It's 2am, I'm exceptionally bored and pretty tired, so I think I'll do the same.
Abortion - I believe that abortion itself is a symptom of greater problems, not a problem of its own creation. I personally would never advocate for the termination of a pregnancy to any friends or family. While it hasn't happened yet, I may have to advocate it for a client of mine in the future, which I won't have a problem doing. I believe that the best way to reduce abortions is not to outlaw it, but to rather work on underlying factors of poverty and sexual education. Abstinence only education is a failure, plain and simple.
Budget & Economy - Balance the budget, reduce our debt. I personally think the most efficient way of doing this would be to reduce our military-industrial budget first off, and of course there are hundreds of other cuts that could be made. And I'm more apt to believe that a liberal policy of "tax and spend" is more appropriate than the conservative "spend and spend" policy.
Civil Rights - I believe in gay marraige, habeas corpus, protection against unwarranted search (wiretapping), the dissolution of "free speech zones", and all that jazz.
Corporations - I just read somewhere that corporations don't pay taxes, which is pretty appropriate. Any tax increases to corporations will fall on the consumer as higher prices. So competition, competition, competition. And lots of oversight to prevent collusion and monopolies.
Crime - Crime is bad. But again, crime is a symptom of other problems, most often.
Death Penalty - State sanctioned murder is till murder; abolish the death penalty.
Drugs - Legalization of marijuana would be a gigantic leap in the right direction. I do support the continued criminalization of 'hardcore' drugs, though.
Education - I'm not sure on this one, to be honest. I don't think that privitization is the way to go, because it will be the poor that suffer from that the most - the ones that need education the most.
Energy & Oil - I find it odd that every house built nowadays isn't required to have some geothermal heating and cooling and solar panels on the roof. The nation will never move towards green energy as long as the average consumer doesn't reduce use of gasoline despite high prices. And the more I think about it and read about it, the happier I am with nuclear power. There, I said it. Where do I turn in my hippie card?
Environment - Ya know, if I see a clinic because of a fever and aches and pains, and 9 out of 10 doctors say "it's because you're eating paint chips," I'm not going to continue eating paint chips just in case they are wrong. I think America needs major action in it's consumerism, pronto.
Families & Children - Hell, I say we start penalizing people for having more than 2 kids. The world needs less bodies, not more.
Foreign Policy - Al Qaeda didn't attack America because our women wear bikinis and freedom of worship; they attacked because we have troops in Saudi Arabia, our unwavering support of Israel, and generally meddling in Middle Eastern affairs (such as, say, the Iraq War). Our foreign military operations should be much more invested in humanitarian affairs (the Sudan, Rwanda, etc.) then geopolitical and religious disputes.
Free Trade - The "invisible hand of the free market" will sometimes give a big ole middle finger. We have a right to protect ourselves with tariffs and the like just as any other nation does. Maybe some protectionism against cheap slave labor goods will make consumers more fiscally and environmentally responsible, while keeping manufacturing jobs local to the US.
Government Reform - Ya know, I really think the first step should be voting reform. Democrats and Republicans have no need to reform themselves as it stands, so they won't. But then, they have no incentive to reform voting, so they probably won't. I think we're going to have to wait for some calamitous recession for real reform.
Gun Control - Guns don't kill people, people kill people. And if a person wants to kill someone, they can get a gun one way or the other. The rampant violence in America is no due to gun control or lack thereof, it's due to our culture.
Health Care - I don't trust the government to run health care, nor do I particularly trust a competitive insurance market to provide for everyone. But, and maybe it's because of the people I work with, I think that health care should be a right, not a privilege. America has the best health care in the world, if you can afford it. You hear about kings and prime ministers and whatever from abroad that come here for heart surgery, not so much the underclass of those countries from whence they came. I'm still waiting to hear a good suggestion from someone smarter than me on the subject.
Homeland Security - What has the DHS accomplished?
Immigration - Go after the people and companies that hire illegal immigrants, and the demand will go down, hence the supply. Another alternative is a unified North American Currency, so I've heard.
Infrastructure & Technology - Bio-research, bitches, it works. Let's get some dang embryos and start cracking.
Jobs - We need to retain manufacturing jobs before we turn into a 100% service industry.
Principles & Values - The more encompassing, the better. Keep your marraige sanctified up the wazoo, but honor everyone's idea of marraige between consenting adults. A culture of life doesn't murder adults. The idea of "family" has been through a lot of transition, the nuclear family was not the be all end all of it. Principals and values should evolve with society, not weigh it down.
Social Security - Eradicate the arbitrary cut off of (i think) 102,000 for SSI taxes. Problem solved.
Tax Reform - Budget reform has to happen before Tax reform.
War & Peace - Peace, man! Listen to the country about the direction of your war. When 70%ish of the country no longer supports it, they might be trying to tell you something.
Welfare & Poverty - There are a lot of people that cannot handle the responsibility of being productive, and it may suck, but we have to support them. Education will be the bane of poverty (not that it will ever really be banished).
