Invent your own political platform "meme"
Inspired by sighris's post:
Invent a political party for the nation in which you reside. What does your ideal platform consist of?
What a truly great question! My first inclination would be to call it the "holistic" party, because I think the majority of our problems come from ignoring the masses that the elite don't seem to care about anymore than they must to extract what they want from us lowly serfs. I know that term is pretty memetically unpalatable to most, so perhaps I could appeal to the more conservative base by calling it the "Wholesome Party" ;-) Actually, I have no idea what I'd title it right now, but I do know a few things I'd focus my platform on:
*Fixing the economoy. I'd pull out of Iraq ASAP--investing the billions (trillions?) of dollars we do in Iraq here in America would turn our economy overnight. We could start withI'd focus much of this on massive job creation incentives, like what we did after WWII. I'm thinking if we could get people to working on re-designing American infrastructure to not focus on more highways and byways to further encourage people to live away from everything in the suburbs. Light rail, better bus systems, and better plans for people to not have to drive so much would not only help create jobs, it would reduce our dependence on oil. In addition to these, I'd stress that rather than focusing on "trickle down" economics that don't work, I'd focus on "spring up" economics--starting from the bottom and working its way up. I'm sure that stripping the rich elite 1% of some of their privilege would piss them off, but I'd make sure that the US populace knew what I did, and why I did it.
*Find and utilize alternative energy sources than oil. I've heard of many ideas in the past year or so, but unfortunately, some of them want to switch one finite resource (oil) for another (e.g., natural gas). I think that tapping into the power of the Sun, Wind, and Wave energy generated for free, forever, is going to be our best long-term option by far. Drilling in Alaska is like trying to save an amputee's limb with a kiss to make it better.
*Universal Healthcare. The US is one of the few countries in the post-modern world to not have this, and there's really no good reason why we can't make this work. I'm also guessing that we could have supplied every American man, woman, and child healthcare with the money we're wasting over in Iraq.
*Reducing our Military's role as "policemen of the world". The world hates us for this, and rightly so. I'd like to mend lost alliances, stop all the fear-mongering, and eliminate the unAmerican practices that myself and many of my countrymen see increasing (e.g., see Rex 84 and the threat of martial law on US soil).
I'm sure there's much more I could add, but these are the few, basic, core values that I (and I think I'm not alone) feel are some of our most pressing issues today. And whilst it may not be a platform upon which to create an entire party, these are definitely the topics I'd focus on were I a politician running for office. I think these points would be good running points for at least the next few months/years/decades, until we get them fixed.
Invent a political party for the nation in which you reside. What does your ideal platform consist of?
What a truly great question! My first inclination would be to call it the "holistic" party, because I think the majority of our problems come from ignoring the masses that the elite don't seem to care about anymore than they must to extract what they want from us lowly serfs. I know that term is pretty memetically unpalatable to most, so perhaps I could appeal to the more conservative base by calling it the "Wholesome Party" ;-) Actually, I have no idea what I'd title it right now, but I do know a few things I'd focus my platform on:
*Fixing the economoy. I'd pull out of Iraq ASAP--investing the billions (trillions?) of dollars we do in Iraq here in America would turn our economy overnight. We could start withI'd focus much of this on massive job creation incentives, like what we did after WWII. I'm thinking if we could get people to working on re-designing American infrastructure to not focus on more highways and byways to further encourage people to live away from everything in the suburbs. Light rail, better bus systems, and better plans for people to not have to drive so much would not only help create jobs, it would reduce our dependence on oil. In addition to these, I'd stress that rather than focusing on "trickle down" economics that don't work, I'd focus on "spring up" economics--starting from the bottom and working its way up. I'm sure that stripping the rich elite 1% of some of their privilege would piss them off, but I'd make sure that the US populace knew what I did, and why I did it.
*Find and utilize alternative energy sources than oil. I've heard of many ideas in the past year or so, but unfortunately, some of them want to switch one finite resource (oil) for another (e.g., natural gas). I think that tapping into the power of the Sun, Wind, and Wave energy generated for free, forever, is going to be our best long-term option by far. Drilling in Alaska is like trying to save an amputee's limb with a kiss to make it better.
*Universal Healthcare. The US is one of the few countries in the post-modern world to not have this, and there's really no good reason why we can't make this work. I'm also guessing that we could have supplied every American man, woman, and child healthcare with the money we're wasting over in Iraq.
*Reducing our Military's role as "policemen of the world". The world hates us for this, and rightly so. I'd like to mend lost alliances, stop all the fear-mongering, and eliminate the unAmerican practices that myself and many of my countrymen see increasing (e.g., see Rex 84 and the threat of martial law on US soil).
I'm sure there's much more I could add, but these are the few, basic, core values that I (and I think I'm not alone) feel are some of our most pressing issues today. And whilst it may not be a platform upon which to create an entire party, these are definitely the topics I'd focus on were I a politician running for office. I think these points would be good running points for at least the next few months/years/decades, until we get them fixed.