Apparently John Tester’s a big hunk of conservatism, at least that’s what I keep hearing. So, I bring you the conservative agenda:
* Supporting renewable and alternative energy sources (biofuels, bitches!)
* Raising automobile mileage
* Pro-choice
* Protecting public lands
* Country of origin labels for food imports
* Affordable health care
* Enforcing immigration laws for immigrants and employers
* gun rights
* A plan to end the war in Iraq
* Increasing the minimum wage
* Repealing the Patriot Act
* Changing Medicare D to allow price negotiation with drug companies
* No to social security privatization
* Pro stem cell research
* Middle class tax relief
A couple of these are identified more strongly with conservatism, and a couple of them are “conservative” or “liberal” depending on the details, but if these are our new conservative democratic overlords, fine by me…
2 Responses
The only one I see on here that strikes me as being conservative is gun-rights. And while I understand the urbanite’s arguments against guns, I also understand why they are such an important, perhaps essential part of rural culture. It is unrealistic for that to change. And you know what? I think that we have been seeing the Executive violating or ignoring provisions in Bill of RIghts that I find much more important.. And if I have to grant people the right to bear arms in order to guarantee restraints against illegal search and siezure, in order to keep habeus corpus, and so on, it is a deal I am quite ready to make.
Furthermore, am starting to get irritated with labelling. It is really good to hear about what issues a person stands for. Thirteen of the fourteen here I strongly identify with. One I don.t, much. I am sooooooooh glad he won! And thanks for the heads-up.
My NOW friends get a bit upset with the NRA sticker on my minivan. My husband is a pistol shooter, and I just tell them, “We support the ENTIRE billof rights!” He is a responsible gun owner and deals often with law enforcement officials, FBI friends, etc. He’s even gone to the FBI’s citizen academy training program.
Yes, I know guns are a big problem in some areas. And most people killed by guns are killed by someone they know, sadly enough, often by family members. I like restrictions on gun ownership, especially assault weapons, concealed carry laws, training programs for gun owners, signs in gun shops for anger management programs or hotlines for those who are feeling overwhelmed and just want to kill someone, and waiting periods, etc. I don’t think those restrictions are at all unreasonable.
If someone wants a gun, they’ll get it somehow, and there’s not much we can do about that. I am not anti-gun, I’m pro-responsibility. I think we need to get the minor drug users out of prisons and into treatment programs, stop the silliness of a lot of the war on drugs and free up our prison system to handle criminals instead of addicts. Then we’ll have the truly violent people off the streets instead of being released in 72 hours or whatever silliness goes on that lets them out so quickly.