Originally Posted by djplong

About the "liberalism must be defeated" I have to comment - Liberalism may stand for a lot of things that I don't like - HOWEVER - "Liberalism" brought us universal suffrage, a 5-day, 8-hour-per work week, and end to child labor and a LOT of other things. Yes, I agree, it's Gone Too Far in some cases but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Now, as far as Lou's List goes, I'm going to assume that he had a source similar to mine. During an election campaign, I've been known to ask the pollsters who call me (and they call - I live in NH - they call a LOT) to send me copies of their platform (when the pollster is affiliated with a party). Usually I get something. One time (when the first George Bush was running) I got a huge manila envelope in the mail a few days later with enough material in 'position statements' to keep me reading for quite a while.

Sadly, going to the RNC website and entering "platform" into their search engine returns the following:



To be honest, I find that depressing.

Now, what the heck, I'll chime in on Lou's List.

1. It's a bit vague so I can't really comment on it. Where do you draw the 'federalism line'?

2. Yes, the legislature makes the laws. The judiciary is supposed to interpret the law and that's what they do. Now, the definition of "interpret" seems to have stretched a bit in the past few years but I think it's more because the people (read: advocates of any particular position) are trying to use the judiciary as their tool, right wrong or indifferent. Remember, a judge can't rule on something that hasn't been brought before him or her.

3. I favor a flat, fair tax with exemptions providing the "progressivity". That way the myth of rich tax-dodgers (as opposed to the *fact* that the top few percent of wage earners pay over HALF the taxes) would go away. It would stop the arguing and pitting one group against another.

4. Perhaps block grants to the states are better ways to handle this. (with fewer strings attached)

5. I favor looking at other countries as seeing WHAT WORKS. We pay the most - far more than any other country for our health care. Regardless of whether you believe we're 37th in 'results' or not, one cannot argue that we are NOT the best overall system (unless you're independantly wealthy). This does NOT automatically mean that single-payer systems like in Canada and the UK are the answer. In fact, the report that said we were 37th? It said France's public/private system got the best results overall.

6. We have to draw a line on 'environmental law' to say "this much and no more". You can't just "make s#!+ up" and claim it's real - and then find out YEARS later you were wrong (read: 1970s impending ice age).

7. I favor same-sex marriages (with all the same DISadvantages as well) because the benefits that 'they' (people like my aunt) are looking for are alredy covered under 'marriage'. Inventing another classification means that a hospital in Utah could say "we allow spouses but not civil union partners" when it comes to visiting your s/o who was just in a skiing accident. It's wrong. A federal study showed there were over 1600 benefits (granted many of them are pretty narrow) that 'married' couples may enjoy.

8. We're supposed to have 'equal protection under the law'. As such, quotas are Just Plain Wrong.

9. I favor capital punishment, though I would hold it to a different standard. Civil cases are a "preponderance of the evidence". Criminal cases are "beyond a resonable doubt". Capital punishment should be "beyond a shadow of a doubt". And I don't favor it as a deterrence. You can never prove it. What you CAN prove is that criminals who are executed have an extremely low redecivism rate! I just don't like how it seems that too many innocents (actually ONE is too many) are in this category. One story I read had a deputy sheriff chasing a suspect through a swamp yet, at the end of the chase, the guy who was arrested had pants that were bone dry (even though the deputy saw and heard splashing during the chase). That being said, I *do* believe that some crimes are *so* heinous that you forfeit your right to life.