What do we stand for as the American left?

As Democrats and other forms of leftists what do we collectively stand for?

Here is my idea of what I stand for, I hope many of you will share your ideas too. Basically lets argue ISSUES for a while instead of arguing CANDIDATES. (yes I live in France but I am American and lived in the USA for the first 24 years of my life.)

Foreign Policy
1.End conflict and military presence in Iraq.
2.End conflict and military presence in Afganistan.
3. Stop threatening Iran and other countries.
4. End international war on Drugs and replace the now illegal commerce with a taxed and regulated commerce.
5. Drastically increase aid for poor people around the world (food, medecin, education, drinking water)

Domestic policy
1. National health insurance as a right for all residents and citizens.
2. Local, State and perhaps new Federal Universities that are free, that is funded like public schools are today in while at the same time drastically increasing the funding of schools for all ages, including making pre school free from the age of 3.
3. Raise the minumum wage to a minimum living wage that is tied to inflation.
4. drastically increase funding of social services for the poor (public housing, food stamps, unemployment, welfare)
5.. End war on drugs opting for a regulated and taxed commerce.
6.Legalize gay marriage with full adoption rights (knowing that this is already the case in several EU countries I think the time has come).
7. Creation of a fedearl agency charged with cleaning up litter along highways which will create living wage level jobs out of activities currently done for nothing by people being punished by the criminal justice system. Perhaps such a program could be reserved for people from 16 to 30 as a program to help young people find their way into the working world.
8. creation of a high speed electric rail system powered by green energy (tides, solar, wind)from multiple sources to the maximum % of total energy use possible.
For the moment I would leave gun control alone because the supreme court we have will not likely find a law that forbids handguns constitutional. I also think that by increasing social spending

Economic policy,
Increase taxes on the wealthiest people. Perhaps to 75% of the wage in cases where people make more than a billion in a year. (we had it up to 60% here before Sarkozy put it down to 50%.) Decrease taxes on the poor, working class and middle class if possible or simply change the percentages that different economic groups pay making the rich pay a much higher share than the middle class and the poor not paying anything.

International Aid
Help establish a safe drinking water infrastructure for the entire world, a system that distributes medecine everywhere and a system that distributes food to places where there is not enough.

Ecology
1.Drastically increase pollution controls
2.Force cars in the USA to consume half as much (smaller cars perhaps????)
3.creation of a high speed electric rail system powered by green energy (tides, solar, wind)from multiple sources to the maximum % of total energy use possible.

So far? A ton of excuses. And being treated like crap by the Democratic congressional leadership. That's what we stand for on a daily basis.

That's obviously not what you meant ... but I'm a bitter bitter man. :P

into energy for discussing what Democrats should stand for. A solid platform will win an election. Infighting between primary candidates without discussing all the issues first can do more harm than good.

Winning for the sake of winning is not winning at all.

What should the Democrats stand for? The promises they made during the '06 election. Until the keep to those promises, campaign promises and platforms mean squat.

he says focus should be economics, that means if companies shift the profits offshore to avoid taxes then they should
not operate in the US. A lot of your ideas sound good but we're broke and the country has been carved out. We need
to start to rebuild the country, I think biofuel development which will generate an estimated 500,000 jobs locally would
be a good start. And I think there should be development of solar panel that could be put into existing homes to
generate heat in the winter, I think these should be produced by a civilian work corps just like FDR had, let's put
our young jobless people to work rebuilding the gulf coast and our infrastructure. Leave Iraq, end all contracts with
mercenaries and no-bid war profiteers. And I think that the defense budget should be slashed, put money into needed
social programs and health care. I also think that the UN will step into Iraq and we will have to pay reperations
there. But Kucinich says that in the 1950s, corporations paid 4.5%, now they pay 1.3% of the GDP, I know in Maryland
most of the corporations are not taxed because they threaten to leave if taxed so the burden falls on the workers
to pay the bills. A workable national health care plan would take the burden off employers to pay health care costs
and make more companies want to stay here.

1) Thinking that there IS any 'left' in the US.
2) Thinking that the Democrats are at all representative of that 'left'.

After today's votes, I despair.

The costs of health care and housing are often left out of our debates. But these very high costs affect us seriously. So at least we should be careful about policies, like our tax code, that may have a major impact on costs.

I am reminded of the fictional political cartoon of Atticus Finch, depicted as chained to a desk, and scribbling away at "taxes and stuff," things that are "mighty dry" for some folks. (I hope my memory of that classic serves me.) It is dry, but we can do it, don't you think?