North Idaho's    

  
Democrats' Opinions

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Why be a Democrat?

by Fred Glienna

There is nothing  un-American about being a progressive. In fact, there is a certain stubborn patriotism in believing that the massive transfer of wealth the last twenty years in the United States is very bad for the our country. The rich are getting much richer while the poor struggle much more for any chance of achieving the American Dream.

Buried under the avalanche of establishment publicity are the hidden historical facts that the overwhelming number of social benefits that have trickled down to the people from their legislators all generated on the left side of the aisle. Social Security, voting rights, Medicare, support for the arts, aid to education, worker's compensation, environmental protection, access for the disabled, Talking Books, veterans' benefits AND the G.I. Bill, are examples of programs we take for granted today. Flawed and in need of fine-tuning though some of them may be, our lives would be unimaginably weaker and bleaker without them. They all started with shoves from the left.

Democrats understand that the richest cultures are made up of mixtures of ethnicity, religion, language, traditions, and the other many factors that determine a society. We realize only thirty per cent of the world is white. We know that civilization requires tolerance. We tend to throw our arms wide open to embrace both new ideas and change. We have noticed that Nature teems with alteration and development, and that if you are not open to adjustment, you get swept away.

This is a very different United States of America than forty or sixty or eighty years ago, and if you spend too much of your time fuming about how things used to be, you drift toward bitterness and resentment. When you brood on the past, you often miss what is good, and often very good, about the present.

Leftists like equal opportunity and a less-tilted playing field, and we don't think the door to betterment should be slammed shut on those who have yet to succeed.

Too often in this country wealthy people try to manipulate the system so that they can keep their piles of money while preventing others from an equal chance at making theirs, and this manipulation disguises itself as thin political philosophy. Real wages--the measure of what you can actually buy with what you earn--have declined every year for almost thirty years, while our stock market demonstrates year after year of record growth. Democrats don't think it is fair to boost profits while cutting wages. We have noticed that the average family today requires TWO paychecks to live the way it did forty years ago with only one wage earner. We don't think it is fair to give generous dividends to stockholders while moving entire industries to countries with cheaper labor.

The Democratic Party keeps working toward economic policies that do not require wars to generate great fortunes. War has been good business throughout the entire history of civilization, but we on the left wish to promote policies that can bring healthy profits without killing.

We believe that it is our obligation to hand to future generations a planet healthier than the one we inherited, and that enormous profit for a few is no reason to increase ecological decay. While cleaning up pollution in the U.S. is important, very important, it is equally critical to encourage other countries to cease the degradation of their own environments. We all breathe the same air and drink the same water.  The world's supplies of both do not respect lines on a map.

Democrats believe---as all rational people must-- that our children deserve our best because they are the future. Rather than simply spouting pro-life slogans, however, we believe in and work for, and are willing to pay for, better neo-natal care, child care, school, day care, medical care, education, school nutrition, and job training. We think public colleges should be free.

Although abortion is a disturbing and troubling issue, a test of morality for many caring people, it simply is not the business of the government to usurp a woman's control over her own body.

We Democrats love our country, and want to keep it safe. We are not opposed to a strong military, nor are we opposed to rewarding our armed forces personnel for their noble service and sacrifice for their country. What we DO object to, however, is the use of our military might to shore up the interests of the wealthy, both foreign and domestic. Too many of our campaigns the last fifty years have been veiled attempts to do just that.

We believe that vigorous debate, full access to information, and open dialogue are all important to a functioning democracy.


Where Are We Going

by Bill Kersting



When I was young things were very simple.
The biggest question was why a golf ball had so many dimples.
The older I am the more I realize how little I understand.
Have values changed or is it that I'm an old man?
Where are we going?

The world looked upon us as freedoms beacon.
Has Lady Liberty's light started to weaken?
Now former friends look on us with distrust and disdain.
How did we lose our way and what can we do to maintain?

We have been at war trice in the past ten years.
Our youth fight in foreign lands and their families live in fear.
Yet we claim to be champions for freedom and peace.
Many wonder and ask why can't the fighting and fear cease.
Where are we going?

Our economy is in peril and tax cuts for a few makes the deficit soar.
Most are unaware and only a few have the courage to roar.
Social needs including those of veterans are badly neglected.
National policy to ignore the impact on the economy is reflected.

Our strength was once our form of government and for what it stood.
Campaign finance is long overdue if the system is to be all that it could.
Now it's at the altar of power where our elected officials pray.
It's time for the people to step forward and have their say.

Propaganda and misinformation is distributed almost every day.
The end justifies the means our elected officials say.
The fourth estate proudly monitored the government in an earlier time.
Now it meekly follows and is an instrument of the administration's line.
Where are we going?

Our nation invaded another country without the world's approval or consent.
The country is divided between those that approve and those that dissent.
Those that oppose the war are call traitors and unpatriotic.
Opposition to unwise actions of politicians used to be called democratic.

Support for war and the President is support for our troops they say.
Wouldn't it be nice if it was easy and you didn't count body bags every day?
They say it so glibly and always with a quip and a smile.
None in the administration was in combat and saw friends die for every mile.

Congress erodes civil rights with legislation like the Patriots Act.
While the media appears unable to distinguish fiction from fact.
Gone are freedom from search and seizure and the right of representation.
All of this achieved without the need for a court's documentation.
Where are we going?

We must rediscover what our forefathers achieved and bequeath to us.
When that lesson is relearned we will get back to a system that is just.
Elected officials as employees of the people is what they intended.
The system isn't broken, but it's bent and needs to be mended.

It would be easy to become discouraged and to lose heart.
That would be truly sad and unpatriotic, so we must start
to take control of our lives and get on the right track.
Working together, as one, we can get control of the system back.
Then, even an old man will know where we are going.


 
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