Message to America

According to the article you published last week on Yubanet (http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_17414.shtml), the two biggest problems facing Democrats are (#1) bringing out more votes than the Republicans and (#2) letting go of centralized control. With all due respect, I believe you’ve completely missed the mark.

Turning out the vote and de-centralizing control involves organization. But Democrats can’t organize – let alone move forward as a viable political party – without first having some degree of national consensus. Rank and file Democrats look up to our party’s leaders to help us form that consensus. This is why, in my opinion, the single most important challenge facing Democrats today is defining a clear identity and national agenda for our party. We need definition, Sir: refinement, purpose and direction.

I believe that the best way to achieve this new identity and agenda is to define a mission statement for our Party: a list of easily understood Democratic ideals or principles around which we can all rally. First, let us make these principles so basic and sensible that they will be unassailable by even our harshest critics. Next, let us make these principles attractive to all within our political spectrum: the liberals, the environmentalists, the progressives, the libertarians and moderates in order that we might unite them under one banner. Then, we give the voters a real choice: they can support a candidate who refuses to take a common sense approach to humanity and politics, or – as is more likely – they can support a Democrat who pledges to uphold those simple principles we hold most dear.

Am I crazy? Almost one year ago, you yourself went on the David Letterman show to read one of his “top ten” lists after your infamous screaming incident (http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/archive/ls_topten_archive2004/ls_topten_archive_20040122.shtml). So I ask you plainly: shouldn’t the Democratic Party have its own “top ten” list? I believe it should and I humbly submit the following:

#1) Democrats pledge to use the local, state and federal governments to help those less fortunate than ourselves: the poor and the sick in America. We seek promote abundant affordable housing for those with economic needs; we seek to promote free or nearly free health care for our neediest of citizens; and we seek to establish a living wage so that any American who is willing to work fulltime hours can be guaranteed enough income to provide the basic necessities: clothing, food and shelter. Like the figures of Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha that dominate our citizens’ holiest religious texts, we strive to help those who cannot help themselves for a reasonable period of time until they might begin to better care for themselves.

#2) Democrats pledge to use the local, state and federal governments to help protect God’s greatest gift to humanity: our very home, the Earth. We will strive to enact legislation to help reduce pollution of our skies and our many rivers and streams. We will work to save or expand our forests, deserts, prairies, and animal populations. We seek to honor God’s creation by learning to better live in balance with nature, enacting legislation if necessary, to ensure such balance and to teach it to our current business leaders and to future generations.

#3) Democrats pledge to use the local, state and federal governments to fully prosecute corporate crime. We pledge to permanently remove the business charter of any corporation - American or foreign - that knowingly seeks to harm the human population through abuse of: child labor, adult employees, the environment, or our core value system. Simultaneously, we will work to enact programs and legislation to REWARD those corporations that best serve our communities, our country and humanity. We will give financial incentives to those businesses that promote honor, respect and dignity and to those that take their role as community leaders seriously. As these corporations benefit from financial incentives, they will grow, creating new jobs.

#4) Democrats pledge to use the local, state and federal governments to reform the judicial sentencing system to reflect the differences between violent and non-violent crime. We currently have over 2,000,000 Americans in prison (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/prisons.htm). Over 54% of those in federal prisons are there for drug-related offenses (http://www.bop.gov/fact0598.html#Drug). We strive to enact sensible therapeutic treatment programs for those convicted of non-violent or drug-related crimes rather than forced imprisonment. Creation of these treatment programs means new jobs. Further, we recognize that if our communities suffer from repeated drug use or addictions, then we must help our citizens overcome their addictions by use of better parenting, stronger communities, 12-step groups, therapy, or doctor recommended medications.

#5) As individuals, Democrats pledge to assist every citizen in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. As those are our inalienable rights, we will oppose any law, individual or institution which discriminates on the basis of sex, race, age, religion, sexual orientation, or country of origin. Individuals will be judged ultimately by God, The Creator and not by humans. As such, we will assume it is in the best interests of society to treat every last human as a manifestation of The Divine.

#6) As representatives of America, Democrats pledge to uphold the highest standards of respect, understanding and patience. While we understand, sadly, that war is sometimes a necessity, we pledge to choose war only as a last resort when dealing with other countries. Instead, we strive first to treat other countries and their representatives as we ourselves would wish to be treated as Americans. We acknowledge that we are but one country in a world of many nations. Further, we understand that as a financial, entertainment and military world leader, we have a responsibility to first lead by the examples of balance, imagination, and peace.

#7) Democrats pledge to ensure that economic status will never play a role in determining which child will receive a better education. We recognize that a good education is not a luxury, but a right and a necessity if America is to continue to be a world leader. We therefore strive to promote and support legislation which better funds our public schools, pays our teachers a better salary and ensures that all children, regardless of economic status, will receive equally well-rounded education that includes a diverse curriculum.

#8) Democrats pledge to use the local, state and federal government to establish and guarantee a modernized VOTER’S BILL OF RIGHTS:

+ every voter who is of eligible age and legal status will have the unobstructed right to vote.
+ every voter is guaranteed an official “receipt” with their vote choices clearly marked; this receipt must be used in any recount.
+ bi-partisan commissions will be established to ensure that all digital voting machines provide data which is safe from hacking.
+ sufficient numbers of voting machines will be provided so that no voter will need to stand in line for more than one hour.
+ election day will be moved to a weekend or made into a national holiday like every other industrialized nation, providing everyone the chance to vote without the pressures of work.

#9) Democrats pledge to view abortion not as an independent moral issue, but rather as part of the larger problem of our culture’s approach to sexuality and childbirth. We pledge to promote and support legislation which teaches our children a well-rounded sexual education including the many options of birth control and abstinence to help prevent sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies; we pledge to introduce and support legislation guaranteeing extended and sensible maternity leaves so that women in the workplace can give birth to and raise their children and still be guaranteed their job when they are ready to return to work; we pledge to promote and support legislation that will make it far easier, affordable and comfortable for couples or single women to give up their child for adoption; we further pledge to promote and support legislation making it easier and cheaper for couples who wish to adopt a child to do so. Finally, democrats support the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, giving women the ability to have an abortion even if their own life is not in danger (http://www.tourolaw.edu/patch/Roe/#rop and scroll down to sections “X” and “XI”). As a national party, we accept and support Justice Blackmun’s definition of the “compelling” point of pregnancy as the distinction between an unborn being a potential life or a viable life: a potential life requires a mother for an unborn child to further develop in order to survive; a viable life is one where an unborn child might survive outside the womb without the mother’s assistance. We recognize that the States have a morally appropriate need to fight for the rights and survival of any viable life and we therefore pledge to support and promote legislation that allows the States to do so. Simultaneously, we pledge to support and promote legislation that endorses the faith that our female population knows how to make informed and responsible decisions in regards to terminating an unborn fetus when it is still a potential life.

#10) While our Party enjoys a diversity of opinions, Democratic leaders pledge to band together as a group to uphold and support these core principles and others to honor the voters. Further, because the Democratic leadership of today and tomorrow have such faith in these core principles, they acknowledge that the principles themselves are more important than any individual’s political career. Therefore, Democratic leaders pledge to uphold and support these principles even when it is politically difficult to do so or when it might mean losing an elected position. Finally, Democratic leaders pledge to help one another stand up for these core principles and to rise up against those who would attack our moral or ethical standards, using this list as our very code of conduct.

Dr Dean, if you are interested in leading our party and our nation, please do LEAD and set a course for us. THEN, decentralize control and turn out the vote and watch as we spread like wildfire…

With my deepest respect,

David Koff
Los Angeles,
dkoff@pacbell.net

--

"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice."

-- President George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2003

# posted by yo : 1:10 PM