Things that pundits don't ask candidates about and candidates don't mention too often

[eridani]

Not even Kucinich is up to speed on some of these items. They reflect what seems to me to be actually happening now.

1. 700+ military bases all over the world have jackshit to do with defending our country. They are about kicking the rest of the world in the face militarily for the purpose of making the world safe for dollar a day labor. "America" is not the neocon elite who dominate it--I'd say that the rest of us poor saps who just live here have a better claim to the title. The neocons are not working for "American" interests, or "our" interests, but for their own.

2. Attacking a country that had nothing whatsoever to with attacking us in 2001 isn't just inadvisable because it wasn't done well--it was an utterly vile and immoral thing to do at all. There have been no "good" wars since WW II, and the line you get from some so-called "muscular" liberals that our various foreign interventions since then are just social work done with M-16s, depleted uranium and cluster bombs is complete horseshit.

3. Continuing to borrow trillions to pursue the above two missions will destroy our country if we keep on this path. We need to be putting those resources into inventing the next energy economy while we can still do it without the real pain that is coming down the pike fast if we don't. Peak Oil (no matter when you think it might happen) and global warming are real.

4. The Bush Haves and Have Mores that are running this country have not the slightest problem selling out our country's actual security for financial gain. They continue to do it daily, and have faced exactly zero consequences for it. The rest of us are nothing but disposable human garbage to them.

5. We haven't yet succeed in destroying our manufacturing base, but we are moving in the direction of an endpoint where our economy would consist of beating the shit out of weak countries and appropriating their resources, putting each other in jail and selling each other cheap imported crap. We won't actually get there because that would be impossible, but the movement in that direction is ruining a lot of peoples' lives.

6. "Islamofascism" or whatever bullshit term they are applying to it this week, is not the problem; it just one SYMPTOM of the problem. The problem is the alienation and despair resulting from economic polarization and intense conflict over resources in an overpopulated and overconsuming world. If you live in an Islamic country, of course fundie Islam is right there for you. If you live in India, you can join one of any number of Hindu fundie groups that get off on disembowelling pregnant Muslim women and stuffing them full of burning rags. Japan? Try Aum Shinrikyo or one of the crackpot Shinto sects. America? Lots of Christian Taliban groups just waiting for you to get in on all the misogynistic, racist, homophobic fun activities they have to offer, anything from burning abortion clinics to working on Huckabee's campaign. Not Christian? No problem! Plenty of neo-pagan Racial Holy War groups around, and Heaven's Gate cults as well. Not a "joiner"? All you need is a few guns to go shoot up a school all by yourself. Live in a place like South Korea with gun control? Just take a milk bottle full of of gasoline and light it off in a crowded Seoul subway at rush hour.

Overall, there is some bad news and some good news about these random threats. The good news is that only a tiny minority, say about 0.1% of us, is psychopathic enough to actually follow through with serious mayhem. The bad news is that 0.1% of 6 billion is 6 million. You get the idea. Expect to see a lot more alienated people breaking loose. Turning ourselves into the most fear-ridden locked-down society in the world will not stop it. The assault on our Constitution and the Bill of Rights has not made us the slightest bit safer.

7. The basic principle of Everybody in! Nobody out! ought to apply to everything from marriage equality to access to health care. Since we currently spend twice per capita what every other industrialized country is spending, we don't need to raise taxes or cut any other programs; we just need to pay people to provide health care instead of paying them to tell as many people as possible "that isn't covered". As Kucinich always says "We are already paying for universal health care; we just aren't getting it."

[sarge43]

1. Another I'd like added to the clean up list --

Campaign finance reform. It's the source of much of the corruption in our political system and it gives too few people way too much control.

[eridani]

2. Thanks--hoping that people will chime in

Seems tot me that the biggie is that we can no longer afford to be an empire, and even Kucinich isn't really very specifica about that.

[sarge43]

3. You're welcome.

Your list is right on the money, too.

Not only can't afford an empire; we have no talent for running one.