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"Scam" ads the norm Trail Mix: Hillary haters spam cyberspace Gunning for the center Democrats make Hillary legit The blundering pundit Don Giuliani Campaign video: |
What's at stake in the 2000 elections? | page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
The control of Congress is the predominant political stake. How will the House set the agenda for the next few years? Will we continue to have egregious laws that hurt minorities? Will we continue to sentence recreational drug users to 25 years in jail? We need to get out of this conservative mode that's so damaging to so many. Our great economy needs to be balanced with opportunities for poor people. The greatest crisis facing this country is the inability to educate all children equally. Urban schools will need the leadership of a president willing to step out of a straitjacket that limits our ability to share resources so that all students have an equal chance of getting a quality education. You can't be the "education president" in words alone. The economy can't sustain itself unless we lessen the gap between the haves and have nots.
The one thing the next president can do is consider school choice as an alternative when a school system, like New York's, says they can't educate children yet they don't want to let go of the children because they represent a dollar value in terms of state reimbursement. Nothing about the election would make me angry because I think both parties are about the same. Well, no, the election of Pat Buchanan would make me angry. The model for the next presidency should be the LBJ/JFK duality. They knew the blend between vision and the process for achieving that vision. - - - - - - - - - - - - What's at stake? Nothing. And everything. The 2000 elections generate a zigzag, seesaw, schizophrenic attitude in me. No sooner does the skeptic inside observe that nothing will change much because none of the candidates are really willing to question the system itself, when I'm reminded that the Supreme Court matters, that universal health care could soothe so much suffering, that nuclear weapons could still blow up this planet, that a president who is not afraid does in fact make a difference. That's when I think this election is of enormous significance. The one thing the next president could do? Take money out of politics. No advertising on television. Ever. But that would be like asking the next president to slit his throat. Only an enraged populace (Where is it?) could force that sort of reform without which democracy is a travesty. As a Chilean citizen with a green card I watch the consequences around the globe of what voters here decide. We have the power to abolish world hunger, particularly the hunger of children. It can be done. In "Liar, Liar," Jim Carrey portrays a lawyer who for 24 hours is forced to speak the truth, no matter what the consequences. I'd like to see a president follow that model for four years. Or even four days. But we can't ask anybody in power to do something like that unless and until we are ready to demand the same conduct from ourselves. - - - - - - - - - - - - U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. The most important task for the next president is to emulate Franklin Roosevelt by devising a strategy to support continued wealth creation through the free market system while implementing public policies which diminish the excessive unfairness, environmental damage and unnecessary instability that result from a wholly unregulated capitalist system. For FDR, these included the Fair Labor Standards Act, Social Security, the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The unaltered effect of technological change and globalization will continue to increase wealth in the world, but in a way that exacerbates inequality, jeopardizes some aspects of the quality of life, and leads to periodic financial crisis. The job of the next president is to offset these tendencies without damaging the ability of the capitalist system to increase wealth. It will be harder because of the international dimension than it was for FDR, but it is equally important. The perfect president would have Bill Bradley's deep commitment to resolving our racial problem; Al Gore's talent for mobilizing public-sector resources to deal with social problems; Steve Forbes' willingness to defy the establishment taboo; John McCain's ability to charm the media into overlooking his extremely conservative record; and George Bush's mother. - - - - - - - - - - - - California State Rep. Antonio Villaraigosa, D-L.A. The next president will have both the opportunity and the obligation to address some of the problems that remain where the economy meets the nation's social needs: access to affordable health care, education, the long-term health of Social Security and Medicare, welfare-to-work issues, sustaining the winning combination of environmental protection and economic growth, and helping our work force cope with an evolving economy. In Los Angeles, I and others have been talking about "the tale of two cities," the phenomenon where we have one of the widest disparities between wealth and poverty anywhere in the U.S. I believe this disparity plays out at the national level too. We talk about having the best health care in the world but we ignore the fact that it doesn't do much good if people who need it can't afford to get it. So, I think the biggest problem is finding a way to make sure everyone shares in America's prosperity and that it benefits them in ways that are useful and meaningful in their daily lives. I would be extremely disappointed if we end up with a conservative takeover of the federal government just because some voters are plagued with so-called Clinton fatigue while others are too alienated or apathetic to participate. My conception of leadership involves envisioning what kind of result we aspire to and then employing our related ideals in the process of achieving the result. It's not an end-justifies-the-means approach, it is collaborative consensus-building. That means bringing people together to seek common ground, creating solutions and accepting the outcome of the process. I see Martin Luther King Jr. as a model for this. He took on some of our society's most intractable problems and did it in a way that attempted to involve and empower the most disenfranchised among us. - - - - - - - - - - - - Spalding Gray, actor and author of "Swimming to Cambodia" and "Morning, Noon, and Night" The opportunity is clear-cut: Redirect defense spending to education and to people. We're spending so many dollars on defense but defense against what? I once tried to do a monologue about redirecting dollars away from the defense department but I gave up -- too complicated. It's a deeply ingrained business that's difficult to shift. The B-52 bomber is made in 32 states. How do you redirect that? But we have to because the money is needed so badly in other areas, especially the environment. In New York there is no environment, just buildings. But in Long Island, where I live, we're assaulted with environmental dangers. As one father whose son died of cancer from a toxic waste dump said, "Is this the sacrifice for progress?" The choice isn't to stay and fight or leave, because if you leave, where do you go? It's happening everywhere. The greatest problem we face -- the degradation of the environment -- isn't "looming" ahead of us. It's here. I'm reminded of Norman O. Brown's "Life Against Death" where he mused over humankind's neurotic self-destructive death wish. I hate to see another wealthy Republican get in. I fear for the environment when Republicans are in charge. My model for the next presidency is Thomas Merton. He blended the spiritual and political. Though even if we got somebody like him I'm not sure what good he'd do. I'm still under the paranoid suspicion that the Fortune 500 runs the government. What's missing from the political process in 2000 is a kind of charisma that grew out of a primal, mythological base. The Lewinsky scandal is a sign of the banality of the times. The Kennedys wouldn't have been brought down that low even though worse was going on because we gave them the distance and reverence we don't give politicians today. We don't allow for a charismatic, mythological leadership. Kennedy would have said, "Get off my fucking lawn," to questions the current candidates are only too eager to answer. - - - - - - - - - - - - Ben Cohen, founder of Ben and Jerry's ice cream The next president has to straighten out our nation's mixed-up priorities. America's schools are literally crumbling, and 11 million of our kids don't have health care. Yet, the Pentagon gets about 50 cents of every dollar allocated by Congress, while education gets 8 cents and health care gets 6 cents. Meanwhile, America spends twice as much on defense as the China, Russia, Iran, Iraq and all other potential adversaries combined. This is nuts. The next president should trim 15 percent of the Pentagon budget and invest the savings in America's schools, health care and other state and local priorities. The most pressing problem in the next century is defense contractors. They give politicians three times as much money as even the tobacco industry. The next president must fight off defense contractors -- and pressure from other politicians addicted to contributions from the weapons makers -- and transfer wasteful Pentagon spending to building strong communities. We're angry and will remain angry until politicians actually fund all the wonderful programs they talk about. "I'm for education," they all say. Well, where's the money going to come from? And once the candidates tell us how they will fund their proposals to improve, for example, health care and schools, what will they actually do once they are in office? The model for the next presidency should be President Dwight D. Eisenhower, America's last five-star general, who said: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists and the hopes of its children." - - - - - - - - - - - - U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif. The make-up of the Supreme Court is at stake. The next president will appoint two or three justices. The other thing we have at stake is how politicians treat each other. If Democrats take over the house they'll restore dignity to the proceedings. The biggest problem we face is health care, particularly the uninsured. It's hard to believe we can't provide the minimal basic service that all human beings in this country should have -- health insurance. The lack of it puts uncertainty in people and wears away confidence in other areas of their lives. Assimilation and integration is another huge problem. How do we continue in this country to integrate immigrants without stripping away the culture they bring with them? How do we respect and honor our differences but at the same time work towards shared national goals like prosperity and security? There has to be a way of doing that without annihilating immigrants' language and culture. What would make me angriest is Giuliani winning the New York Senate seat. Giuliani is a bully, and maybe New York needs that, but the Senate doesn't. His method of processing and being will be ineffective there. Besides, there's only nine women in the Senate -- we need more. The model for the next president should be Cesar Chavez, who understood the humanity of people and fought to restore the dignity of people who have less. The best of the rest would include McCain's outrage, Gore's intelligence, Bradley's vision and, of course, Bush's money.
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