Will Democrats really get it?
Kerry and the Democrats have a real opportunity to take the White House and even the Senate. Will they get it? Will they bring to the electorate real specific solutions or just get stuck in a mode of ideological slogans as have trapped the Republicans.
I won't even get into the war as it has been discussed ad infinitum and ad nauseum on these threads. The majority of "moderates" on this thread seem to attack Bush. There's no doubt in my mind that Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Liberman, etc., would be just about exactly at the same place and with the same record on the issues as is Bush at this point. Same intelligence, same inefficient analysis, same hatred of Saddam, same perceived links to terror, etc., etc., etc. I don't think it's an issue and Bush wins on this issue just because he was there and did it. The public sees through the waffling by Kerry - don't go after Saddam in Gulf War, support the war, against the war, etc. He hurts himself there no matter which way he goes.
It's very nice to attack the excesses of Ashcroft and friends and I hope they continue to do that. However, I have yet to see a specific example from Kerry of what would be offered instead of the Patriot Act and similar issues. We are not going back to pre 9/11 and the rules have changed. That's just one example.
Taxes - It's great to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the "ultra wealthy." Throughout the history of the tax code, when the "wealthy" get taxed, the definition of wealthy usually includes much of the blue collar working classes as well as those of us who work hard to make a good living but are not in the trust fund class. Edwards had a few suggestions but I haven't seen Kerry give specific examples of which taxes would be rolled back and who is the super wealthy?
Is someone who sold a business or home and made a profit of $500,000 this year "super wealthy?" I don't think so. The devil is in the details and the Democrats don't have a good track record when it comes to spelling this out.
Should a family with a million dollar home, some savings and stocks, retirement accounts, etc., be forced to pay death taxes (with marginal rates that start about 40%) when the breadwinner dies? The Republicans had the right idea but they wished to eliminate the death tax for even Bill Gates. The common sense voter is disgusted when they go to planners and get the explanation of the vanishing death tax that reappears perhaps and maybe even goes back to taxing relatively small estates if the political winds change. Common sense voters want to see something that makes sense. For example, Kerry could very simply say - no death taxes for estates under $10 million. Cut out most of the other BS that special interests put in and you have a simple and understable system. No more trust and charitable foundations that allow the billionaires to be unaffected and only make rich those who love minutiae and payments that result (lawyers <ggg> cfp's and accountants.)
As for INCOME taxes, maybe go out on the limb and do the Ronald Regan postcard tax return where everyone pays 17%.
But NOOOOOO - the Dems and the Repubs want to take care of their constiuencies, as they perceive them, and nothing gets done. The common sense voting moderates prefer this over one party getting control over the entire government because inaction is perceived as better than them stealing from "us" by defining "us" as "super wealthy."
Health care, medicare, medicaid, social security. Yes - there should all of that for all of us. However, that's impossible. If the Democracts win, do we look forward to 2 years of "study" and committees to give us a lame solution that will continue to hurt the retiring "baby boom" generation, which is perpetually on the cusp of wealth (and soon retirement)but probably will need to work until the age of 99 or death whichever comes first (or with death taxes last)?
This is why voters are so cynical. When it comes to the election, if it is merely a choice of Bush v anti-Bush, I believe that the voters will go for Bush. I hope it doesn't come to that. I hope that the Democrats will take the two grand openings that the Bush team has given them and that is 1)the idiocy of right wing religious issues gaining control at an accelerated pace of the Republican campaign (abortion, gay marriage amendment, obscenity, faith based initiatives, etc.) and 2) poorly planned economic cohesion, i.e., good ideas with almost no apparent planning leading many of us to believe that the daily numbers and projections released by the fed or the treasury or OMB, DOL, etc., are nothing more than random numbers often times not even showing clear trends.
Where's that Ralph Nadar nut when we really need him? |
