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President Obama was far too timid during his first term to push for progressive policies. Obama has a progressive streak in him but he's governed like a pragmatic centrist. This is why the left wing of the democratic party has been unhappy with his presidency.
This is a liberal country ready for real liberal policies. Yet, even with a democratic house and senate the best we could do was the Affordable Care Act, which is a conservative solution(first promoted by the Heritage Foundation in the 90's) to America's health care problem.
Liberals should call for the following:
- Universal single payer health care modeled after the Canadian system.
- guaranteed vacation time for all workers. We are the only country in the developed world that doesn't mandate by law guaranteed vacation time for workers. You have people in this country that work 50 and 60 hours a week and never get a vacation. This isn't just wrong it is IMMORAL. Everyone who works should be guaranteed paid vacation time. Even conservatives in European countries recognize the benefits of this. A rested workforce is a revitalized work force. A stressed work force is not good for society or the individual.
- gun control - universal background checks. Banishment of high capacity assault weapons. There is no reason someone should be allowed to own an AR-15. You can't make an argument for needing one.
- Campaign finance - public funding of all elections.
Good to see a real liberal. This place is crawling with righties. I am more of a pragmatic centrist myself, but I welcome your ideas.
Those ideas all sound good to me. The Canadian model is better than ours, but retains most of our cultural norms.
I think the biggest argument will be with the working class whites who would prefer to work 60 hours a week with no benefits than to go for that socialist stuff. Even though it would undoubtedly improve their quality of life. Back in the day, workers used to fight "the man." Now they fight for "the man." Right wing media is good chit!
Good to see a real liberal. This place is crawling with righties. I am more of a pragmatic centrist myself, but I welcome your ideas.
Those ideas all sound good to me. The Canadian model is better than ours, but retains most of our cultural norms.
I think the biggest argument will be with the working class whites who would prefer to work 60 hours a week with no benefits than to go for that socialist stuff. Even though it would undoubtedly improve their quality of life. Back in the day, workers used to fight "the man." Now they fight for "the man." Right wing media is good chit!
well I wouldn't call a federal law mandating paid vacation time socialism. Socialism is when the government controls the means of production. This would just be a federal labor law.
I think workers in this country not getting paid vacation leads to a host of social problems. They become more stressed.They are more strained and alienated from society. The higher stress levels lead to more crime. Its dehumanizing for someone to work work work and never get a vacation.
When I lived and worked in Britain one thing I learned is that all work was honorable. That's how Britons feel. Yet, in American society there is a large segment of the population that puts down low wage workers. I'm not sure why this is. I don't think its sinister and I don't think they want them to feel dehumanized. But there's a little bit of "yeah i made it to where i am, why can't you?" attitude here in the U.S
Maybe one reason all work is considered honorable in Britain is because its easier for people to get on public assistance and housing benefits. Those people that abuse that system are looked down upon and should be. But I never ever saw someone say "hey look at that min wage worker..what a *******." Instead you hear "good lad, puttin a shift in". But here in the U.S the attitude toward the low wage worker is similar to the attitude in Britain towards the public assistance abuser.
- Universal single payer health care modeled after the Canadian system.
The Canadian system is actually not very good. The World Health Organization tends to rate France's system much more highly.[/quote]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aldous9
- guaranteed vacation time for all workers. We are the only country in the developed world that doesn't mandate by law guaranteed vacation time for workers. You have people in this country that work 50 and 60 hours a week and never get a vacation. This isn't just wrong it is IMMORAL. Everyone who works should be guaranteed paid vacation time. Even conservatives in European countries recognize the benefits of this. A rested workforce is a revitalized work force. A stressed work force is not good for society or the individual.
No one is forced to work 50-60 hours a week. I've had probably 15 different jobs in my life. I've never worked more than 42 hours in a single week in my entire life. Secondly, I don't know why you believe that a "rested workforce is a revitalized work force". Is the Swedish workforce more productive than the American workforce? Does the average Swedish laborer produce higher quality of work than the average American laborer?
Look, if you want paid vacations, don't work for anyone who doesn't provide you with a paid vacation, and boycott any company that doesn't offer paid vacations. The problem with the concept of paid vacations, is that it is necessarily inefficient.
Think of it like this. Most manufacturing plants run 24/7, in three shifts. The reason why is, if you only ran the equipment eight hours a day instead of 24 hours a day, it would take three times as much machinery to produce the same amount of goods. If you mandate people to have paid vacations, then you create labor holes. Basically, you might hire X amount of workers based on how much labor you need. But if they are gone several weeks out of the year, then you either have to juggle the workers you have to make sure all the positions are covered, or you have to hire temporary workers to cover the weeks that your employees take off for vacation. It creates an absolute headache for small businesses with very few employees. But is much easier for large businesses with many employees.
Quote:
- gun control - universal background checks. Banishment of high capacity assault weapons. There is no reason someone should be allowed to own an AR-15. You can't make an argument for needing one.
Look, there are several arguments for needing an AR-15 and lots of bullets. But regardless, assault weapons aren't necessarily any more lethal than handguns. For instance, the Virginia Tech shooter used two handguns and killed more people than the guy at Newtown.
Secondly, I hate to break it to you. But you can't trust the government. You might argue that government is us, we shouldn't be afraid of ourselves. But the reality is that, even if this was a democracy, it tends to be 51% effectively subjugating the other 49%. But even worse, it isn't even 51% really, considering the influence of special interests, who wield a disproportionate amount of power. And, one of the greatest ways to prevent abuses by the government. Is to simply tell them you aren't going to allow it, and then show them your gun.
Quote:
- Campaign finance - public funding of all elections.
Its a nice idea, but is inherently problematic, and still doesn't solve the influence of money and power. Furthermore, you aren't going to be repealing Citizens United anytime soon. So it is a moot point.
What I would rather see is, a restriction of the government. There wouldn't be so many lobbyists getting paid big money in Washington D.C. if the government was limited. There would simply be no favors to hand out, no subsidies to seek, no tax credits for corporations, etc. What would lobbyists do if the government had basically zero power? They would be out of a job.
President Obama was far too timid during his first term to push for progressive policies. Obama has a progressive streak in him but he's governed like a pragmatic centrist. This is why the left wing of the democratic party has been unhappy with his presidency.
This is a liberal country ready for real liberal policies. Yet, even with a democratic house and senate the best we could do was the Affordable Care Act, which is a conservative solution(first promoted by the Heritage Foundation in the 90's) to America's health care problem.
Liberals should call for the following:
- Universal single payer health care modeled after the Canadian system.
- guaranteed vacation time for all workers. We are the only country in the developed world that doesn't mandate by law guaranteed vacation time for workers. You have people in this country that work 50 and 60 hours a week and never get a vacation. This isn't just wrong it is IMMORAL. Everyone who works should be guaranteed paid vacation time. Even conservatives in European countries recognize the benefits of this. A rested workforce is a revitalized work force. A stressed work force is not good for society or the individual.
- gun control - universal background checks. Banishment of high capacity assault weapons. There is no reason someone should be allowed to own an AR-15. You can't make an argument for needing one.
- Campaign finance - public funding of all elections.
"President Obama was far too timid during his first term to push for progressive policies."
This will go down as the joke of the year.
Maybe you have heard of ObamaCare?
" There is no reason someone should be allowed to own an AR-15" Please oh wise one, what is it about an AR-15 that YOU believe it is such an evil rifle that it should be banned.
"OBAMACARE" is a right wing joke being played on the American people. It still leaves the parasitic insurance industry in the system. We should have Universal Health Care where the providers negotiate a payment schedule with the Federal government and all the sick person needs to do is show up with the UHC card with a small co-pay.
As a Liberal Democrat I am appalled that we are still in the Middle East protecting both the Saudi Royals and the Israeli colonizers. Both should be able to protect themselves. We need to spend our money rebuilding this country not rebuilding Iraq or Afghanistan.
I am also a Liberal that believes that Liberal is derived from Liberty and the Democrats insistence on ineffective gun control laws not only weaken the individual citizen's ability to defend themselves but are also unnecessary restrictions on free individuals.
" There is no reason someone should be allowed to own an AR-15" Please oh wise one, what is it about an AR-15 that YOU believe it is such an evil rifle that it should be banned.
This ought to be good!
Good question.... eagerly waiting for the OP's answer on this one.
Anyone that desires to own an AR-15 has a right to own an AR-15. They are effective on varmints from rat to human size and have become quite reliable. They are also decent target rifles.
I would rather have an M-1A with detachable magazines. I, personally, have no use for fully automatic submachine guns but they are fun to shoot.
In fact there are no evil guns. There are plenty of evil, unstable and/or downright dangerous people. You have to be wary of them not their guns.
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