What is the single most important issue to you?

[wyldwolf]

Considering what you feel are the appropriate Democratic stances on the following issues (Dems should be pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-civil rights, for example), which of the following is the single most important issue to you?

[LiberalVoice]

1. I'm having trouble deciding between...

Foreign Policy and Church/State...Specifically how the latter affects the former in this administration.

[wyldwolf]

4. I would like to do a follow-up poll for people's second choices

[LostInAnomie]

2. Social Justice

Civil rights and economic justice cannot be separated.

[bobweaver]

3. The fact that ECONOMIC INEQUALITY is not even on the above list is an

indication that the Democratic Party is still hopelessly lost in a laundry list of single issues and is missing the real issue, and thus is slipping into oblivion.

[wyldwolf]

5. two thoughts

1. I reworded the civil rights choice to include your concern
2. I'm flattered you would equate my poll with the entire Democratic party.

[Phoebe_in_Sydney]

20. I take your point

providing you accept that economic equality as a foreign policy issue and not just a domestic one.

[bobweaver]

22. Yes, of course, it's a local, regional, domestic, foreign and global issue

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Could civl rights include all of the above?

[wyldwolf]

8. it could and probably does but...

...but I'm being a bit more pragmatic in this poll.

[cyclezealot]

7. a difficult poll.

I voted healthcare..But bad trade deals, a sinking economy, and attack on our civil liberties/rights are really of equal status..
Voted health care..We have one of the poorest delivery systems in the world..( Cuba now has lower infant mortality),most corrupt, least efficent,least reliable sytem in the world...What like 25% is pure administrative costs...Can't rely on it..Get sick you have no benefits once your employer cans your azz...High rate of doctor's being sued...
But, you have a faultering economy with jobs being outsourced, business racketering some might think investment; and yet a Nazi government in training...and a military budget out of control bankrupting the national treasury...
All impacting other issues...

[cyclezealot]

41. Found an MLK quote to back up my priority.

"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane...Martin Luther King,Jr.

[Goldeneye]

9. If you screw up the environment

you're screwed.

[IndianaGreen]

10. Don't water down the choices in this poll, it is the WAR!

The war in Iraq is as big an issue today as Vietnam was in 1969. The lame "foreign policy" option does not do justice to the one issue that has split the Democratic Party as it certainly has American society.

[bobweaver]

11. Election reform (verifiable paper trail, public financing, equal time)

[JohnOneillsMemory]

27. Electronic voting machines are the crematoriums of democracy.

If we can't vote war criminals out of office, we are stuck with them forever and they will act with the impunity we see today.

Every other effort is pounding sand if we can't choose leaders. Period.

There ARE NO OTHER ISSUES until we address this.

[justy329]

12. The environment

because if that goes... well we may all die.

[stray cat]

13. Economic inequality and Budget

[robbedvoter]

14. This looks like them DNC polls I hate so much because they ignore war

election theft etc. So, I cannot vote in your poll either. My most important issue is democracy/voting rights followed by war/peace - which cannot be equated to "foreign policy" unless you are as demented as W.

[IndianaGreen]

19. That's why Kerry flopped so badly on Iraq

This looks like them DNC polls I hate so much because they ignore war

Kerry kept babbling about how he would have handled the Iraq conquest and occupation differently from Bush when the real issue was, and continues to be, that the war in Iraq is IMMORAL and that we must withdraw our troops as soon as possible. Kerry was a good DNC soldier (or sailor), but he failed to provide the leadership necessary to present the American people with a stark contrast between what he would have done differently from Bush.

The IWR vote is water under the bridge, the only issue the face now is how to stop the carnage. The only way to stop the killing is by removing our occupation forces out of Iraq, immediately and unconditionally.

No more Iraqs! That means no US attack on Iran, or Syria, or Venezuela, or Cuba!

[Mojambo]

15. Curbing corporate power and influence. n/t

[legalcoffee]

16. Edu no question

Education leads to awareness, leads to insentive, leads to change, leads hopefully to progress. With out it all of the other issues are at a standstill.

[Walt Starr]

17. I voted church and state, but IMO that covers

Reproductive Freedom and (today under the Busheviks) foreign policy.

[marcologico]

18. Budget, economy, and jobs, but that also covers the GOP oil war(s), the

enviroment, health insurance, social security, and indirectly everything else.

[booksenkatz]

21. Education -- without a good education system, no one will be able to

comprehend, give a shit about, or vote for platforms that support good decisions regarding, any other choice in your poll.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

23. Foreign policy and civil rights,

with the economy a close third.

[JHBowden]

24. IRAQ, IRAQ, and IRAQ

If we keep pouring billions down that toilet for services for Iraqis, we'll have less for services for Americans. This effects everything from schools to roads to the environment.

[noamnety]

25. civil rights

which I interpret to include all the other options.

And I see now others have chosen other topics, feeling they were all inclusive.

Just goes to show how intertwined everything is. You can't have civil rights if you force women to be breeders; if you do that, you can't solve the economic problems, can't be at war without screwing up the economy, can't kill civilians or poison their water supplies and claim you are protecting their civil rights, etc.

That's why I consider myself to be a "values" voter. *gasp*

It's all about respecting people.

[welshTerrier2]

26. 1. protection of democracy ... 2. abuse of military power

we have to protect our democratic institutions from being for sale to those who can afford it ... there is nothing more important than that ... once the super wealthy can buy our government, and they have, everything else is pretty much "pretend" ...

American military power should never be used to serve our corporate masters ... murderous global escapades rise to the highest possible degree of immorality ...

[jonnyblitz]

28. War in Iraq followed by church/state separation.. n/t

[mandyky]

29. Other - earned trust

Everything is just the opposite of what shrub says. I don't have _one_ issue because after shrub EVERYTHING needs to be examined and fixed.

[Piperay]

30. The environment

is the first and foremost issue for me and it should be for everyone because without clean air to breath NOTHING else is going to make one bit of difference!

[Quixote1818]

38. The Enviornment will be the next 9/11 times 10000 and we all had the PDB

[kamqute]

31. Penal System!

I voted environment, but equally important is penal system.

[Finding Rawls]

32. Nuclear Proliferation nt

[serryjw]

33. LOL! I was the one 'other'...How fast we forget the 1st Amendment

Without a FREE unbias Press nothing else matters.

[snippy]

34. Defeating Reich wing Neocons and Theocons.

Everything else will gradually become moot if the Reich wings of the republican party continue to expand their power and control of the country.

[ailsagirl]

35. I voted "other" for getting the elections back on track

We absolutely MUST change our election process-- right now, it's so corrupt I can't believe it.

[nevergiveup]

36. I voted "civil rights" because

at the rate the fundamentalists are taking over all facets of our government it won't be long until "free progressive thinkers" find themselves in the same position as gays today, not to mention Afro-Americans and yes, even women in the early 1900's. God, I am beginning to scare myself.

[American Tragedy]

44. Without civil rights, nothing really matters.

[dogman]

37. Seperation of corporations and state.

This has led to corporatism which I see as the Siamese twin of Fascism. State run corporations or corporation run states, neither are compatible with Democracy. In both situations, the other issues are secondary and dependent on what the elite determine is right for the rest of us.

[Adelante]

39. I care about all of those things

But voted "Other" -- without Election Reform we're screwed on all of it.

[Califooyah Operative]

40. all important, but to me, civil rights-voting reform tops it nt

[s-cubed]

42. election reform - without it, you have nothing

[American Tragedy]

43. Civil liberties is the absolute most important issue to me, bar none.

Not merely social equality of minorities, but the right to personal behavior that does not unreasonably or unconsensually impose upon anybody else. If we cannot speak freely and pursue happiness without invasions by law enforcers, we have nothing. In that sense, I am for much smaller government, contrary to the typical right-wing characterization of liberals.

[I_equals_PRT]

45. other, preservation of constitutional rights,.repeal of the unpatriot act

release of prisioners not charged, an end to violations of the Geneva Convention and other rampant human rights violations practiced by Shrub&Company.

[msgadget]

46. I chose Budget, Economy and Jobs

because changes in free trade, civil rights and foreign policy would be essential to reforming them, imo.

[okcdem]

47. I voted other

Workers rights, unions are most important to me. Prisoner rights are important. Civil rights are important. The deficit, enviorment, and border security are important. Stem cell reaserch, church and State, and War are important.

Things I think are not as important. Gay rights and abortion. Sorry I'm from a red State and I think the way I think. Affirmative action is reverse racism as was evident to anyone reading the SCOTUS decison.

Until the Democratic Party gets back to being the labor party, I really believe we will keep losing election after election.

Just my opinion.

[Zynx]

48. What is most pressing is most important.

And that is foreign policy.

[ulysses]

49. no single one is most important for me.

I'll admit to some being less so - I'm 36, prescription drug care isn't my highest priority, although I understand its importance for others - but the rest are right up there.

[Cell Whitman]

50. Separation of Cult and State

I guess there are couple on the list if not properly handled would be real bad. But, I think it all goes to hell, AS IT IS, as the wall comes down. Conservatives use Moon to help them tear down the wall. What'cha think of them apples?

Moon got in bed with the right bigtime when they couldn't wipe their noses. Billions of dollars and numerous front groups later, here we are. The Washington Times? That snake bit the nation in 1982, ever since, the venom's been dripping into our body politic.

No Moon No Bush.

http://cellwhitman.blogspot.com/

[0007]

51. Bring the troops home

[Vinca]

52. Health care. I'm among the 45 million uninsured.

We spend most of the time keeping our fingers crossed (which, by the way, is also known as the "George Bush Health Care Program.")

[fortyfeetunder]

53. The slow dissolution between church and state

I believe many of the topics above are directly affected by the dissolution between church and state. The fundies would want you to believe the separation was to keep the state out of the church's business, not the other way around. I think with the current president acting on a godly mandate, we are doomed to deal with repercussions of religious influence on all kinds of government policies. Unfortunately, it's all from a Xtian-centric POV.

[Fleurs du Mal]

54. The environment, separation of church & state, foreign policy

[onecent]

55. Freedom of speech eom

[Vinnie From Indy]

56. Two Issues - Media & Fair Voting

Without addressing these two issues first, why bother with the rest?