Two Different Ideas

Two Different Ideas…

That’s what America is all about…
They have the best interests of Americans and the world at heart…
The road to hell is paved with good intentions…

I’m more of a subscriber to that last idea, than the other two. Don’t get me wrong, I think that it’s important to have differing views about how to make the world a better place, and I do agree that the USA has been founded on the freedom and ability for Americans to have differing ideas about how to move forward.

I heard the story on KUNM featuring yours truly, and others about the two party conventions… I sat at a table tonight working with friends on a campaign for County Commission Loretta Naranjo-Lopez is running for County Commission in Bernalillo County District 1.  There were a few Republicans in the room, and I think back to the majority of campaigns I’ve worked on, for Democrats, and the few where we had to court support from Republicans.  It’s interesting to me.  So I thought about this, in response to the platform we wrote, (which is likely to be the center of the blog conversations on my end for the rest of the week, oh wait, CRAP, it’s already almost over….)

The Democratic Party Stand For People…
When I was a kid I was taught the Democratic Party stands for the poor while the Republicans stood for the rich… Not necessarily…
I thought the Republicans were for straight people an against Gay people… Nope…
I thought the Democrats were for everybody who wasn’t white, and Republicans were for white people only…  Not that one either…

Democratic Party of New Mexico Platform 2006: Building an Opportunity Society:

Healthy Families can be supported and ailing families can be healed through parenting skills, prenatal care, preventing unwanted pregnancies, access to both quality health care and quality day care. We believe that government should not dictate family values, but rather value all families equally. The Democratic Party believes people who need public assistance should be treated with dignity.

Society can only benefit from this thinking.  Families who are struggling to survive will only become thriving families if we give them assistance with dignity. This counters the Republican idea that people “should pull themselves up by their bootstraps and make their own way.” If this was the case, they probably would’ve done that. The idea that people use the system to make their lazy lifestyles comfortable is a ridiculous notion.  Why shouldn’t the government be there to help them with skills building that they are asking for? What pain does it cause to people who have thriving families?
What is the harm to society or “nuclear families” when Same-sex couples, single mothers, grandparents, older siblings are raising healthy children and building strong families?

We recognize the many accomplishments of our school, teachers and students and dedicate ourselves to continued progress. We support higher teacher salaries, small class sizes, high academic performance standards, emphasis on children at risk of failure, life-skills education, special education programs and the expansion of fine arts and athletic programs that inspire and broaden the outlook of students at all levels of education.

Sound like a list of horrible ideas to me.  Republicans want better education but they don’t want to fund it. They want high standards for students, but don’t want to look into the best ways to measure that performance.  Republicans believe we ought to teach kids to become members of the military or enter college. If we keep going down this route, it will be a requirement to get a PhD before a job!! How about we teach kids, in small groups, through the methods they learn best, to become self-sufficient productive members of society.  How does one get good teachers without paying them well?
Tangent: Republicans all come from private sector corporate America outlooks, in the workforce they recognize that good labor and services come with higher prices, (they aren’t willing to pay for it usually, including a living wage) but then they was the best education available without paying for it…Smaller class size make sense but to do that we have to build schools to accommodate.
All people are children first, and when we talk about failures in society, we don’t think about the causes. Maybe if we attack the problems of failure in education first, we won’t have the other failures. When we see a kid who is at risk of failing we say; “How can we help her succeed?” When they see that, they ask; “Why isn’t she passing, lazy stupid girl!”
Republicans don’t want good education, they want to talk about good education, Democrats want to fix education!

The ultimate solution to crime is prevention by fostering the strengthening of families, a quality education and the opportunity for our youth to mature in a healthy way. We recognize that economic dislocation, the breakdown of the family and substance abuse play an enormous role in the crime rate and that strong families, jobs, education and substance abuse treatment will prevent crime.

The notion that crime is because there are bad people in society is bogus to me. People commit crimes, we know, because of poverty, self-esteem issues, and other problems that can be fixed while young.  Why be “tough on crime” why can’t we be smart about it, and prevent it? Treat it? The republicans believe in strongly punishing crime, and I’m not for letting dangerous criminals out onto the streets, but let’s talk about rehabilitation.  Let’s be smart about this, the difference between Democrats and Republicans is night and day. Republicans are interested in the fear and aggression side of crime, while Democrats want to lift everyone in society to a level that crime is minimized, while recognizing that when it happens it can be treated as a problem with a solution not the end of the road resulting in mean spirited responses.