Issues thread- Results (what are the most pressing issues) in thread. (1 Viewer)

Maurile Tremblay said:

3. Criminal justice reform (including drug policy -- harm reduction rather than criminal prosecution).

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I forgot about this one.  I know you know this obviously, but it's more than just drug policy.  It's also about police brutality and the criminal justice system in general.  Thanks for catching this.

Maurile Tremblay said:

You may have already seen this, but we as a nation spend more on almonds than we do on politics. (Not just political campaigns, but also PACs, lobbying, think tanks, advocacy organizations...)

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Why the almond hate here?. What did almonds ever do to you?  

OK here are the results of yesterday’s posts. I awarded 5 pts for everybody’s 1st priority, 4 points for the 2nd, 3 for 3rd etc. Some of these issues are obviously overlapping: 

40- Climate change 

31- Heath care 

29- Campaign financing and spending 

26- Tax reform 

23- Election reform 

11- Immigration 

9- Defense Spending

9- Education 

8- Social Security 

6- Freedom of speech 

6- gun control 

5- Deficit 

5- foreign policy 

5- infrastructure 

5- Marijuana 

4- Economic Growth 

4- Homelessness 

4- Living Wage 

4- Medicare 

4- Wealth inequality 

3- Criminal justice reform 

3- Social safety net 

2- IP Reform 

1- Animal rights 

1- Unemployment 

So climate change is #1 here with healthcare a distant 2nd. I kind of suspect that the general public has these two reversed. 

Now what?

urbanhack said:

Now what?

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Hoping for a discussion. I’m thinking about how best to format it. 

I am curious for the people who said Climate change and Heath care as their first priorities.  What is the biggest obstacle to achieve your desired outcome?

toshiba said:

I am curious for the people who said Climate change and Heath care as their first priorities.  What is the biggest obstacle to achieve your desired outcome?

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Speaking specifically of health care, which I presume means modernizing the system to single payer, there is real fear that medical practice will become an ugly assembly line like a state's DMV offices sometimes are -- disinterested bureaucrats dispensing care instead of skilled professionals and long wait times. That fear is somehow not alleviated by the reality that is found in most of the First World and I'm not sure why we carry that concern as part of our national libido. But it's a real thing, imo.

roadkill1292 said:

Speaking specifically of health care, which I presume means modernizing the system to single payer, there is real fear that medical practice will become an ugly assembly line like a state's DMV offices sometimes are -- disinterested bureaucrats dispensing care instead of skilled professionals and long wait times. That fear is somehow not alleviated by the reality that is found in most of the First World and I'm not sure why we carry that concern as part of our national libido. But it's a real thing, imo.

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That's one fear.

The second fear is that we will weaken the profit motive for new drugs and vaccines, and therefore there will be less new drugs, vaccines, and medical advancement in general. I don't know how much stock to put in that argument but I've heard it made quite a bit.

timschochet said:

That's one fear.

The second fear is that we will weaken the profit motive for new drugs and vaccines, and therefore there will be less new drugs, vaccines, and medical advancement in general. I don't know how much stock to put in that argument but I've heard it made quite a bit.

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Yeah, we've all heard that one plenty. I don't put much stock into it because the overall health and well-being of as many of us as possible will do way more good than the next miracle pill. And that's assuming that a huge amount of research simply ceases, which is equally simply bullspit.

timschochet said:

So climate change is #1 here with healthcare a distant 2nd. I kind of suspect that the general public has these two reversed. 

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It's also partially an issue of categorization.

Healthcare, Medicare, Social Safety Net, Living Wage, Wealth Inequality, Homelessness - these things are all pretty inextricably bound.

Destroy the Military Industrial Complex

ffldrew said:

Destroy the Military Industrial Complex

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That is indeed a black hole that will bankrupt us down the road but there are a lot of voters who would choose national poverty over the forfeiture of the No. 1 spot at the top of the global military pyramid. That reckoning will come.

I'd really like to reestablish old alliances and NATO. That would seem to be a number one priority for me. To have a bulwark against communist and kleptocratic encroachment on our governmental norms would seem to be an excellent place to start.

Then continue with restoring the mode and method by which political figures were selected at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Eliminate most if not all legislative impulses emanating from the executive branch.

For me healthcare is #1...it has to be addressed and quickly.

Climate change as well.  

Those two are time sensitive in that the longer we wait crap just gets so much worse and worse and may already be too damn hard to reverse the damage done (to the planet and our citizens).

Education...its a mess at all levels.  Public education in this country is still bad.    We need the best and brightest to want to be teachers.  Free college?  No.  But free trade schools and community college can be done.  
 

Campaign finance...we are being governed by corporations at the uber wealthy.  Id put this above education and maybe above climate change actually.

Tax reform...but sorry, not a consumption based tax.  Until you can make it where it isn't so regressive to hurt lower incomes more, its a no go.

Gun control...neuter the NRA (of course this goes into campaign finance too) and their taking of foreign money to influence our laws.  Im pro 2nd amendment...but its not an amendment of unregulated gun ownership.