Hi folks,
I'm one of the many who've enjoyed the "guilty pleasure" of seeing the
national presidential debate slip into this forum, but I agree that we
need to keep a local focus. So lets start talking about local races!
In Minneapolis legislative races, we have at least two progressive
challengers to DFL supremacy in myself and Holle Brian. Other independence
candidates, while not identifying themselves as across-the-board progressives,
are nonetheless very outspoken on some key progressive issues: Mary Mellen
is very outspoken on being able to buy non-genetically engineered food and
other environmental issues, while 5th CD congressional candidate Rob Tomich
has spoken out in favor of single-payer health care.
The best part about voting progressive in Minneapolis is that you don't
have to agonize over the "spoiler" issue. Unless there's an outstanding
Republican in the race (Hi, Terrell!), we can reasonably expect that
Minneapolis Republicans will get less than 30% of the vote, so even if the
vote between (for instance) Wes Skoglund and Holle Brian was evenly split,
and composed entirely of former Democrat voters, the Republican still would
not win.
Progressives who care about the environment, about gay rights, about the
right to choose, about universal health care coverage, and about the
racial inequities in the criminal justice system should consider: The DFL
has held the balance of power in the state legislature for most of the last
30 years. Are we happy with the result? Or do we think we ought to be
doing better than we are?
I think we can be doing much better. There are many tough problems out
there that evade easy solutions - but there are so many others where the
solution exists but democrats and republicans are ignoring it. We know
that Canadians, Germans, and the British enjoy longer life expectancies,
lower infant mortality, lower health care costs, and greater satisfaction
with their health care system than we do here in America - so why is it
so difficult for our supposedly progressive DFL to support a single-payer
system here? We know that money spent on treatment and education in
combatting drug abuse, but that interdiction and enforcement has been
largely ineffective. So why can't we treat the drug problem strictly
as a medical problem, and eliminate the violence of the black market?
We know that even with the best light-rail system we could hope to
construct, less than 2% of trips metrowide will be on a light rail
system, and we won't substantially reduce our auto dependency, so why
isn't the DFL interested in finding new approaches to transit?
Democrat committee chairs from Minneapolis have blocked consideration
of single-payer health care. They've prevented hearings on Personal
Rapid Transit (PRT), while even the Republican-controlled house has
allowed PRT bills to advance. We can do better than the kind of
leadership the DFL has been providing. We need to.
--
Steven C. Anderson 612-722-6658 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Independence Party Candidate for Minnesota Senate, District 62
http://www.SteveAnderson.org/
