I’ve
been looking at alternatives to supporting Barack Obama’s re-election. Someone who can combine my priorities with a good
progressive platform. I am not a
Libertarian but as I‘ve written about many times on this blog I do support Ron
Paul’s attempts for higher office based on his top three priorities 1.) Ending
US Imperialism and the endless “war on terror” 2.) Legalizing drugs especially
marijuana and ending the endless “drug war” 3.) Ending or reforming the Federal
Reserve system. In addition, Paul’s is
one of the few major candidates who support repealing the unconstitutional Patriot
Act.
However,
Paul is not running in the general election and I don’t agree with the Libertarian
Party’s philosophy taken as a whole. I
am not an ideologue and I think there is a role for government particularly in
health care which is the big issue of the day.
Obamacare was a terrible solution-forcing people to buy private health
care is not national healthcare and is about as conservative a solution to the
problem as you can get. I believe in a
federally funded national healthcare program.
I also believe in gun control, electoral reform and a number of other
issues normally associated with left wing thought. In addition, Gary Johnson, the Libertarian
party nominee, is a bit suspicious in his foreign policy belief as I’ve
discussed here http://rgdinmalaysia.blogspot.com/2011/05/falling-in-love-with-ron-paul-all-over.html
I’ve
been looking very closely at the Green Party platform and I find I agree with
about 70% of it. Their foreign policy which
specifically calls for a right of return for the Palestinians and investigation
of Operation Cast lead and other horrible human right violations, ending the Cuban
embargo, and ending targeted assassinations is exactly the set of beliefs and
goals I have.
I
also support the Greens belief in universal healthcare, a universal wage, banning
private prisons, and banking and insurance reform.
There
are a few things I don’t support about them – don’t support making DC a state,
don’t support prisoners being allowed to vote, don’t support some of their
government/electoral restructuring ideas which would make the USA more like a
European parliamentary system(although I do support them on getting rid of the
electoral college and public financing of campaigns). I’m also a bit of a global warming agnostic(
I believe in climate change but believe the speed in which it is happening being
deliberately exaggerated by climate change supporters for political reasons) which
is after all their signature issue.
While the Green Party supports drug legalization, I don’t think they go
far enough. On the legalizing of prostitution,
they are actually to the right of most of today’s laws. I also think they don’t go far enough on gun
control.
But
still 70% is a lot more than I support either the Democratic and Republican
party platforms and with the exception of climate change, the issues I don’t
support them on are relatively minor.
The Green Party nominees this year are Jill Stein for President and Cheri Honkala for Vice President I am
endorsing them. The Green Party USA platform is here http://www.gp.org/committees/platform/2010/index.php
Meanwhile,
while I don’t support President Obama any longer, I do expect him to win
another term barring some huge national catastrophe like terrorism or a full-on
depression. The Electoral College math
still supports his re-election as does the polling in key states. He is also running the right type of campaign
against Mitt Romney – hitting him hard and fast on his failure to release
taxes, his vulture capitalism, etc. not giving Romney a chance to breathe.
Listening
to Obama makes me sick. The man who is campaigning
is like the man who campaigned in 2008.
Neither is like the president we’ve had the last four years – The one who
approved targeted assassinations of US citizens, reneged on his promise to
close Guantanamo Bay open, pushed through a flawed and ultimately unconstitutional
health plan through, bailed out the big banks without any new tough regulations
imposed and gave in on a number of issues(taxes for one) to a batshit crazy Republican
congress.
The
hope is with the re-election monkey off his back. We will get a new President Obama one who
shows that ultimately he is a progressive, not a product of party machinations. We will see- For now, I stand by my assertion
– He is nothing but ambition, there’s no desire for hope or change there, just
desire to appear successful, the empty vanity of the TV Camera.
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