What Does MoveOn’s Army Want?
MoveOn polled its mailing list for a couple days to ask what issues should be the organization’s top goals for 2009. Each member was able to pick three from the list. How’d the voting turn out?
1. Universal health care 64.9%
2. Economic recovery and job creation 62.1%
3. Build a green economy, stop climate change 49.6%
4. End the war in Iraq 48.3%
5. Improve public schools 21.6%
6. Restore civil liberties 16.8%
7. Hold the Bush Administration accountable 15.2%
8. Gay rights/LGBT equality 8.6%
9. Increase access to higher education 7.6%
10. Reform campaigns and elections 5.7%
Less than half no longer care about the War In Iraq as much as other issues, though that may be because American presence there is entering its final couple of years. What genuinely surprises me is that fewer than a quarter care about improving public schools and less than 8% care about increasing access to higher education. The basis of a strong population is a strong education, but maybe that creates a class of people less likely to be dependent on the government for health care, job creation and a government mandated green economy.
The most interesting points are 6 and 7. As much screaming as there has been about the actions of the Bush Administration and the evils of the Patriot Act, now that Barack Obama is in power it’s not that big a deal. Either it’s a matter of trust or a matter of the power now being wielded for their purposes. Mwa ha ha ha!
That LGBT rights came in 8th is odd as well, though that could show more the mood of MoveOn or order of priorites than their complete dismissal of the issue. At least, the LGBT movement should hope that’s the case.
So the next year our legislators and airwaves should expect to be flooded with issue advocacy from MoveOn for universal health care and the development of a green economic recovery that will be paid for with what exactly?
Category: Government
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The liberal healthcare agenda has nothing to do with helping the underpriviledged, rather it takes advantage of the underpriviledged by causing them to become more dependent upon the Democratic government. The bottom line is that if you want a liberal government to help you then there are strings attached.
In all seriousness I think most people in American are in favor of the top 3. Now yes there are some cost issues and devil in the details stuff but those are all popular issues and heck I even agree with them for example.
On the flipside I wonder what the top 3 issues are for a rightwing or even more moderate Republican group.
Cutting taxes would propably be pretty high up there which most people agree with but after that what exaclty do the Republicans want to actually do or stand for anymore.
With no civil rights to speak of who cares about anything else? Judging by current trends were not going to have any rights to speak of by the end of 2012. Wage slaves is all we are going to be and as of today it is pretty much all we are. Just like the old axiom; were not having our rights taken away, were begging for them to be taken away…
What conservatives should be standing for is simple.
1. Enforcing the Constitution
2. Protecting our God given liberties
3. cutting taxes and getting our fiscal house in order
While I see the point that novamiddleman is trying to make, most of the American people agree with us on the issues. Just look at the traditional marriage proposition in California. The other day I was riding down I-81 on my way to Harrisonburg and I saw a sign that read, “Obama-Biden for Lower Taxes.” That in itself shows that the Democrats tend to win when they take conservative ideas and make them sound like their own(i.e. Bill Clinton and welfare reform).
Steven Osborne,
Republicans proved they were totally incompetent on your issue #3. I’d put forth that you can not make the spending cuts necessary to both balance the budget and cut taxes at the same time and expect to get reelected the next time around.
I’m more in favor of balancing the budget then I am in favor of seeing another tax cut we can not afford.
novamiddleman,
I think I could work with MoveOn on the top 5 as long as they allowed some wiggle room on #4. I too want to get out of Iraq but I do not want to get out without having done so wisely.
I probably want to go a little more slowly on their #1 issue. But I agree something needs to be done about health care and perhaps their preferred solution is the correct way to go if they can round up enough support for it.
But as long as they concentrate on the top 5 and stop demanding some of the things further down the list I think I could work with even them.
The point that often gets lost guys is its no longer “issues”. Most Americans would agree with the top five though with differing ideas about how to go about them, but it has become about marketing and branding. A page has been taken out of industry in this manner and it is now being directly applied to politics and groups like Moveon. Its about who people “perceive” to be fighting for them and as long as the GOP continues to allow itself to be portrayed as solely the big business party. An example of this is how the left always portrays CEO’s and bonus monies in the same breathe as somehow always equated with the GOP and yet folks like Buffet are hardly Republican. Its the branding measures of how the Dems are supposed to be about the little guy and the GOP about those with money….is this not always the spin on the tax arguement and yet of course everyone one of the Dems in leadership fit into that same bracket of wealth, including Obama after his books, the Clintons and the like.
Pretty interesting.