My Progressive Principles

As we near the election -- although those of us with progressive leanings may lose -- I thought I would document the political principles I believe in. What the heck?

- The welfare of the human race and real people can never be measured in dollars and cents. The welfare of one human life is worth more than billions and billions of dollars.

- Money is "distributed" by a marketplace that is far from perfect and rewards disproportionately to people's contributions -- sometimes exponentially.

- Markets make great servants, but terrible masters.

- Tax breaks to the rich rarely pay for themselves. Government spending creates jobs.

- America was founded by immigrants and is a country of immigrants. That is its strength.

- Socialism is the ownership of all means of production by the state. Social Democracy is a system of government where private industry, the govt, the unions and other social organizations cooperate for the welfare of society. We could use a little dose of Social Democracy now and then.

- A person's accumulation of dollars should not determine the size and volume of his/her voice in the political process and government.

- The value of the next marginal dollar to a billionaire is far less than the value of that same dollar to society as a whole.

- The poorest persons access to healthcare, education, food and shelter trumps the richest person's access to his or her next dollar.

- Our nation has been polluted by people trying to discredit the source of messages contrary to their views instead of by addressing the issues themselves. These people are outright vile, mean spirited, and untruthful. I call this "Rovian Propaganda" and it is one of the very worst practices in our political arena and one of the biggest threats to our liberty.

- "Progressive" and "Liberal" are tremendously good words. Jesus Christ, Ghandi, Franklin, Lincoln, Galileo, Einstein, Mother Theresa, FDR, Martin Luther King and many more -- that's pretty damn good company and I'm proud to be counted as one of their followers!!!!