I consider myself to basically be a liberal Democrat. But it’s disingenuous to assume that, with all the possible political positions and nuances, that everyone’s beliefs are going to neatly fit into one of two slots.
But I am a Democrat and this is what I want.
I believe in policies that lead to controlled and sustainable economic growth. That includes strong but skeptical regulations and oversight for business to make sure they act in the public interest. This protects not only the consumer but responsible business owners. Underregulation hurts consumer confidence. Businesses that gain an economic advantage by putting the health and safety of their customers at risk hurt not only the public but businesses that are responsible actors. And that bad actions are often not discovered until it is too late.
I believe increased regulation of the financial markets leads to a more stable and healthy economy in the long term, even if it’s at the expense of explosive growth. Boom and bust economies tend to benefit the wealthy and hurt the average citizen.
This needs to be coupled with more control and restrictions on lobbyists to limit the influence of their money. Because there ARE a lot of unnecessary regulations out there and this is what gives regulation a bad name. And the bad regulations are usually driven by an industry interest to force people to buy a particular new product or service.
I believe that one of the keys to creating a long term stable economy lies in policies that increase the financial stability, education and health of the American worker. This increases productivity. This includes access to affordable health care. I do recognize that this one is complicated, though. The entire health care system in this country is out of control, and every attempt to rein in the exorbitant cost of services just seems to create more inefficiencies that the industry can exploit. The requirement that insurers spend 80% of premiums on actual patient care is a good example. One unintended consequence of that policy was to make insurers less cost conscious and more likely to pay inflated bills. Cause otherwise, they’d just have to give it back.
I do not like the term economic inequality. it implies some sort of guaranteed outcome for an individual which I do not think is the government’s responsibility. I prefer the term economic injustice and I would like to see more policies that level the playing field and create opportunities for those lower on the economic ladder.
This includes more good options for publicly funded college education. This one is key to several of the above points. It increases productivity and helps to level economic opportunities.
I am strongly in favor of increased taxes on the wealthiest citizens of this country. I believe that is what made the middle class of the 1950’s and 60’s so strong and vibrant. The reasons for this are twofold. One is obvious, more funding for government which could be used to maintain our infrastructure and strengthen social programs. I also believe that this policy decreases rapaciousness. I think successful business owners are more likely to plow excess profits into business investments and employee benefits when the alternative is “give most of the excess to the government”.
I do not believe in open borders. But I do believe that kindness, not meanness, should be the driving force behind immigration policy. Especially in our current hyper driven economy, we need more workers at the bottom of the rung. I would like to see some sort of clearinghouse to match refugees with prospective employers. And I would reverse some of the policies intended to bring low skill manufacturing jobs back to America. Let Mexico and Central America have the car battery factories back. One way to reduce immigration is to bring more opportunities and economic stability to the home countries.
I do not understand the emphasis on the new proposed policies favoring highly skilled immigrants. We don’t need workers to compete with our recent college grads for STEM jobs. We need workers that are willing to clean fish, slaughter chickens and pick fruit. The only reason I can see for the policies favoring skilled workers is racism.
I’m not opposed to private gun ownership and I don’t know many Democrats that are. I do believe that it should be subject to the same kinds of rules and restrictions that we apply to automobile ownership, though.
I’m not a socialist. I believe in, for lack of a better term, Democratic capitalism. I believe capitalism works best under the stewardship of a democratically elected government committed to protecting the interests of the people.
I am a strong believer in civil rights and I believe that the emphasis on individual freedom and the pursuit of happiness is what makes our country great. And I believe that there are solutions to our challenges that are based in love and kindness and strength, not hate and meanness and fear. Kindness is not appeasement. But it is hard sometimes. A lot harder than bullying. But we need to try to rise to the challenge.