Political platforms
The only thing anyone is submitting as a platform for this election cycle is "We're not them!"
Have you heard anyone give any substantive policy statements? Anyone outlining what they're going to do if elected? I'm not talking about the pablum of "safe schools", "helping families", "better education" and all that crap. I mean something akin to the Contract With America. Republicans forget why they won in a landslide in 1994. Any GOPer who put forth anything along those lines would be run out of the party on a rail.
Democrats can't possibly really tell people what they want to do. They know that's poison at the voting booth.
The actual contract looked like this:
On the first day of their majority, the Republicans promised to hold floor votes on eight reforms of government operations:
* require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;
* select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
* cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
* limit the terms of all committee chairs;
* ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
* require committee meetings to be open to the public;
* require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
* and implement a zero base-line budgeting process for the annual Federal Budget.
The Democrats, if they were possessed by a fit of honesty, would submit something like this:
On the first day of their majority, the Republicans promised to hold floor votes on eight reforms of government operations:
* require all laws that apply to the rest of the world also apply to America
* select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Republicans for waste, fraud or abuse;
* cut the number of Republicans by one-third;
* limit the terms of all CEOs
* ban public displays of Christian or Jewish religious practices
* require Fortune 500 board meetings to be open to the public;
* require a three-fifths majority vote to reduce taxes;
* and implement a manditory minimum increases for the annual Federal Budget.
"We're not them" isn't a platform or even a strategy. It's a tactic and we'll see how successful it is. I think Republicans are going to lose control of Congress and that means Bush might actually find out what a veto is. At this point, gridlock would do us all some good.
I'm not big on bumperstickers but I saw one yesterday that I'd put on my car:
I miss President Reagan
Have you heard anyone give any substantive policy statements? Anyone outlining what they're going to do if elected? I'm not talking about the pablum of "safe schools", "helping families", "better education" and all that crap. I mean something akin to the Contract With America. Republicans forget why they won in a landslide in 1994. Any GOPer who put forth anything along those lines would be run out of the party on a rail.
Democrats can't possibly really tell people what they want to do. They know that's poison at the voting booth.
The actual contract looked like this:
On the first day of their majority, the Republicans promised to hold floor votes on eight reforms of government operations:
* require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress;
* select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
* cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
* limit the terms of all committee chairs;
* ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
* require committee meetings to be open to the public;
* require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
* and implement a zero base-line budgeting process for the annual Federal Budget.
The Democrats, if they were possessed by a fit of honesty, would submit something like this:
On the first day of their majority, the Republicans promised to hold floor votes on eight reforms of government operations:
* require all laws that apply to the rest of the world also apply to America
* select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Republicans for waste, fraud or abuse;
* cut the number of Republicans by one-third;
* limit the terms of all CEOs
* ban public displays of Christian or Jewish religious practices
* require Fortune 500 board meetings to be open to the public;
* require a three-fifths majority vote to reduce taxes;
* and implement a manditory minimum increases for the annual Federal Budget.
"We're not them" isn't a platform or even a strategy. It's a tactic and we'll see how successful it is. I think Republicans are going to lose control of Congress and that means Bush might actually find out what a veto is. At this point, gridlock would do us all some good.
I'm not big on bumperstickers but I saw one yesterday that I'd put on my car:
I miss President Reagan
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