Voting for a presidential candidate means voting for elements of the party platform you do not agree with. You can't vote for only the policies you like, political platforms are "take it or leave it".
Just got back from Florida, on the highway in the Carolinas (North, I think, but they all run together on a long drive) saw pro-Kerry billboards that promised to reverse the trend of jobs going offshore.
I know for a fact that the Democrats want to strengthen environmental policies, strengthen unions, and strengthen workplace safety laws, all of which are the reasons that businesses send jobs overseas. So, what are they going to to to reverse jobs going offshore?
They'll have to increase the cost of foreign goods, either through taxes, quotas, or tariffs -- or all three at the same time, which is most likely. But that's not in the platform, is it? At least, I don't remember them spelling it out for us, although economists are not so reluctant to explain that the Democrats will save some jobs by making the rest of us subsidize them through higher prices.
That probably wouldn't be terribly appealing to the ordinary voter.
Not that Bush hasn't done exactly the same thing already himself. |
