Where do I begin? I have a lot of ground to cover, so let’s start with the easy stuff.

Presidential Nominees
Democrats! Where is the field of nominees for President 2008? Do you think that I’m being premature? I don’t think so. In November it will be two years until the election, and it takes time for people to get to know the candidates, assuming that their will be many running in a primary. Democrats have an easy task in a way, since they don’t have to be in the shadow of the President.
If you want to inspire and win 2008, then you need to get to the next issue, party platform.

Party Platform
I always hear from the pundits that the candidates need to demonstrate what differentiates them from their opponent. It seems that everyone knows what the GOP is about, but the waters are quite muddied for the Democratic party. If you’re a Democrat, you recognize that there is a lot of good from the fact that there is a lot of diverse ideas that can fit within the party. Yet a concise platform is needed in order to get undecided voters, and unhappy voters to join up.

What are the issues that American’s care about?

• National Defense
• Health Care
• Taxes
• Social Security – Investments – Retirement
• Inflation – The Economy
• Employment – Jobs

What policies should the Democrats drive home with a specific plan in addition to the afore mentioned?

• Energy – Alternative Fuels
• International Trade Strategies
• Technology Development Strategy, in cooperation with NASA, The NSF, our National Labs, and the US Military.

Finally, there should be a stated preamble to all of this that speaks to the direct support of our Bill of Rights, and specifically the defense of the 1st amendment.

Ideology vs Policy
The GOP has a definite ideology, and it partially is influenced by religious conservatives, some might even say hi-jacked. Those ideologies include.

• Anti-Abortion (Pro-Life)
• Anti-Union (Pro-“Right-to-Work”)
• Anti-Evolution (Pro-Creationism)
• Anti-Homosexual (Pro-Family)
• Anti-Gun Control (Defenders of the 2nd Amendment)
• Anti-Secularism (Pro Religion in public life)

If the Democratic party wants to demonstrate how it is different, and serves the best interests of the country, it has to deal with each of these issues, as they are all decisive, emotionally, with voters.

Liberty and the future We have all lost freedom when the Patriot Act was enacted. While it can be argued that sweeping changes to the law are necessary, since these are changing times, well, maybe we should have debated that a little longer on how to do it. I worry about a future where people are afraid to speak their mind.

I don’t think that suspecting every American as a potential terrorist is the answer. We check you at the Airport, and now we can carry that into anything that we want as justification to search you. Heck, the books that you check out a the public library can be reported to law enforcement. Where are the defenders of the 4th Amendment? Will it be up to Judges to defend the 4th Amendment because poorly written laws are carried out, then challenged in court? Will this mean that those Judges will be accused of “activism” and “writing laws from the bench” when in fact they are making decisions based upon the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Benjamin Franklin and his fellow patriots believe in liberty so much that they were ready to defend it with their very lives. To give it up for anything would have been considered a treasonous act, and now we sheepishly believe that these desperate times have called for desperate measures, and we have willingly sacrificed what we spend 200+ years to earn.