what is your priority, number one issue?

[nosmokes]

i've assumed the war is priotity for all of us and so i din't bother to include it.

thanks

[trotsky]

1. Keep religion out of government

and the rest would improve. Or at least allow us to properly focus on them.

[losdiablosgato]

19. Jobs, good paying jobs.

[William769]

2. Other

Equal rights for all.

[JoZbean]

3. Right now, the illegal war

[DemInDistress]

4. Without election reform the Democrats

will NEVER see a major win in Congress/Whitehouse...just my opinion

[CrispyQ]

5. Election reform.

If our votes don't count we don't have a voice & democracy in America is dead. We also need to get corporations out of our electoral process. With their huge wealth, they have unequal influence.

[helderheid]

6. I think equally media reform and election reform but without the masses

getting the truth about election reform (or any other issue), we're in deep do do

[Oeditpus Rex]

9. How would you execute media reform?

The media are private enterprise. You might as well try to "reform" Wal-Mart.

:shrug:

[helderheid]

32. I don't know how, but it is vital. Perhaps a lost cause but a major issue

[TheFarseer]

7. Hello!

Economy, Energy? Where are those? I picked debt/deficit because that was the closest I could get to economy on your list.

edited because I noticed your foreword on Iraq

[nosmokes]

25. sorry - thought i had economy on there

it's tough to narrow it down to 10, that's one reason i made the war/mess-o-potamia a given.

[Lerkfish]

8. always for me is: ending torture and abuse of detainees.

there can be NO credible believable justification for continuing that barbarism.
Even experts say its counterproductive to obtaining useful information.
The fact that Bush wants to veto anything restricting his "right" to torture anyone he chooses is a red flag that:

someone is doing something in my name that is morally without merit.
someone is making it MORE dangerous for our own troops.
someone is getting off on the idea of torturing people.

all those things, while not the CAUSE of the downfall of the US, are symptomatic of the rotten fabric of corruption and depravity which has infected our leaders.

[Lerkfish]

38. odd. I'm the only one who doesn't want torture...whoda thunk?

oh well, its still my most important issue, though they are all important.

[demzilla]

10. Health care

We've been waiting for reform since Truman. Now it is ridiculously expensive to have insurance, assuming they'll insure you in the first place.

[NoBushSpokenHere]

11. Election reform because with it - we can do something about all

the rest. Without it, we no longer have a democracy.

[porphyrian]

12. Without election reform, the other things won't change. - n/t

[Chan790]

17. I'm not sure...

that election reform is possible until we have power. We kind of have to win before we can truly reform the system to be fair. It's kind of a catch-22 in that way.

It seems the best way to do that is to focus on it in its own right and not as part of a democratic agenda or an election-time issue.

[graywarrior]

13. Election reform.

Without it, everything else is moot.

[longship]

14. Impeachment

Before I can put any other priority forward we have to purge the government. Impeachment and removal has become mandatory at this point. We can no longer afford to wait for political convenience. The longer the wait, the worse the damage. We must get these guys out of office, out of power.

[kiteinthewind]

15. Election Reform

Without election reform, all other issues are mute.:think: edit:moot!!

[readmoreoften]

16. I don't understand how the war can be the most important goal.

The war is a symptom of a this murderous cabal. If we don't get rid of them, uproot them-- and I mean the entire PNAC, the theocrats, and the Bush Admin-- then we have nothing but unending war, liminal martial law, and theocracy until the union collapses.

Getting the bastards out is the only goal we can really have.

[nonconformist]

18. Other: Labor Issues

Jobs, fair wages, fighting against Corporate America.

A very, very close second is Health Care and Election Reform.

[losdiablosgato]

20. Hear , Hear!!!

[nosmokes]

40. ya know it was the unions that brought about universal

health care in the UK and most of europe. i believe that we would've followed suit here at the time but even then america had that whole commie scare thing going on, and the deep pockets made sure that everyone believed universal healthcare was first cousin to the devil himself.

[mestup]

21. Election reform will be #1, if Dems too lazy to go after non-voters.

I know election reform is crucial, but the emphasis stems from the increasingly diminishing pool of voters.

How many polls will Dem leaders need to see before they realize most non and no-longer voters would vote overwhelmingly Democratic if they were presented with a REASON to go vote.

[Bridget Burke]

24. How stupid does someone have to be to vote Republican?

Even some whose family income makes Inheritance Tax a real issue have enough enlightened self-interest to vote Democratic. Why the hell do people think they need a reason to vote handed to them on a silver platter?

Yes, Democrats should do more outreach. But without election reform, our votes won't count.

[mestup]

28. It's not about being stupid. It's about being brainwashed.

As much as we all love access to online liberal blogs/forums/articles, the average American citizen with the right to vote doesn't have a clue about what's happening in this country.

What they've been steadily learning from experience is that politicians are corrupt, and there's no point in voting because you'll just get more of the same.

There's a reason more than half the eligible voters in our country don't vote. I just think Dems need to spend the time and energy to figure out what it is.

[kiteinthewind]

22. Impeachment

Impeachment IS a priority, but again, if we can't get a fair election and get more Dems, impeachment is only a dream!

[The2ndWheel]

23. Environment

Can't even steal an election without air and water.

I was leaning towards other; the complete decentralization of civilization, and dismantling of all power structures. But I always come to the same conclusion; good luck with that.

So, I went with environment.

[eallen]

26. #1 -- Civil liberty.

It amazes me that the Democratic Party does such a mediocre job at trumpeting the notion that it is the party of freedom. The GOP, hypocritically, never fails to do this. "Freedom, freedom, freedom," the GOP trumpets, even as it attacks abortion rights, reproductive freedoms, gay rights, and scientists freedom to pursue research.

Why do we let them get away with that? Why, at every turn, do we not assert that the Democratic Party stands up for individual liberty, against its greatest current danger, our native Taliban, in the guise of the GOP?

[kiteinthewind]

27. Paper Ballots

To take it further, we need to return to paper ballots, hand counted in public, with reps from Dem, Repug, Green, Independent, etc. People need to be able to look at their ballot, put it in the box, and know it will be registered the way they marked it. We could even have scanners that the ballot could be fed into to take a pdf file/pic before it is place in the box. Anything, except machines!!!!

[RC]

29. Violent Crime

If starting an illegal war isn't a violent crime, I don't know what is.
Too bad we can't put the bu$h White House gang on trial for murder. One count per death.

[NNadir]

30. Global Climate Change. It is the one issue that threatens life itself.

[BlueIris]

31. Choice.

I still like what's left of my freedom of.

[mondo joe]

33. Equal rights for gays, followed closely by separation of church/state

which in effect is almost the same thing.

Not the only issue that determines my vote, but the one that matters to me most.

[blindpig]

34. The Environment is The Bottom Line. n/t

[Orsino]

35. Keep money out of government...

...by financing elections completely with taxpayer money. Once our candidates and office-holders can't be bought, they can start representing us instead of dollars.

[GreenPartyVoter]

36. It has to be

election and media reform, of course. You can't get good policies without good elected officials. And you can't get those without a viable and fair election system.

[mb7588a]

37. ONLY 2 votes for education?

We ARE fucked.

[welshTerrier2]

39. Other: democracy - represent people not corporations

this should have been on the list ... and until we all make this our highest priority, the reforms called for on the rest of the list will never happen ...

[drfresh]

41. Election reform, eliminating electronic voting machines

If we can't get elected, we can't take care of any other issues. Period.

[Warren DeMontague]

42. By "illegal drugs" do you mean "Continuing a stupid-ass war on SOME drugs

that blows $40 Billion dollars a year --mostly going after people who smoke pot-- and results in the highest incarceration rate of non-violent offenders in the industrialized world, borne out of a SERIOUSLY fucking misguided philosophical point of view that it is ANY of the government's god-damn business what a consenting adult chooses to do with his or her own body"?

If that is what "illegal drugs" means as an issue for people to "care" about, then what an idiotic response to support. No wonder it's at the bottom. The so-called "war on drugs" has only been recently supplanted by the so-called "war on terror" as the number one excuse for power-mad politicians to raid the treasury, trample the constitution, and destroy civil liberties.

I wonder, however, an answer like "Supporting A Socially Libertarian Commitment to Ensuring ACROSS THE BOARD Personal Self-Determination and Integrity, getting the government out of our bedrooms, our reproductive systems, our deathbeds and our bloodstreams" would have fared.

[DanCa]

43. After the war it's stem cell research

I have young onset parkinson's and am only thirty seven. I don't want to spend another thirty years living in pain and embarrasment because of someone elses religious beliefs.

[PurityOfEssence]

44. Election reform, specifically verifiable voting and no poll taxes

The greatest danger to the republic today is unverifiable voting, and nobody's doing anything about it. As long as things are fairly close, the ability to steal elections with electronic machines, as was done in '02, '04 and others, allows the right to largely do as it pleases.

[lpbk2713]

45. The economy and jobs.

So many jobs were sent overseas that it is a crime. Shithead has left the economy in a shambles and it will take several Dem administrations to undo the harm he has done.