Re: I really want to understand
Ok, I will give it a shot.<br /><br />Foreign Policy. It is absolutely critical in this war on terror to seriously and credibly engage the rest of the world in this struggle. All the free world is at risk from terrorists, and we have shared values in this regard. We have to find those shared values, and develop them. Kerry is more likely to do this.<br /><br />Iraq. Whether you think it was a bad idea or not, we cannot let Iraq become a failed state, nor is it in the interests of the rest of the world that it fail. While it is doubtful we are going to enlist a huge number of foreign troops to fight this battle, we have to try, and we have to include the rest of the free world in the goal of stabilizing Iraq. It is not going to be easy, but we have to alter the direction we are going. And somehow we have to put something other than an American face on this, even though it is probably impossible to put anything other than an American wallet behind it.<br /><br />We have to stay engaged in the rest of the world, especially Pakistan, North Korea, Iran, and any other areas that truly threaten us and the rest of the free world, and of course, Israel and Palestine. This is a world of nuance and delicacy, and different cultures see things different ways. This is not an area where black and white views prevail, nor the notion of simply good vs evil. Bush is incapable of this nuance, and Kerry at least has a chance of success.<br /><br />Education. If we are going to have "no child left behind" we have to fund it. While it is a start, it is of course, not the ultimate answer, and like most problems we face, there is no simple answer. Being an educator, I am sure you know that the goundwork for successful schools is set long before the kids ever get to school--whether parents read to their kids from an early age yada yada yada. Government can only do so much, but we ought to stress early childhood education, preschool programs, etc. There are a lot of skilled professionals and scientists in this field, and we ought to try different things, test, and see what does and does not work. Approaching this from either a idealogic, or an evangelical, point of view is bound to fail.<br /><br />Government has to be involved in funding real science---many things have the ability to be privately funded if there is a short turnaround, but long term advances must be government funded, like alternate energy sources and energy independence. Not to mention stem cell research and the like.<br /><br />Economy--While there are lots of troubling statements from both sides of the economic debate in this election, I take it as mostly election hyperbole--as complex economic theory does not play well on the campaign trail. I take some comfort that Robert Rubin was sitting next to Teresa at Kerry's convention speech, as I would much rather have Rubin's advice than Karl Rove's.<br /><br />And we cannot continue to run record deficits with the advent of baby boomers retiring and the need for funds increasing no matter what we do from a spending point of view. This is nothing but a deferred tax increase on our children, and is not right.<br /><br />That is a start. This is a nuanced world, no matter what we think, and a black and white, simplistic approach to the problems we face simply won't work. We can, of course, always find others to blame for the failures, but they will be failures nonetheless.<br /><br />Now will all of this be easy? Of course not. And will Kerry solve all of these problems overnight? Of course not. Willl all of his appoaches work perfectly? Of course not.<br /><br />But on balance, he is the far better choice, and I would rather try something that might possibly work, even in a limited way, than continue doing what I know does not and will not work.
