skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Nader Tots!
Cole and I drove to Ames earlier today to watch Ralph Nader speak at ISU. I made a couple notes regarding particular talking points of his that I really liked. The first of which was his refrain that America is the only "Western" country failing to provide so many human accomodations that would better our society; such as health care and college education. Do I think that in America, every citizen should be afforded health care? Absolutely. Do I think that in America, every citizen should be afforded a college education? Definitely. I'm on board with both ideas and am glad that the candidate I intend to vote for (Barack Obama) has plans to make both of these subjects a reality. Nader threw out $60 billion as a rough figure for what it would cost to provide free tuition to public universities. That's what our military is spending roughly every ten months in Iraq...or less than ten percent of the recent bail-out package. If we're going to create money out of nowhere, shouldn't it be for the general benefit of everybody, not just a select group? Another point from Nader is that while we're all subject to sales tax, Wall St. is exempt. If Wall St. were taxed just one tenth of one percent on the sale of derivatives, it would net $500 billion per year (they could bail themselves out?). Unfortunately, our government blew a great opportunity to institute such a policy by giving in to special interests. Ralph Nader suggested a couple of solutions for this reoccuring special interest problem. One solution would be to take away the legal stance that a corporation is a person with legal rights; which takes away any business' ability to legally participate in government. A supplemental idea I really like would be to create Congressional Watch-Dog groups in every district. Two or three non-partisan, full-time employees monitoring the actions of a distrct's representative and reporting back to that district (making more readily available information so that we can hold our representatives accountable). This can be greatly effective in that the most power granted by the Constitution to any branch of government is to Congress... a collective of representatives that can have a two-thirds (majority) change in seated representatives every four years. If we held our representatives accountable for their actions (and obvious catering to lobbyists), perhaps representatives like Leonard Boswell would rightly be out of office well before they can make such an ill-advised vote as he did on the financial markets bill. Ugh. Anyhow, the main theme of Nader's speech seemed to be "civic responsibility." He's running for President, although there's no chance of winning, because of it is his civic responsibility. He's able to spread his ideas around the country and provide a call to action for persons suffering from general apathy. He said something along the lines of 'freedom is actively engaging the forces that would potentially impede such liberty'... not simply sitting around listening to the music of our choosing or whatever inconsequential thing any of us are doing; but being involved in the process. I hope to take that to heart. Finally, a point he made a couple of times is that if one concede's to "least-worst voting" (less of two evils), one must challenge the candidate they choose to take up ideas that aren't being discussed. We must hold them accountable for flip-flops in stance, when their original stance was the right one (see: Barack Obama's FISA vote). It's with this idea, that I can still vote for Barack Obama next month and not consider myself a hypocrite. I have to challenge myself to do what's in my power to make him a candidate I support. On a smaller scale, I need to challenge myself to be more active in harassing our dumb ass local representatives until they start acting correctly in their elected capacity.
Cole and I drove to Ames earlier today to watch Ralph Nader speak at ISU. I made a couple notes regarding particular talking points of his that I really liked. The first of which was his refrain that America is the only "Western" country failing to provide so many human accomodations that would better our society; such as health care and college education. Do I think that in America, every citizen should be afforded health care? Absolutely. Do I think that in America, every citizen should be afforded a college education? Definitely. I'm on board with both ideas and am glad that the candidate I intend to vote for (Barack Obama) has plans to make both of these subjects a reality. Nader threw out $60 billion as a rough figure for what it would cost to provide free tuition to public universities. That's what our military is spending roughly every ten months in Iraq...or less than ten percent of the recent bail-out package. If we're going to create money out of nowhere, shouldn't it be for the general benefit of everybody, not just a select group? Another point from Nader is that while we're all subject to sales tax, Wall St. is exempt. If Wall St. were taxed just one tenth of one percent on the sale of derivatives, it would net $500 billion per year (they could bail themselves out?). Unfortunately, our government blew a great opportunity to institute such a policy by giving in to special interests. Ralph Nader suggested a couple of solutions for this reoccuring special interest problem. One solution would be to take away the legal stance that a corporation is a person with legal rights; which takes away any business' ability to legally participate in government. A supplemental idea I really like would be to create Congressional Watch-Dog groups in every district. Two or three non-partisan, full-time employees monitoring the actions of a distrct's representative and reporting back to that district (making more readily available information so that we can hold our representatives accountable). This can be greatly effective in that the most power granted by the Constitution to any branch of government is to Congress... a collective of representatives that can have a two-thirds (majority) change in seated representatives every four years. If we held our representatives accountable for their actions (and obvious catering to lobbyists), perhaps representatives like Leonard Boswell would rightly be out of office well before they can make such an ill-advised vote as he did on the financial markets bill. Ugh. Anyhow, the main theme of Nader's speech seemed to be "civic responsibility." He's running for President, although there's no chance of winning, because of it is his civic responsibility. He's able to spread his ideas around the country and provide a call to action for persons suffering from general apathy. He said something along the lines of 'freedom is actively engaging the forces that would potentially impede such liberty'... not simply sitting around listening to the music of our choosing or whatever inconsequential thing any of us are doing; but being involved in the process. I hope to take that to heart. Finally, a point he made a couple of times is that if one concede's to "least-worst voting" (less of two evils), one must challenge the candidate they choose to take up ideas that aren't being discussed. We must hold them accountable for flip-flops in stance, when their original stance was the right one (see: Barack Obama's FISA vote). It's with this idea, that I can still vote for Barack Obama next month and not consider myself a hypocrite. I have to challenge myself to do what's in my power to make him a candidate I support. On a smaller scale, I need to challenge myself to be more active in harassing our dumb ass local representatives until they start acting correctly in their elected capacity.
9 comments:
What is Obama's plan on paying for health care, education, and the swap of troops in Irag to Afghanistan?
Iraw*
Iraq**
Healthcare: More efficient use of current tax revenues, mostly freed up by going through the current budget "line by line" and cutting ridiculous programs and spending. A lot of current tax revenues are going to rerouted in Obama's proposals. This is how people making the amount of money I make will not see a rise in income tax. I'd really like to see a figure though containing much more specific items that will free up revenues for these projects per estimated costs...
Education: Again, better use of current tax revenue (our money). Students get tax credits for first $4k or 2/3 of University tuition and in return, complete 100 hours of community service. It's like you're hired by the government to do some good stuff and paid with knowledges.
General War Douchocracy: Stupid. Maybe we get to see Osamn Bin Laden's dead body... Our presence in the Middle East is dumb. We're perpetuating the conflict by creating more enemies. Joe Biden seems to understand this. He suggests that if we're there at all, we have to put equal effort into infrastructure and "winning the hearts and minds" of the country's citizens (help build schools, hospitals, train citizens in random skills, etc.) It's more money there, but if we're going to be there (which we are), we may as well do some damage control.
Next questions:
How will you hold Obama accountable? I do not even know how to do this.
Essentially, the extent of my ability to hold a person in such office accountable is to keep myself informed, write letters to the representative (essentially individually lobby Obama), and continue to share my opinions in such a forum as this blog, decuadros, and/or in talking with people like yourself; so that we can find common ground to organize effectively. This will also involve doing the same with lower level representatives (like members of Congress) to make sure they're held accountable in being the voice of the people in Washington.
Next Questions:
What made you decide not to vote for Boswell? And then, the reason you decided not to vote for Boswell, could you apply this reasoning to Obama?
Could you apply your accountability to Boswell, then vote for him?
I want Boswell out of office because he no longer represents his constituents here in Iowa. He plays party politics, votes for lobbies, and I feel as though a new face in that seat could make a much bigger difference than he does. While Obama is certainly guilty of playing party politics and lobbyist voting over the last year, his record before then was very dissimilar (and that's the Obama I'm hoping comes out once elected - the Obama that won the Iowa Primary). We have a better chance of getting our voice heard by changing things from the bottom up, so by working locally to ensure Boswell is removed potentially helps in holding President Obama accountable; by having an actual representative in Washington.
As far as applying accountability to Boswell, if he's re-elected, then it'll be my civic responsibility to continue writing him and pointing out in discussions with others inconsistencies in his voting. However, on the local level, there's a much better chance of electing a better representative than on the Presidential level where we only have two choices, so I don't have to succumb to least-worst voting.
I just cannot wait to see what happens.
Post a Comment