A Dozen Reasons to Vote Democratic

[For a list of ten reasons for 2010, click here. For a longer list of reasons for 2008, click here.]

Here, in rough order of importance, are a dozen reasons to vote Democratic this November, regardless of who the candidates are:

1. To bring back our sunny “can do” optimism and dump the politics of fear—fear of terror, immigrants, foreigners, homosexuals and the future.


2. To restore a culture in which Americans respect each other’s differences and work together to solve common problems.


3. To insure that our basic law remains our Constitution, not the Bible.


4. To open a window into the closed, secretive world of the first junta in North American history: Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.


5. To bring our history’s most incompetent secretary of defense closer to a well-deserved and long overdue retirement.


6. To stop the slandering of our brave veterans, including those who lost limbs in combat, as defeatists and cowards by people who never wore a uniform.


7. To put scientific and technical problems like global warming, Katrina, other natural disasters, and medical research back in the hands of experts who understand them.


8. To restore the worldwide respect and moral authority that America enjoyed throughout the Twentieth Century and until the invasion of Iraq.


9. To halt the growth of “earmarks”—a process by which individual members of Congress spend your money and mine for their own political purposes, in gross betrayal of their oaths of office and their public trust.


10. To restore fiscal discipline to Congress, if by no other means than divided government.


11. To give intelligent diplomacy more support in Congress and a better chance for success.


12. To include a few folks in government who care as much about the poor and miserable as about the rich and capable.