What do you have in common with other Democrats/Leftists? Tougher

[blondeatlast]

than it looks on the surface!

These are ideas I personally see as being big "D" Democratic values; I've deliberately worked to keep them broadly defined:

Core belief in effective public education.

Protection of everyone's civil rights.

Health care as a human right.

Value of the worker as the driving force behind the economy.

Environmental protection.

I'm sure I've overlooked some, and there is certain to be argument. I've also deliberately avoided any use of the words "but" or "or," which isn't so easy to do. I've had to get rid of some things I thought were core values when I couldn't define them WITHOUT using those words!

I just think we need to define exactly what we believe in. Even the Republicans THINK they've done that, but it just isn't so; their beliefs have been DEFINED for them, and most definitely NOT by their grass-roots.

[mosin]

1. Tough task

You are right that it is tough. Even with the ones you've listed, people will quibble with details and qualifiers. :)

I, for instance, would change #4 to read "Value of the worker as a driving force behind the economy." I don't think we want to ignore either labor or capital as driving forces in the economy. Neither works without the other, something the other side often forgets.

I also support publicly funded and supported, but not exclusively publicly controlled, education. But as broadly as you've written that statement, I can't disagree. :)

[brainshrub]

3. I agree with the word "the" in #4.

You can give preference to Labor or Capital in government policy. If you give preference to Labor you get a healthier economy because, ultimately, it is the workers who purchase the goods and services that keep the economic machine humming. Furthermore, even if Capital disappeared, Laborers would still produce something. (Albeit less efficiently.)

If you give preference to Capital, you create a decent into feudalism as wealth gets concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. If labor disappeared, Capital would be worthless.

Capital has it's place, but Labor is definitely THE primary driving force behind the economy.

[papau]

5. I agree :-)

:-)

[InvisibleBallots]

8. like Lincoln said, "Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital"

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -- Abraham Lincoln

I agree with the original number 4.

[sandnsea]

9. Exactly

We've got to beat that into the heads of people, they've been bamboozled with the idea that their job wouldn't exist without business capital. Nonsense. Laborers will always find a way to economically benefit from their skills.

[MatrixEscape]

2. A couple of points ....

Core belief in effective public education.

I would contest the word "belief". I think we need to create a sharper line between beliefs and facts or what we propose in that respect.

I would say: Core recognition and support of effective public education.

Also, perhaps: Emphasize and promote the essential value of the worker as a driving force behind the economy.

Just my take. As for other key points, I guess that depends on how far you want to go in the leaning.

[blondeatlast]

7. Good point about "belief."

As to how far to go in the leaning, I want to make it something the Big Tent can come together on.

The finessing is the messy part; I'm looking to "tidy us up" a bit!

[papau]

4. TAX: Investment earnings and wage earnings get taxed equally

untaxed to date Capital gains get taxed on death, or the Estate tax is used in lieu of a capital gains tax at that time, but with a $5 million per estate deduction.

The rich end their tax war on the middle-class. We are against class warfare. Stop pretending tax increases on the rich are pointless and do not raise money because the rich are "smart".

Morality is the touchstone of all politics, but there is more to morality than sex, and more to morality than mitigating poverty via raising taxes for programs for the poor.

[rogerashton]

6. basic needs

Health care is a basic need. It is the key one for ordinary Americans who, happily, are rarely hungry or ill-clothed, though housing, also a basic need, is denied to an important majority -- what a travesty of justice in a country as rich as ours!

so I suggest

"Satisfaction of basic needs, including health care, as a human right."

I also want to reinforce your use of the term "the worker as the driving force." Capital (and technology, to the extent that it can be distinguished from capital) are necessary complements to labor, but -- I think of capital as the highway (and the capitalist as the toll-taker). If the traveller cannot get on the highway, either because it is not there or because he cannot afford the toll, then his trip will be slow and difficult -- but the highway (capital) is a means to a purpose, and the trip (labor) is the purpose. And the common claim that capitalists "create jobs" is like saying that toll-takers create highways.

All in all, this is a good idea -- perhaps a catechism is what we need -- and for those who disagree with it, fine. Not everybody on this board shares the values of the democratic left.

edited -- more verbiage.