Am I a Democrat? [View all]

[Jackpine Radical]

I'm not sure anymore.

I believe, as Hubert Humphrey said, that a society should be judged by how it treats those at the fringes of society--the poor, the elderly, the very young.

Although not a supernaturalist Christian, I find that Christ speaks to me: Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

I believe in a democracy where an EDUCATED public makes informed political choices. This means that the undue influence of money must be removed from the political playing field.

I believe it is a primary function of the state to provide an environment in which all people can flourish and reach their maximum potential.

These goals can only be attained through a free public education for each citizen, and to the extent that each person's gifts and inclinations lead her to pursue knowledge, she should be free to engage in that pursuit. Not just K-12, but post-secondary and graduate education should be free to those who can benefit from it and choose to do so.

I believe in a government that prevents the rich from impoverishing the masses in the name of their own greed.

I believe in a heterogeneous society in which people are judged by their actions, not by their ethnicity, their wealth, or their beliefs.

I believe that the State has the right and duty to intervene in individual behavior only when that behavior infringes upon the rights of others. For example, I have little interest in protecting people from the evils of marijuana, but I have a strong interest in protecting people from things such as predatory mortgages and monopolistic price-gouging.

Work should be compensated adequately, and each person should have the means of basic sustenance with dignity.

Where practical, systems that promote co-operation over competition should be encouraged. Better a credit union than a bank, better a co-op than a corporation, better a worker-owned factory than a publicly traded one.

Monopolistic industries such as national transportation and energy production ought to be nationalized.

I believe the nation ought to engage in military actions only to protect the integrity and safety of the nation itself. Our military ought to be reduced to a size commensurate with the military forces of the rest of the world, and our current course of imperial adventurism must be stopped.

I don't delude myself that these things can or will happen rapidly or perhaps at all, but these are the values and purposes a political party must hold if it hopes to retain my allegiance.

If these goals sound like the principles of the Democratic Party, then I m still a Democrat.