The GOP is being riddled with all sorts of "pledges" offered to candidates so that they will act in certain ways if elected. Grover Nordquist wants them to sign a pledge so that they'd never raise taxes. Conservative Christians want them to sign a pledge that they won't quit until anyone who isn't off the sets of "The Cosby Show" or "Leave It To Beaver" is allowed to get married.
Fine. You want my vote? Then sign this pledge.
I (name here) heretofore pledge to do the following should I be elected President of the United States.
1) Pass any policy designed to place more money in the hands of the impoverished while working against any policy to financially reward those who profit without re-investing into the economy.
2) Until we get a second planet to inhabit, all policies shall be designed to protect the interests of the environment with the "Boy Scout" standard of leaving the ground in better shape than you found it.
3) Maximize freedoms of any social sub-set to live in any fashion they want, carry any legal title they want, work they want, and express themselves how they want if they do not prevent others from doing the same.
4) Until you overturn the First Amendment, make an ongoing policy to leave religion at the curb. All religion. Not the door...but the curb. If a decision is based on moral terms, it can be done in secular terms.
5) Enable those who misuse their freedom of speech with statements borne out of inaccurate, non-factual statements, to be held accountable by those who are affected by those false statements.
6) Determine that public safety, education, communication, energy and health, when made for profit, leave those who need it vulnerable to losing opportunities for equality and therefore should be fully overseen or taken over by publicly accountable enterprise.
7) Since all 50 states are part of the union, I will not pass the buck to the states to compete against themselves, cutting their own throats. National issues shall be handled nationally.
8) With the true growth of our nation depending on a solid infrastructure, I will place top priority on achieving a top global standard in our nation's infrastructure all communities large and small.
9) Encourage an ongoing renaissance of manufacturing so the United States of America will not depend on foreign countries for manufactured goods.
10) Set a standard for other nations to follow in terms of personal freedom economic self-reliance in conjunction with cooperation, rewarding those countries who follow that example and marginalizing our relations with those countries who do not.
11) Update our military philosophy to acknowledge that wars are won before with intelligence prior to the battle. Nation building shall be a global initiative and not a U.S.-borne policy.
12) Foreign aid shall be overseen with maximum oversight to ensure it goes to those who truly need it within those borders.
On the GOP, I sincerely doubt signing this pledge - in any form, will find themselves politically drawn and quartered by the current Republican establishment, although I wouldn't be surprised that moderate "independent" voters disillusioned by the recent cavings by President Obama might return to the GOP by a candidate going "rogue" in a manner like this. It would be bold, but logical to see one of these guys say "You know, we've gotten everything we've ever wanted. I think in some ways we've overdone it." He can site the examples that tax breaks for large companies don't result in increased jobs, can cite that if business wants to see higher sales, that is only make sense to put more money in customers hands. They can ask any business owner in Vermont, who doesn't have to pay a dime in health care after the state created a European/Canadian-style single-payer system that Obama didn't even dare try to offer. In short, he can finally bring sense to a party whose supply-side economics has run it's course, and whose social conservatism has become too overreaching and authortarian.
The GOP has reached a point where they must enforce the goose to eat the gander for its own good, and is working more for their own benefit than it does those who elect them. 1984 might have been Morning in America, but their day has now passed.
When any candidate can recognize that, then they get my vote.
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