French Foreign Minister a Steaming Turd

[richlevy]

Originally posted by smoothmoniker


That's gonna be a tough smoke for the DNC. They have to find a way to embrace the platform of the Greens without losing the hard-sought center. I don't imagine it will be an easy sell. The center seems to be annoyed with the extremis on either edge.

-sm

I think that the actions of the current administration are enough to shock some of the left wing, and right wing into some sense. The Democrats do not have to move to the left. If they stay in the center they will pick up a number of the 'true conservatives' who believe the government should just leave people alone.

I'm not a Libertarian, since I believe that we need a government to protect us from other governments as well as large corporations who could otherwise work the system to gut safety regs, environment regs, etc.

However, we do have too many laws on the books which interfere with peoples rights to be left alone in their own homes. The liberals embrace political correctness and want to limit 'hate speech'. The conservatives want laws against sodomy, soft drugs, etc, even when done in the home. However, the Libertarian ideal is flawed by assuming that eliminating most rules would be an improvement. If my neighbor decided to build an unlicensed toxic waste facility on his property, and promised I would not be affected, and did not have to even post a bond against future damages, what would my recourse be without the law? Would I have to wait for damage to occur before taking action? (BTW, this is not an endorsement for a first strike response, which is a different issue in scope and the effects on civilians).

I think if you could point out to both sides that the amount of freedom you get is the exact amount you are willing to extend to the people whose words or actions you despise, we could agree to shore up the first and fourth amendments and you would get a lot of left and right wingers supporting the center.

If the Greens think that blackmailing a moderate Democratic party into moving to the left is a good idea when the Democrats can pick up these dissatisfied voters, and if the Greens are willing to reelect one of the most un-Constitutional, right-wing regimes (I like that word) in US history, which may have a chance to appoint a Supreme Court justice next term, then I say fuck 'em.

I want to see good government. I want to everyone acknowledge that a police state does not guarantee safety any more than it ended the 'war on drugs' which we have been losing for 20 years, and keep the ideals of the Constitution intact. If the Greens think that clinging to their agenda in this next election to gain an extra point is worth causing this much devastation, then they have a serious problem.

To the extent that the Green party wishes to reform environmental rules and government's attachment to big business, I think the Democrats can and should accomodate them. This adminstration has made such links even more obvious than before and even conservatives are a little sickened by it. If the Democrats could provide such reform, not only the Greens but conservatives like McCain might be moved to endorse the Democratic candidate.

I think that the great upswell of support for the president is mainly due to confusion of support-the-troops, support-the-war, etc. Some people do not wish to seem unpatriotic. I believe this will change when people get into the voting booth.

With Haliburton and other deals being scrutinized, I think people are going to become a little more suspicious of, if not the motives, the post-war choices made in handing out contracts. If you read the British press, they are asking a lot tougher questions than our press, which in general has really rolled over while the war was on.

Considering that the British took a higher percentage of casualties, they are going to look very carefully at who is making money off of this.