20 to 30 minutes. I'll side with the NRA because I rather have the means to fight than side with elements that are inherently racist and have immunity from Law.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVW5_PJHzR4&NR

[GeorgeGist]

3. I'd rather go forward...

[T Wolf]

4. Agree. This country has moved so far to the con-side that, the election

results aside (and there is some debate about what they really mean), there is a huge amount of work to do to bring America back even to the center. Control of the government and media has enabled the corporate powers to turn back progress in so many areas.

I would love to see a real progressive agenda take shape and become the direction that this country moves in. But it will be very hard, given the resistance from within (pukes in office) and without (24/7 harping by hate radio and the corporate MSM).

That being said, I have to believe that if we are at all successful in bringing positive change to this country, the population will see that it is in their best interest to keep moving to the left. But then, enough Americans rejected the positive movement from Bill Clinton's (yeah, I know he was not progressive but at least he was not hard-core repuke) years in office and made 2000 close enough to be stolen.

Maybe the real lesson from last week is that we have to try that much harder in order to make the margin of victory in elections so wide that they cannot be stolen.

Difficult - yes.

Vital to our survival - hell yes!

[slackmaster]

Gun licensing and registration do not reduce gun accidents

Does a gunshot wound from a registered gun hurt less than from an unregistered one?

BTW - There were 730 fatal gun accidents in 2003. We've had handgun registration since 1968 here in California, and our rate of fatal gun accidents for 2003 (.19 per 100,000), only slightly lower than the national rate (.25), is higher than Florida's (.17).

Roll your own query at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/

BTW - The national rate for 1981 was .76. Accidental deaths from gunshot have been dropping steadily since about 1900. Education seems to be the key.

In recent decades, the NRA and other gun groups, have successfully convinced paranoid hunters and sportsman that the liberals want to take your guns away.

We've already had at least one bonehead thread on DU suggesting a new "assault weapon" ban, so some liberals actually do want to take peoples' guns away. Unrestrained pursuit of ever more restrictive gun laws cost us badly in 1994. There is no reason to believe the same would not apply today. This is not the time to be screwing with peoples' personal choices.

[JetCityLiberal]

11. Jesus was a liberal

wonder who's guns he would take away or regulate?

[slackmaster]

5. Double-click, please ignore

:dunce:

[Greyhound]

6. You know what really reduces crime and violence in our society?

Good paying, plentiful, secure jobs. Always has, always will.

More bureaucratic regulation on top of already existing and unenforced regulations only creates larger bureaucracy and larger black markets.

[gorfle]

7. On Guns...

>Guns:
>In recent decades, the NRA and other gun groups, have successfully convinced paranoid hunters and
>sportsman that the liberals want to take your guns away. A national gun registration and licensing
>program would limit gun accidents and help law enforcement officials across the country catch criminals.

I'm sorry, but I will have to disagree here.

Whatevever firearms policies are in place, the #1 thing to preserve about firearms is ANONYMITY OF OWNERSHIP. Any move to have mandatory "registrations" or "licencsings" will simply be looked at as what they are: A national ID list of firearms owners - a list that could be used for confiscation at any time.

Accidents will not be prevented by registrations or licenses. Accidents will only be prevented by firearms education. You want mandatory firearms training before being able to purchase a firearm (from an FFL dealer)? No problem. But make the training anonymous - you just get a non-identifying "training completed" card to use when buying firearms.

I doubt licensing or registration will help in catching criminals, either, as criminals are less likely to comply with such regulations.

Firearms ownership must remain anonymous. Doing otherwise enables a government to turn against the armed in the populace at will, which is a dangerous proposition.

[benEzra]

8. "Hunters and sportsmen"

In recent decades, the NRA and other gun groups, have successfully convinced paranoid hunters and sportsman that the liberals want to take your guns away. A national gun registration and licensing program would limit gun accidents and help law enforcement officials across the country catch criminals.

"Hunters and sportsmen" constitute a rather small minority of gun owners. Only 1 in 5 gun owners in the United States is a hunter; 4 out of 5 are nonhunters like my wife and I.

Extended post on this point here.

The gun issue is NOT about people wanting to take away hunting style weapons, or at least hunting weapons with late 1800's styling. Anybody who tells you otherwise is stuck in the 1960's.

You say you don't want to take anybody's guns. Do you want to take mine?


Or my wife's?


THAT is what the gun issue in 2006 is about. Not Grandpa's hunting rifle (unless that rifle is an M1 Garand, an M1A, or an old SKS), or the Perazzi skeet gun in the hands of some wealthy trap club shooter. It's about the guns owned by people like my wife and I--Gen-X'ers and Gen-Y'ers who own smaller-caliber guns for recreational target shooting and for defensive purposes, and who don't fit the "Field and Stream" stereotype that the gun-control lobby and a few DLC types would like to paint us into.

And FWIW, guns aren't a "leftist" issue. Roughly half of all American gun owners are NOT repubs; around one third are registered Dems, and the rest are mostly indies plus a few third party.

[slackmaster]

10. Two bills in 2004 would have banned the M1 Garand and M1 Carbine

Or at least designated them as "assault weapons".

At least one other bill would have affected any weapon that was formerly used by the US military including bolt-action rifles and handguns like the famous 1911 and 1911-A1, IOW specifically attacking collectors of curios and relics like me.

[gorfle]

12. You rock!

BenEzra, I like your style, dude!

[benEzra]

13. Thanks! :) (n/t)

[ozone_man]

9. The pendulum swings left again.

An entire generation after the religious right came to power with Reagan, the pendulum now swings the other way, against religious interference in government and the neocon movement. The time is definitely now to take advantage of that. We're ripe for change, but not as ripe as we'll be in two to five years. I speak mainly in regards to the worsening financial situation. A severe recession and/or depression will be coming once the monetary reflation, the deficit spending, credit growth come to an end. Then the economy will collapse and from that will sprout the seeds for real change, like the Great Depression all over again.

Change cannot occur faster than the need for it or the popular support for it, but we have already have the need and will soon have the popular support at levels thought impossible a few years ago. This election is the first glimpse of the momentum for change that will be coming. It won't be just to the left, but will include broad based changes, difficult financial decisions regarding social programs and the environment. We will be entering into an era of lower standard of living than we are used to. The next geenration will have to pay off the debts incurred by our wreckless spending. The U.S. is and will continue to be in a social and economic decline as a world power. But, if I was a quitter, I would have moved to Canada a long time ago. Instead I just visit there (frequently).