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Edited on Sat Jun-23-07 10:02 AM by SHRED
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Below are some ideas I am working on to post on mixed message boards. Any help in constructing it is welcomed. I am trying to keep it short and to the point.
Thanks!
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Broken Government
I think that 99.9% of us will agree that our government is sorely lacking in it's duty to represent "we the people". We share that in common. There is a consensus no matter what label we identify ourselves with be it Liberal, Conservative, or somewhere in between.
Where this consensus breaks down, and where all our political bickering takes place, is in our inability to agree on the root causes and therefore agree on some possible solutions. I will attempt to breakdown, from my viewpoint, where this divide occurs.
The Conservative Viewpoint:
Government should be limited mainly to law enforcement and military. The Christian religion should play a large role in creating policy. The "Commons", such as our land, air, water, power, public works, etc..should be privatized. The Conservative view is that many public entities should be abolished like public education and many aspects, if not all, of The New Deal. Government is too restrictive, too many regulations, and stifles the "free market". The Conservatives believe that there is such a thing as a "free market". That somehow, left to it's own device, capitalism won't degrade into a monopolistic tyranny. Many Conservatives confuse capitalism as if it is a form of government.
The Liberal Viewpoint
Government exists to protect the people from private takeover of the "Commons" by an Oligarchy or ruling class monopoly. The "Commons" should remain, and under the control of our representative democracy so the people have a vote in issues pertaining to them. The Liberal viewpoint argues that this is the area that our government has been weakened and sold off. That affordable health care needs to be a right and not a privilege. As Liberals we are outraged that the very core of our Democracy, the vote, has been privatized to corporations that will not share the tabulation code that resides on their machines. Liberals view government regulations regarding the safeguarding of the Commons as window dressing. Weak and ineffective due to corporate corruption that has influenced our officials. Liberals understand that our government sets the rules for capitalism to exist competitively and that based on the dramatic shift of wealth and ever increasing power of trans-national corporate interests over our democracy, our government is failing to enforce those rules.
Regarding our Government:
Liberals say, "We have been serverely weakened by what amounts to an Oligarchy".
Conservatives say, "Weaker is better".
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