Democratic Manifesto

My friends and any intelligent family members are Democrats, so I've been able to sit comfortably as a liberal without having to think too much about why. But now I work with a bunch of lovely, intelligent, conservative who pay attention to the news. I've never been in a situation where I've been laughed at by people I respect for beliefs I've carried since I was about five or six. It's been a great opportunity to question my own beliefs, figure out whether I'm as much of mindless follower as I think many Republicans are.

Yup, I'm definitely a liberal Democrat, and now I feel like I have a much better idea why. Liberals are thought to be the idealistics, but I think it's all very practical. I think helping others who are having a tough time makes sense not because I'm soft and bleeding heart, but because I think we end up paying either way, and it's just a matter of whether we pay up front (subsidized housing, student loans, GI programs, WIC) or we pay later (decreased home values, prisons, loss due to theft).

I'm told that I must be a socialist because I support Obama. I wonder how socialism got such a bad name. Aren't good Republicans supposed to be good Christians, and isn't one of the central messages of Jesus that the rich much give to the poor? It's so funny to me that here in the US we've turn Jesus into a Capitalist (see Norman Vincent Peale, televangelists, super churches of the south) when he was a Communist, the dirtiest word in America.

Right now the lucky few who can afford non-laughable health care (I couldn't for most of the last 13 years) pay generally pay a lot in co-pays and monthly insurance for generally lousy care. It takes a long time to get an appointment, you get about 2 minutes with a doctor who sees it as his / her primary responsibility to put you on medicines that over time create more problems than the original sicknesses. If there's not a pill to prescribe, you may as well not see a doctor. Have a real problem that requires an emergency room visit, and except to pay hundreds of dollars for the most inhumane care this human can imagine.

And most of the money isn't even going to the doctor...it's going to giant HMOs and pharmaceutical companies, part of that wonderful free market. These companies buy access to politicians who make sure the money keeps flowing. But because most Americans have never been outside the country, they believe the lies of those that say we have the best health care system in the world. That's a common theme...preying on those who don't know with misinformation and scare tactics.

That free market argument drives me crazy. If the free market works so well, how do you explains the monopolies and terrible working conditions of the 19th century, the Great Depression, the export of millions of good jobs to other countries, the lack of movement for decades on the energy crisis, the accounting follies of Enron, TYCO, Worldcom and Arthur Andersen, the problems we've seen with unregulated Chinese products, the millions harmed by under-researched pharmaceuticals, the mortgage crisis...each of these problems is due to a free market run amuck. The free market is only interested in making money, and ethics are not helpful. That's why there are investors who make money nakedly shorting stocks to purposefully drive down the price of company stocks, and CEOs (and can someone explain to me why CEOs of companies losing money make tens of millions of dollars a year?) hiding losses in dummy corporations and presenting profits to drive stock prices higher?

Now overregulation has its problems too (the Carter era comes to mind), but it's been big government that brought about improvements in working conditions, highway improvements, public schooling, the New Deal, Social Security...these are pretty key.

A safe, educated society is America's best chance as a country, but our overinflated sense of justice gets in the way. My Republican friends HATE the idea of free school breakfasts and lunches, HATE welfare, HATE the idea that people sue companies for millions of dollars, HATE the idea that prisoners might be treated humanely, HATE the idea of affirmative action. As hard working people of good families, they believe that those who are struggling are doing so because they won't work hard. I understand how a person could feel that way. I've spent a lot of time in struggling communities, a lot of time with people different from me, so I know that starting off well means you can slack and still succeed, and that starting off poorly means you can work your butt off and get nowhere. Are the programs in place ideal. Heck no. No system is perfect, and most aren't very good. But they beat the alternative, and they aren't the enemy.

My Republican co-workers say liberals hate America. We blast our government's treatment of other countries, of our own citizens. We embrace other cultures and ideas. I think we embrace all that is good about America, everything that American was supposed to stand for according to the founding fathers and the best President we ever had, Abraham Lincoln. With a world economy, the key to success is probably not isolationism. It's funny the holabullo over immigration. It's an immigrant country, and always has been. Immigrants are who made this a great country from the beginning. And while it was Irish in the 19th century who were bombasted, and Asians in the early 20th century, now it's Mexicans. That's another thing about Republicans--they've been wrong on every issue over time. They fought colonial independence, they fought workers rights, they fought the end to slavery, they fought Civil Rights, and still they'll keep fighting. This is a no growth group in some ways.

The strong issue for Republicans is of course spending, and for a minute they'll try to forget that a Republican president and Congress have spent more each year than the Democrats ever could. Really, both parties spend in spades. The issue really is what do you want to spend the money on...guns or food? Corporate subsidies or welfare? Wiretapping or better internet access? The question isn't big government or small government, but whether the government should serve the people or police them. What do we get for the drug war--crowded prisons full of people who have never hurt anyone, organized crime. What do we get for the fight against abortion? According to Freakanomics, we have abortion to thank for the drop in crime that began in the early 90s and has continued to the present day. What do we get for our fight against gay rights? I'm not gay, I've never done drugs, and I hope I'm never attached to a woman who decides to have an abortion. But for the life of me, and don't understand what we win for these fights any more than I understand what we have the oppotunity to win in Iraq.

It's all about distribution of resources. Sure the top 1% of Americans work hard (at least those who didn't inherit the money). But in general, from what I see, the harder you work the less you make. Who works harder than day laborers? Admins? Custodians? Teachers? I understand that those at the top should make more, but is it possible that it shouldn't be 100 times more than the working class? I'm believe in paying my fair share of taxes, but is it possible that the rich do have an obligation to the country that allowed them to become so rich? I think so.

My Night at the Modlin Center

A while back my friend Lorraine offered me two tickets to see a klezmer group at the University of Richmond Modlin Center. I had originally planned to take Megan, my new girlfriend who lives in Charlottesville, but she is no longer my new girlfriend on account of the fact that she met a guy who lives down the street instead all the way in Richmond.

So I thought it would be a good opportunity have a fun time with someone new. Since I don't know anyone new, I posted an ad on Craigslist on Wednesday and included a picture. I received a number of very complimentary responses from men who wanted to have sex with me, and then double-checked my posting--yeah, I posted in the men seeking WOMEN section. Huh.

I thought perhaps if I posted again today I might have more luck...some woman might have the impulse to want to go out. More emails from guys, with a couple married women mixed in. I couldn't figure out what was so unappealing about $30 tickets to see good music. I thought of just skipping the show, but would have felt guilty the next time I saw Lorraine.

As I was driving to Modlin, I was thinking that this might be the perfect chance to meet some quirky U of R graduate students. I started to have my doubts as I was in line to enter the theatre, and by the time I got to my seat...the theatre held 500 people, and while at least five of those people were women under the age of 60, none of those five appeared to be single. It began to dawn on me that perhaps humorous jazzy jewish music might not be the chick magnet I imagined.

The music was really good, I stayed all the way until intermission, and I got a little much-needed insight into why I'm still single.

My Favorite Things in Richmond

1. Balcony of the Byrd on Saturday night
2. The smell of "For the Love of Chocolate" in Carytown
3. Walking through the Fan at night in the spring or fall
4. "cous cous" and the drive down Monument / Franklin to get there
5. The FREE outdoor online hockey rink near the Hanover dump
6. The Carillon
7. Two slices of pepperoni from Picola Italy
8. Gallery Five
9. The majestic trees on Malvern between Grove and Cary
10. Brown's Island "beach" on the James