Posts by badwillie

The military is a top-down, centrally-planned society. The military tells you what job to do, where to live (die), and takes care of your needs for you, e.g., everyone gets health care, meals, housing, transportation, eyeglasses, dental care, prescriptions. The social safety net is really very wide, and it is all provided by the federal government. The military is owned by the "soldiers/workers" in the sense that the government of the U.S. is "of" the people, "by" the people, and "for" the people.

Because of this, even though the military is a "top-down" community, most people in the military are better taken care of by their employer than is a typical civilian doing a similar job. Corporate America is much more of a jungle than the military. More civilians workers than soldiers are injured or killed on the job! And I'll even go so far as to say that my submarine seemed more democratic than many of the civilian workplaces I've seen, in the sense that the submarine commanders I worked for listened to the other officers and to the crew, and made decisions that often reflected that input---not on everything, of course, but more often than in my current workplace (a university!!!). That's because a mistake in a submarine can cause everyone, including the captain, to die at the bottom of the ocean. So there's more of a sense of community, that everyone needs to do well for me to do well.

The strange thing, though, is that the Republican Party is seen as "owning" the military vote, even though many of the social programs that exist for soldier-workers are criticized vociferously by Republicans when proposed for civilian-workers.

It really makes no sense for military people to vote for Republicans. If the Republicans were consistent and honest, they would propose *privatizing* the military. By their arguments, the federal government can't do anything efficiently or well, so why trust the government with something as important as national security?

But the Republicans do not propose this. Therefore, they implicitly acknowledge that the government *can* do things well, which means that Democrats should argue that we should extend those social programs that work in the military to the rest of society because when workers are better taken care of, they can focus on doing better work for their employers.

The point I want to make with this essay is that someone needs to give "permission" to folks in the military to vote for Democrats. While I do not like the idea of retired generals becoming President (or Secretary of State), I do think that Wesley Clark will get a lot of military people thinking about voting for a Democrat for the first time ever.

This is good news for the Democratic Party.

Howard Dean should reach out to military people in other ways beside being against Bush's making a mess in Iraq. He should point out that military people have social programs that work. Why shouldn't civilian workers also have those same programs? And wouldn't soldiers like to leave the military and not lose their health care and other social benefits?

Dean should point out that the social contract between soldiers and the military is more consistent with the Democratic Party than with the Republican Party. Don't let Clark be the only one saying these things!

The military really is more progressive socially and ahead of the rest of the country in a lot of ways. Vermont is like that also..."

9

10/1/2003 WT: Does God Really Care? Well, DOES HE???

by Funchback in

some highlights...

' there are two photos: 1) a silhouette of a soldier laying flat on his stomach pointing an automatic weapon and 2) a colorless photo of at least 17 children pressed up against barbed-wire in (i assume) a nazi concentration camp.

this cover would lead a person to conclude that god really does not care.

badwillie

Hey Brian - great summary! so amazing that they can flip-flop like that over and over in the same article and nobody notices (or admits it!).

Truly amazing.... so glad we are free!

91

Do You Vote and/or Get Involved In Politics Now?

by minimus in

jw
friends

just curious.....

badwillie

I am involved in politics now. The upcoming Presidential elections (primary & general) are some of the most important we have ever faced.

To find out why click here: http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6455&security=1&news_iv_ctrl=1321

44

Who has the best chance of defeating Bush in '04?

by badwillie in

i will be backing former vermont gov howard dean to run in '04.

my reason: clinton was quoted recently as saying that "strong and wrong always beats weak and right".

i remember during the run up to election in 2000 watching the bush vs. gore debates and thinking..i know gore is smarter but he comes across as weaker in debate.

badwillie

bttt

9

STOP Ashcroft! Sign this Petition

by badwillie in

already 42,938 americans have stood up today in defense of civil liberties.

as attorney general john ashcroft began his tour of the country to promote an expansion of the patriot act, the american people are signing a petition demanding that ashcroft "stop compromising our freedoms; stop eroding our basic civil rights; stop trying to teach our neighbors to spy on each other, and american communities to mistrust each other.".

if you haven't yet signed the petition to stop ashcroft, do so here:.

badwillie

Displaying the Petition to Stop Ashcroft, Standing Up for Civil Liberties

As John Ashcroft entered the Airport Holiday Inn in Des Moines, Iowa today, Dean supporters displayed the first 50,000 signatures from the Stop Ashcroft petition. Ashcroft was speaking at the hotel to promote the Bush administration's plans to expand the Patriot Act.

If you print in 8 point font, you can fit approximately 150 names on an 8 ½ X 11 sheet of paper. If you have 50,000 names, you need (do the math with me) a lot of paper, over 300 sheets of paper in fact. Thanks to all the thousands of you who signed the online petition to stop John Ashcroft, Iowans protesting this administration’s disregard for civil liberties in Des Moines today had your people power behind them. Thanks to you we joined with over 100 Iowans, including members from the Iowa Democratic Party and the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, to deliver a massive 70 foot wall of resistance to the Attorney General himself. That is grassroots, that is restoring the American Community, that is the power of this campaign.

9

STOP Ashcroft! Sign this Petition

by badwillie in

already 42,938 americans have stood up today in defense of civil liberties.

as attorney general john ashcroft began his tour of the country to promote an expansion of the patriot act, the american people are signing a petition demanding that ashcroft "stop compromising our freedoms; stop eroding our basic civil rights; stop trying to teach our neighbors to spy on each other, and american communities to mistrust each other.".

if you haven't yet signed the petition to stop ashcroft, do so here:.

badwillie

Already 42,938 Americans have stood up today in defense of civil liberties. As Attorney General John Ashcroft began his tour of the country to promote an expansion of the Patriot Act, the American people are signing a petition demanding that Ashcroft "stop compromising our freedoms; stop eroding our basic civil rights; stop trying to teach our neighbors to spy on each other, and American communities to mistrust each other."

If you haven't yet signed the petition to Stop Ashcroft, do so here:

http://www.deanforamerica.com/stopashcroft

35

Voting Bush out

by Jayson in

what is the best campaign stratagy to win against him?

be serious this is to win the minds of american voters not to polerize them against you.

otherwise it's a plug for him.. i think that the one real weakness is unemployment in america.

badwillie

To anyone who doubts Howard Dean's ability nationwide allow me to remind everyone of these numbers from the 2000 race:

50,459,624 - George W. Bush's votes
51,003,238 - Al Gore's votes
2,882,985 - Ralph Nader's votes

Now if you really believe that a good chunk of Gore voters are so geeked on the war in Iraq that they'll switch to Dubya knowing full well he'll ruin the economy even more than he already has and destroy public schools, social security, etc. then you're incorrect. If you think Howard Dean can't run as good a campaign if not better than Al Gore did, you are wrong again. If you think 2.8 million Green voters are going to vote for Ralph Nader over Howard Dean you are wrong thrice. If you can't see that Al Gore's votes plus Ralph Nader's votes instantly creates a coalition capable of defeating George W. Bush by an even larger margin than last time, then you can't do simple math. If you have failed to notice the intensity of the left's laser beam focus on defeating George W. Bush in 2004, than you're not paying attention and you will be ambushed.

38

Why does the Government OWE You?

by teenyuck in

with all the recent political threads, i have a question.

what do you think/feel/believe the government or your country *owes* you as a citizen?.

i am talking about pensions, health care and other *social services*.

badwillie

In this so called Democracy, the Government owes me the respect of LISTENING very carefully to all opinions and then deciding the best course based on that.

My children and grandchildren however, will OWE the Government this:

www.costofwar.com

www.deanforamerica.com