Some Liberal Ideas

 

Just as we began recruiting members for our Lake Hills Liberals and displaying ‘Proud Liberal, Time for a Change’ yard signs and bumper sticker, our King County Journal published my ‘Proud Liberals’ letter on October 9th, 2005,:

 

Have you noticed the increasing presence of Proud Liberals? We're proud because we work to obtain compassionate and competent government. There are more of us because more people understand that compassionate and competent government is what we need, but don't have now.  Dave Thomas

 

Ann Corey responded with a letter published on October 15th, 2005:

 

A recent letter writer seems to think liberals have an increasing presence.  He espoused their pride in working (?) to obtain compassionate and competent government.  The writer has no ideas how to do what he expounded upon.

 

 Liberals granted press from the liberal media are humorous to the rest of us now educated on how bias works.  Personally, I enjoy discerning liberals’ rhetoric and shallowness of thought.

 

 If the writer is truly looking for that which he espouses, he should become a Christian and help with what all the churches are doing to reduce suffering all over the world.  Christians are talking, too, only quietly in their prayer closets to God.

 

 If the writer remembers, we emerged 50 million strong in 2000 because we heard you talk and found your agendas unthinkable and already failed.  God forbid had we been led these last five years by Al Gore.  He would probably just be telling the terrorists to "play nice" and we could all be dead.

 

Give me my leader, George Bush.  He has done a fantastic job facing and handling three great tragedies in our nation's lifetime occurring in only the past four years.  He will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents, and I am grateful he is in the oval office.  Ann Corey

 

My reply was published on October 27, 2005:

 

Liberal Ideas

Responding to my letter, a writer suggested that liberals don’t have ideas about making government compassionate and competent. Try these

1.   Pay as you go instead of borrowing and spending.

2.   Restore budgetary sanity instead of starving government by rewarding campaign contributors with tax cuts and pork.

3.   Substitute a progressive revenue-neutral flat income tax applicable only to income above the medium.

4.   Increase competitiveness and employment by replacing the job tax (FICA) with a revenue-neutral value added tax (VAT), which would be no more regressive.

5.   Stop over-competing militarily and under-competing economically.

6.   Reduce our national debt and increase productivity to keep social security viable instead of privatizing and reducing benefits.

7.   Spend 2% more of our national production to provide effective efficient cost-controlled Medicare to all, give every child a well-paid great teacher in a fixed-up school and every full-time worker a living wage.

8.   Provide early learning programs to all who qualify, VA type vouchers for college students and life-long training funds.

9.   Replace our chaotic mess of training and income-security programs oriented to satisfying congressional power grabbing with standardized programs for all.

10.    Fund scientific advances to increase our competitiveness, create jobs and

      provide needed new technologies.

11.    Promote non-carbon based energy production and efficient energy use.

12.    Reward protectors instead of destroyers of our environment.

13.    Protect privacy for people, not privacy for government.

14.    Substitute bipartisan solutions for political homicide.

These are only a few of the many liberal ideas that conservatives fear to discuss.  Dave Thomas

 

Two more of my letters were quickly published:

 

King County Journal  Published 11/13/05

The Republicans keep referring to the ‘tax and spend’ Democrats.  It is a bum rap.  Throughout years of Democratic dominance, our national debt declined as a percentage of national income.  During the Reagan, Bush and Bush years, it surged due to tax cuts for the wealthy and surging spending for obsolete defense technologies, subsidies for campaign contributors and pork.

 

The Republicans continually refer to estate taxes as ‘death taxes’ and rail against these taxes which only affect a tiny minority of wealthy people.  They never refer to ‘birth taxes’ which are our newborn’s share of our dramatically increasing federal debt under Republican administrations, which these future generations must pay off with interest.

 

Let’s reduce the birth tax, as occurred during the Clinton administration, by replacing the ‘borrow and spend’ Republicans, who increase government spending, while vowing to starve our government’s ability to be competent and compassionate.  Dave Thomas

 

Seattle PI  Published 11/28/05

King County Journal  Published 11/24/05

 

Time to Become a Liberal

Have you become a disgruntled conservative, unhappy with the direction our Republican president and legislature are taking us?  Huge budget deficits.  Greatly increased government spending and employees.  Incompetent cronies. Indicted officials.   Bridges to nowhere and other pork.  Incomprehensible hi-cost prescription drug legislation.  Gutting our safety net, including pensions, health insurance and illness-produced bankruptcies.  High gas prices.  Self-appointed global police in Iraq with mounting casualties.  Torturing prisoners.  Threats to our civil liberties.  Unregulated immigration.

 

You might consider becoming a liberal.  Return to balanced budgets, fair taxes, smaller more competent government, an excellent economy, a viable safety net, promoting efficient use of sustainable energy, protecting our environment, supporting new scientific breakthroughs and new technologies, global respect through maintaining our alliances.  Become a proud liberal.  Dave Thomas

 

After publishing my of my letters over the last two years, the Journal American rejected about five and I became busy with organizing our Lake Hills Liberals.  I notice that the Journal American is now publishing many more conservative than liberal letters and is more frequently espousing conservative causes, especially with respect to immigration.  I hope you will submit more liberal letters.  See guidelines and examples on our website.