It’s been a very long time since the progressive agenda has been this well positioned to actually get something done — Don’t blow it!
I’m eased by Pelosi’s words on not getting Uber-Liberal on us. I think their conservative Liberal agenda, seemingly more centrist than left, will actually move towards making some important
objectives in the progressive agenda forward.
Back in the Clinton’s first 2-year stretch, being overly ambitious was one of the major faults listed of himself and his party. Over-reaching in the first 100 days/2 years,
even with the amount of seats they had, killed their agenda and the whole thing went down the drain. Nothing got done.
I think that there are actual limits to what can be done in government, and that that is a good thing; One of our system’s most attractive features. Moving quickly is not one of the best characteristics for a system to have when it determines such measures that will permanently, and possibly irreparably, affect a society. In our political system, the government has the very large responsibility of assisting society guide the whole of itself. Moving one part’s agenda faster than the rest is unfair and, most importantly, threatens to disrupt the cohesiveness of the whole.
I’m looking forward to seeing what
actually gets done in the next few years. I’d like to see the following accomplished, and in this order:
- Get an Iraq Exit Strategy, already!
- Make serious in-roads towards Energy Independence.
- A *reasonable* Health Care system would not be out of
reach. Although it would definitely not go as far as Canada, it would
be good to stretch it further towards that goal from the point at which
it is now. - Improve public education in Math & Science. (Only serious bills need apply.)
- Raise
the minimum wage to a decent amount, with (probably) economic
assistance for small businesses (who would be the one’s hard-hit when
shelling out the extra cash.) - A ‘Guest Worker’ program would be good.
Beyond that, I think would be a over-reaching at this time in government. WIth that said, I’m looking forward to these next couple of years, and with special interest towards the election in ‘08.
