GOP=Self Interest.....DEM Party=Common Good...its so simple but overlooked/

[opihimoimoi]

glossed over by the Pubs/media

The GOP likes to fight on the base level of Individuals....but skips what they do when in power....which is not in the common interest for the peeps....

If the focus centers around the Common Good and what is Best for the Nation...the Pubs lose everytime.....

The GOP has a horrible record these past 7 years....

[wake.up.america]

1. That's the message that needs to be clearly made.

[Robbien]

2. Not overlooked. Just not pushed by Dem candidates

Edwards and Kucinich push it, but the press does not highlight that issue. Obama and Clinton don't feel it is an important enough issue to push. I expect they don't want to alienate their lobbyists.

[rfranklin]

3. The Republicans and the right wing have convinced,,,

a large number of American people that programs and laws that benefit the vast majority of Americans are only being enjoyed by a few "welfare queens,' "minorities," and "homesexuals." The right wingers have played on the fears and prejudices that many Americans have about people who are not exactly like themselves and converted it into anger and hatred about the programs and tax policies and protections that came out of the New Deal era and the civil rights revolution of the 1960s. And the motivation of the oligarchs who promulgated and pushed and financed the propaganga was for unlimited power and wealth.

[opihimoimoi]

4. Should we have a mission to "UNCONVINCE" the peeps??? I think its imperative

[mondo joe]

5. I disagree. Both parties say they are for the individual/common good in

different ways.

I personally don't find running as "the party of the common good over the individual" appealing. The individual is the smallest minority. I also don't see it as attractive to most voters.

I'd prefer to be the party that stands for equal rights for all.

[opihimoimoi]

6. Yes, Equal Rights, equal ops, free education thru college, free health care, freedom from the PUB

BS and LIES

[bbgrunt]

10. I agree. I would also add that the idea

of the "common good" taken to the extreme is frightening. It is the "common good" that is used to snuff individual initiative and control every aspect of life in societies that have no sense of individual rights or choice. Who gets to define what, exactly, constitutes the "common good"? For example, if it is deemed that the common good is served by increasing population, will women be forced to get pregnant? If the common good requires a decrease in population, will all families be limited to one child as in China?

Our society has been more of a "mixed economy" where individual rights are the basis, but government is used to control the worst aspects of rampant individualism. There is a trade off between individual and collective choice and every time individual choice is to be limited, there should be an elaborate legislative process where all sides can weigh in on the costs and benefits before such action is taken.

It is dangerous to simplify this enormous issue in such a way. It is much too easy to then say that dems are really closeted communists.

[opihimoimoi]

12. Lets use Common Sense then...what works best w/o violating individual rights?

[bbgrunt]

14. that idea is, we hope, what we as a nation have tried to

do. It is true that republicans and libertarians tend to ignore the idea of common good altogether and always couch their arguments in terms of individual rights--but traditional old time republicans did have some sense of community and common good. It was Nixon, after all, who enacted some of our first environmental legislation.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. I think

It needs to be pushed at the 'lowest level'. By that, a Mad Mom in a Minivan in Mid-West America who has been conned into believing that the Reps. have her best interests at heart needs to be drilled with the following questions:

1. How much do you pay for a gallon of gas compared to 8 years ago?
2. How are you handling the cost of a gallon of milk?
3. How do you explain the funding or lack thereof for your child's education due to NCLB?
4. Do you really feel 'safer' with Bush in office? Is that why one of your compadres got off a plane because 'middle eastern looking men' were on it?
5. What if what happened in N.O. happened to you? Would you still be okay with $500 billion being spent to fight the war in Iraq - and $44 billion on reconstruction?
6. Does your dollar in general go as far as it did 8 years ago?
7. How do you squeeze health care into your budget?
8. What's your mortgage interest rate?
9. Does your husband have job security?
10. Winter is coming . . . are you prepared to pay your energy bills?


I don't mean to be 'demeaning' to these people - but the reality is . . . they don't read anything other that US Weekly, People Magazine, and Family Circle . . . not exactly bastions of political and philosophical thought. Make sense?

We have to bring the discussion down to their level in a non-threatening and non-patronizing way.

[opihimoimoi]

8. Wine and beer, ribs and Lobsters, flowers too, and a LUAU..good post...

Those are very realistic questions to ask....

The Pubs would be suffering from tetanus...lock jaw...

[JustAnotherGen]

9. The thing is

opihimoimoi . . .

I don't think there's a single candidate vying to win the Republican Candidate nomination that can ask these questions with a straight face. Maybe . . . maaaaaaaaaaaybe Huckabee can.

But then we come back with -

Is it more important that your child pray in school? Or that they be able to score high on the SAT? And then we ask - "Oh, BTW - how do you intend to send your children to college? Is a four year university a realistic expectation for your child? How do they intend to pay off their student loans? Do you realize they may graduate 80K in debt? And there's no guarantee that a well-paying job will exist for them to pay off that debt?"

I know - my logic is a bit 'circular' - but these people need to be spoken to where 'they live'.

[opihimoimoi]

11. Most peeps are on the base level....they canarldy think beyond the nx paycheck

and after a 12 pack of beer....Most...not all...

Thus, most are not astute and easy prey for :::

The scammer Pubs who come to steal their minds with BS...


The Dems come with Torches of Truth, Reason, Sanity, Reality, and Common Good....
They must overcome Fantasy that holds the Pub Forces together

[Snotcicles]

13. Liberal= Generous, Conservative= Stingy. nt

[opihimoimoi]

17. As it turns out....evidence is all around us to see

[EFerrari]

15. The Democrats need better writers -- which shouldn't be so hard

to get because most good writers are LIBERALS. :wtf:

[opihimoimoi]

16. I concur.....WHERE ARE THE WRITERS?......???