My wife, Terre, and I went to a fundraiser for Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff recently here in Santa Barbara. It was interesting to have a senator from Georgia campaigning for his reelection here in California, but there was a big turnout. (It seems to me he is ultimately presidential material.) We were happy to contribute to his campaign.
At the event, someone asked if there was a “joint platform” for all Democrats running for the Senate, but Ossoff said that didn’t exist. However, it got me thinking. I have since come up with an acronym that might work for all Democratic candidates! Here it is:
Dump Trump — impeach him
End the war in Iran
Make an explicit list of all Trump’s lies
Oust his lackey cabinet
Control political contributions
Reform healthcare
Act on Climate Restoration
Throw the bum in jail — indict him
I wonder how many Democrats would go along with this description of what “Democratic” values are. I thought it might be useful to the senator as a trigger for an actual Democratic platform, so I sent it to him! No response yet.
At any rate, I later thought that to be more universal in my approach to politics, I should be impartial and develop a similar acronym for Republicans as well. So here is what I came up with:
Responsibility for
Ending
People’s
Unthoughtfulness
By
Living to
Implement
Conflict resolution for
All people and
Nations
As you can see, both of these descriptions are mainly an exercise in acronym word play. I wonder how many Republicans would go along with my description, since I sort of slid in some of my own values! Yet, I wonder how many people of either party can identify the values of their party? I wonder if each party even has a set of values specific to them only! Values are universal — or should be. I wonder how many of us voters have identified our own personal values to begin with, so that we can question candidates to see if they measure up to our values.
Stop voting for people who are against something, like simply being against the other party. Vote for people who are for something, who have and pursue values that match yours.
In case you are running for office and you can’t figure out what your values are, just send me your name and I will come up with an acronym with values for you personally! You can edit it, of course, but only if your changes express your own personal values! Stop running “against” something! What are you for?
If you are running for office just because you need a nice-paying job, get some values first and then come back. Feel free to borrow from my two lists above — or just send me your name, and I will help! I will try not to be too “acronymonious.”
