Let me run this by my fellow progressives and liberals

[chillspike]

Republican & Conservative politicians and debate tacticians almost always use the argument that Democrats & Liberal politicians want to raise your taxes, that we are socialist and we are just out to raise revenue for the government.

But what if Democrats & Liberals talked about bringing taxes down through introducing new self sufficient technologies like solar and electric cars, online schooling and even the in home cloning of food, which would have the effect of bringing down the cost of living for people?

If the cost of living is brought down, the government needs less tax money to support people on government assistance.

Hence, Democrats and Liberals could run on a green technology agenda with the eventual effect of bringing taxes down, effectively checking the Republican claim that democrats and liberals want more government and taxes.

This idea can be expanded on and include many other technologies but I would like to know what others think about this strategy?

[annabanana]

1. The government is not the enemy.

The government is us. The more people who join the discussion, the better the government will respond to the needs of the populace. I am getting tired of the "government as other" meme.

[chillspike]

2. Well, yea...

I agree with that...The government is us and I am personally not against government.

It's just that even if there were no republicans in our way, we would still need to eventually figure out a way to bring taxes down for ourselves...My idea is to push green and self sufficient technologies. That way we could effectively counter the conservative argument that democrat policies will only raise taxes. We could say our green and self sufficient agenda is designed to eventually LOWER everyone's taxes.

Just one example is a government program switching children and young adults over to online schooling would save billions in tax payer money. Money that goes to school construction and so forth. It wouldn't have to put teachers out of work as they could just conduct their classes online. It would save the environment by eliminating the need for paper and text books since all work could be read and submitted electronically. It would save on fuel and put less carbon in the air because no one would have to be bussed or commute to school. Of course, we'd have to find jobs for the bus drivers...I say we train them to repair and maintain all the computers the students will need and will be provided for them.

And that's just one example.

We could dominate the political argument with this strategy.

[baldguy]

3. The first thing to realize is that the conflct isn't liberal vs conservative

Or even really Republican vs Democrat.

It's democracy vs fascism & freedom vs totalitarianism.

The corporatocracy will promote anything that enhances their power & influence over govt and limits personal freedom, and it will oppose limits on their power & enhancements to personal freedom (with lethal force if necessary).

There is currently no real conservative party in America today - just one that uses its symbols & language to promote fascist policies.

[chillspike]

5. Well, yea...

I know all that too... And the added benefit of my idea of making people more self sufficient using technology is that, the more self sufficient people are, the less they will be dependent on corporatocracy for a job or to sustain their lives.

[MadHound]

4. I would rather discuss that other conservative standard, cutting spending.

Of course what is needed is a large cut in military spending. Wonder if they would go for it?

[chillspike]

6. Well, yea...

No argument there either. But I'm talking about a specific strategy for countering the republican claim that democrats are out to raise taxes. If we discredit that, we will have silenced that argument.

[MadHound]

7. The thing is we need to raise taxes,

More specifically we need to raise taxes on the rich, who simply aren't paying their fair share. I think that so far Obama is doing well in the regards, cutting taxes for the middle and lower brackets while allowing Bush's tax cuts to expire.

We have a huge amount of debt that we need to pay off. My thought is raise the taxes on the rich some more, including capital gains taxes, eliminate loopholes for both individuals and corporations, and cut spending on the military.

Sorry, but this whole idea of denying Dems the ability to do the right thing simply for political reasons is exactly what has helped get us into this position in the first place, trillions in debt and in two illegal, immoral wars.

It's time to stop doing the political thing and time to start doing the right thing.

[Scuba]

8. Nope, i think the message should be closer to ....

1. America has been highjacked by special interests, corporations having "free speech" rights, etc.

2. We can take America back, without bloodshed or great human suffering simply by applying the Constitution.

3. Our candidates will take an Oath that a) we'll take no money from special interests and b) we'll pass term limit and anti-corruption legislation to hold future elected officials accountable.