What Candidates Should I Support?

Dear Friends,

I cannot bring myself to blog about President Trump or the Republican Party and what they are doing to this country and the world.  There is more than enough analysis and commentary about those topics.

I am, however, concerned about the Democratic Party and feel compelled to write about it.  We need a clear progressive vision for our country, and we need to advocate for that vision in all 50 states and all 3,142 counties in the country.  I have chosen a few a issues that for me are critical.  I will not support a candidate or a party whose views are not consistent with mine on these issues.  I will no longer support the lesser of two evils even though I might be forced to vote on that basis.

The idea that the Democratic Party needs to move to the center is a complete fallacy promulgated by the Democratic Party establishment to maintain its power and big money relationships.  The vision that I am proposing is not an extreme left wing vision.  Some of the issues are not really left or right political issues.  The individual policies to achieve the vision have broad support among the American people even though they have never been given the media coverage they deserve.  Today I will just provide the list with a short explanation.  In future posts, I will cover each one in more detail.

Global Warming
I put global warming first because it is the biggest existential threat we face.  Fossil fuels must remain in the ground.  We need policies that demand the use of solar, hydro, geothermal and wind power.  We must reduce our energy usage and dramatically increase our efficiency.  We cannot transition slowly to non-fossil fuels and being more efficient.  We must move forward immediately and aggressively if we are to save our planet for our children and grandchildren.  While the Paris Accord was a start, it was too little, too late.  We must move faster.

Education
We must provide free high quality public education from pre-k through college, including the arts.  Education is essential to a happy productive life as well as to a functioning democracy.

Health Care
Health care is a right not a privilege.  The government must provide health care for all.  We must have Medicare for all now.

Income/Wealth Inequality
We must immediately enact policies that reduce income and wealth inequality.  Education and universal health care are part of the solution.  In addition, we must significantly increase taxes on the wealthy including income and estate taxes.  We must regulate Wall Street and big corporations to reduce their economic and political power.  We must enact a minimum wage that provides a living above the poverty line (i.e. $15/hour).  We must support unions to provide a level negotiating field for workers and managements.

Voting Rights
We need strong voting rights laws to prevent voter suppression and disenfranchisement.  We need to end gerrymandering.  We need to overturn Citizens United.  We need to understand that money is not speech.  In fact, money denies the speech of those without it.  We need to create a culture where everyone has the right to vote and everyone votes.

Discrimination
We must end discrimination of all kinds.  Our country fails to provide racial, gender, economic, social, or criminal justice, among others.  The current anti-discrimination laws must be strengthened and aggressively enforced.  Those laws must also be dramatically expanded to include types of discrimination that are not currently covered, particularly protecting LGBTQIA people's rights.  Notwithstanding current laws, we know we live in a society with deep, broad and intransigent institutional bias.  We must create a culture that eliminates such bias.

Financial Safety Net
We must be a society that ensures that all members of our society have an acceptable minimum standard of living, including food, shelter, health care, financial security, education and respect.  Our current programs are falling far short of this result.  They need to be strengthened and expanded.

Jobs
The government can and should create jobs.  The best way to do so is by fixing our broken infrastructure, properly maintaining it and expanding it as new technologies and needs arise.  The government can use private companies to build and rebuild our infrastructure, creating lots of good jobs.  These jobs can help with some of the other issues discussed above such as developing green technologies and an efficient energy grid.  The government should also support research and innovation that will lead to new jobs and a growing economy.

Immigration
We are a nation of immigrants.  Yet it seems that each new group of immigrants is treated poorly by those that came before them.  We have millions of undocumented people living in our country who belong in this country, who contribute to this country and who must have a path to citizenship, security in their lives and the respect they deserve as human beings.  The way we treat immigrants today is a travesty and flaunts every tenet of how a civilized nation should behave.

Foreign Relations
I realize I am giving this topic short shrift by putting it last and lumping all the issues together into only one paragraph.  However, I believe our foreign policy should flow directly from the values and vision espoused in our domestic policy.  All human beings deserve respect, freedom, justice, education, health care, jobs, etc.  If we base our foreign policy on these tenets, we would demand a two state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, we would spend more time, money and effort on peacefully solving conflicts than on violently imposing our will, we would not back dictators because it is good for business, we would seek total nuclear disarmament, etc.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Bernie Sanders for President

Dear Friends,

Bernie Sanders is my choice for President of the United States.  His policies are exactly what this country and the world need now.  The media, many pundits and a number of my friends say he cannot be elected, he is too far left, he is a socialist and he is impractical.  I want to encourage everybody, including the media, to look beyond labels and examine his policies and positions.  Since I believe his policies are the ones that we need now, I intend to work for his election.

Bernie Sanders is not new to his positions.  He has been espousing them for years.  They are not focus group tested policies.  They are what he truly believes.  In the weeks to come, I will focus more on the policies in detail.  For now, these are just summaries of some of his positions and policies that I think are great.

Democracy

Our democracy is being destroyed by big money and voter suppression.  Bernie Sanders has been clear that we need to stand up to the billionaire class who are spending billions of dollars to impose their will on the country.  That is not democracy.  We need to reverse the Citizens United case and provide for government funding of campaigns.  Bernie Sanders is a strong advocate for both of these positions.    We also need to stop the Republican efforts at voter suppression.  Bernie Sanders wants to reinstate the provisions of the Voting Rights Act that require pre-approval of voting rights changes in states with histories of racial discrimination.

Economic Justice

Bernie Sanders, along with Elizabeth Warren, is at the forefront of the movement for economic justice - imposing higher taxes on the rich, having a $15 an hour minimum wage, increasing workers' wages, rebuilding the infrastructure of this country providing thousands of middle class jobs, providing better educational opportunities, focusing on increasing the incomes and opportunities for the poor and middle class, and the list goes on and on.

Bernie Sanders is an outspoken critic of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other similar "trade" agreements that are negotiated in secret by the government with the help of big business but with no input from economic justice advocates or environmentalists.

Racial Justice

Bernie Sanders has issued a detailed plan to work to eliminate institutional racism in this country, including police and criminal justice reforms.  In addition, all of his economic justice initiatives will help alleviate the lack of economic racial justice in the country.

Privacy

Bernie Sanders is a strong advocate for protecting the privacy of the American people from government spying.

Women's Rights

Bernie Sanders is a strong advocate for women's rights and has been for years.  As mayor of Burlington, VT he passed some of the first legislation to advocate for women's economic rights and he has always been a strong supporter of women's health care rights.

Foreign Policy

Bernie Sanders voted against President Bush's Iraq war and has been consistently in favor of diplomacy over military action.  He is in favor of the Iraq nuclear agreement.  When Bernie Sanders says that war should be the last resort, he means it.

Environment

Bernie Sanders is and has always been an environmental activist.  He is opposed to fracking and the Keystone XL Pipeline and other environmentally dangerous fossil fuel development.  He is a long time supporter of alternative energy options.

Regulating Capitalism

Bernie Sanders understands that capitalism must be regulated.  If left alone the market will destroy capitalism and create an oligarchy as we have seen in recent years.  He is in favor of breaking up the banks that are too big to fail and curbing the abuses of Wall Street and making sure that all businesses have to account for all the costs of their activities including pollution, paying wages so low the government must subsidize the workers, etc.

Immigration

Bernie Sanders has been criticized by some progressives for his immigration position.  While his immigration position is more complicated and nuanced than other Democrats, I think it is very consistent with his guiding principles.  He supports immediately bringing all undocumented people out of the shadows and giving them a real path to citizenship.  He is, however, not in favor of many of the open border and guest worker programs.  His overriding concern is to protect American workers.  If anybody thinks that Republicans and big business want guest worker programs and more legal immigration because they are concerned about providing opportunities to immigrants, they are crazy.  They want those programs for an ongoing supply of cheap labor.  That is the reason that Bernie Sanders has objected to those programs.  Ultimately, he voted for the 2013 immigration reform bill but only after he was able to secure an amendment that provided significant funds for jobs for American workers.  Immigration is important to our success as a country, but we should not bring people here to be cheap labor.  We should bring people here because they want to come and be full participants in our country which will make us a better country.

Education

Bernie Sanders is a strong advocate for education.  Consistent with his core beliefs, we will not be able to achieve economic justice, to reduce the wealth and income gaps between the rich and the poor, to eliminate institutional racism, to compete in the global economy or to achieve economic prosperity for all without a great educational system.  That system has to be truly available to all at no cost.  Bernie Sanders is the leading proponent of making college free and affordable.

Healthcare

Bernie Sanders has been pushing for a universal single payer health system for years.  We are the only developed country in the world that views healthcare as a privilege not a right.  While for those that can pay, we have a great healthcare system.  The system overall costs significantly more than in other developed countries and has significantly poorer results.

I look forward to more detailed discussions of the issues in this election and whether or not Bernie Sanders has the best policies and positions.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Thank you President Obama

Dear Friends,

I want to thank President Obama for his executive action on immigration.  It certainly does not solve the problem and many families can still be ripped apart by deportation, but it is a great step in the right direction.  This action will certainly be a part of the legacy of President Obama's time in office and in my view a very positive part of his legacy.  Unfortunately, another part of his legacy will be that he was the deporter in chief, having deported more people than any other President.

Nicholas Kristof had an insightful and well balanced op-ed in The New York Times this morning (here) entitled "Immigration Enriches You and Me".  It is certainly worth the time to read and consider it.

Another interesting op-ed piece in The New York Times was by Peter Schuck, a law professor entitled "Why Congress Can Impeach Obama" (here).  He is not arguing that Congress should impeach President Obama.  He argues that impeachment is more a political action than a legal action.  He is also doubtful of the correctness of President Obama's legal position that his executive order on immigration is within his authority.  It is a very interesting article written by someone who supports immigration reform and voted for President Obama twice.  In the end he believes that while impeachment is a political action it should only be used in extreme cases and that President Obama's executive order even if it does exceed his legal authority is not one of those cases.

I have wondered why President Obama does not put forth a detailed legal and political justification for his executive order including a clear analysis of the executive actions of his predecessors (particularly President H.W. Bush and President Reagan).  While it would not make any difference to the Republicans who deep down do not think that he should be President, it is possible that some real news outlets would actually discuss the issue of the extent of the President's authority.  It would be a good debate for this country to have particularly in light of the fact that Congress lets the President wage war and spy on us without authority.

At the risk of offending some of the few readers I have, I want to highlight another article in The New York Times this morning by Juliet Lapidos entitled "Hillary Clinton Takes Sides on Immigration" (here).  I am upset that Secretary Clinton has not taken a position on the XL pipeline.  However, at least on immigration she has taken a position supporting President Obama's action.  The article ends with a sentence that resonates with me as a person who finds it hard to support Secretary Clinton as the next Democratic nominee for President.

But she could have ducked responding to this specific action. The fact that she didn’t suggests that she thinks Republican complaints of “Caesarism” will matter less in two years than immigration advocates’ gratefulness to the Democratic Party.

It is hard for me to get excited about supporting somebody whose positions seem to be determined more by how they will be viewed by the electorate than by what she really believes.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Listen to Maureen Dowd

Dear Friends,

President Obama should take the advice of Maureen Dowd in her recent op-ed column in The New York Times entitled "A Modest Proposal" (here).  You should read the whole column but here is the proposal:

He gives a passionate address to the nation, channeling 2004 Obama, and asks, as the son of a foreigner who came to America to go to school, how our mosaic of immigrants soured into such a cruel place toward displaced children.
He defies the Republicans and shoots the moon on an executive order, giving backdoor amnesty to millions of undocumented Hispanic immigrants as well as all those suffering kids on the border who are afraid to live in their own violent countries.

How proud I would be of President Obama!!!

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Save the children by letting them stay

Dear Friends,

All the talk in Washington these days seems to be about how to speed up the deportation of the children coming to our borders escaping a life of violence, death, poverty and hopelessness from their  homes in Central America.  Stephen Colbert did a segment on The Colbert Report recently that calls out the hypocrisy of our politicians and, I am afraid, our country.  You should watch it.

The Colbert Report
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It seems like most politicians from both parties are looking for ways to speed the deportation of these children.  Many of these children have grounds for asylum even under our rather antiquated laws.  Both legally and morally they deserve a real opportunity to receive asylum.  A recent article in The New York Times entitled "Rush to Deport Young Migrants Could Trample Asylum Claims" (here) makes this crisis more personal and real.  I hope you will read it, and then demand that President Obama not send these children back to poverty, violence and death.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

President Obama and Immigration

Dear Friends,

President Obama's approach to immigration seems to me to be schizophrenic.  He has continued to deport more people than any prior President, and he continues to seek support from Republicans for his efforts to defend our borders and keep the "others" out.  At the same time he seems he really cares for individuals, e.g. the Dream Act.  As with most things today, I do not know what President Obama really feels about any issue.  He continues to do things that the Republicans should like and to do things that show complete disdain for his political base.

His latest request to Congress for $3.7 billion to address the huge increase in minors illegally entering the country demonstrates President Obama's lack of a rational approach to the immigration problem.  There are apparently 52,000 minors currently being detained and processed (for the most part to be sent home) and President Obama wants $3.7 billion to address this crisis.  I did the math and that is over $70,000 per minor.  Of course his proposal includes all kinds of border protection expenditures.  I suppose he included those to get Republican support.  He should have known that if he proposed it, the Republicans will be against it.  When will he learn. The Republicans are not against spending money to keep the "others" out or to deport them, but they do not want to let President Obama do it.

There is apparently nothing in President Obama's proposal to address the reason why so many minors are being sent unaccompanied by their parents on an incredibly dangerous 1,000+ mile journey to the United States.  These parents love their children just as all parents do, so the only reason they are subjecting their children to such danger is that it is the lesser of two evils since the conditions and environment in which the children are living is even more dangerous and in which there is not future for the children.

So both the Republicans and President Obama seem willing to let the children risk their lives to get here so long as we either stop them before they cross the border preferably with some kind of armed intervention or send them right back as soon as they get here.  If we spent a fraction of what the Republicans and President Obama are willing to spend on wars, the military and closing our borders on humanitarian aid and other efforts to make living conditions better for these families, we would not have the crisis that we have today.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

EQ 14: Executive Orders = Action

Dear Friends,

I was reminded this morning by my wife that President Obama is doing a good job enacting policy through Executive Orders.  While Executive Orders are by their nature limited in the scope of what they can accomplish, they do provide a way to get somethings done when a President is faced with an opposition party that is against anything that he proposes.  Since the Republicans have made it clear that they will oppose anything that President Obama is for (think Obamacare and Cap and Trade both originally Republican ideas), President Obama has been forced to use Executive Orders to get things done.  Today he announced one directing federal agencies to find ways to expand flexible work place policies to be more family friendly.  Previously, he has used Executive Orders to prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.  He has made it easier to have the states provide information about mental illness to the federal gun background check system.  He has increased the minimum wage for federal contractors.  He has addressed climate change, most recently with coal fired power plant emissions.  The list goes on and you can see it here.

Each of these orders is just a small step.  It would be far better to have Congress act much more broadly in these areas, but that is not going to happen so we should encourage President Obama to continue to use Executive Orders whenever he can.  We should particularly encourage him to stop deporting people who may be here illegally but who do not pose any safety threat to our communities and if people are being deported to do so in a much more humanitarian way.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal