The political battles of America today are defined in terms of colors, that being the red and the blue. The red, of course, being associated with Republicans and the blue with Democrats, based on the colors the TV networks use to highlight each state when calling it on Election Night.
I would identify myself as a "red" voter, with cultural questions being the primary reason, along with support for Republican ideas on judicial nominations, and general support for a nationalist foreign and defense policy and a market economy.
All of those can be delved into a later date, but for this post I would like to synthesize the issues that constitute what I'll call "the blue pool", if we want to envision a patch of blue ink flowing onto a patch of red. It seems I've been writing about these more frequently of late, particularly with the contemporary conservative movement moving well to the right of any ground ever occupied by Ronald Reagan and adding estrangement from Ayn Rand conservatives to that I already knew existed with Daily Kos liberals.
I identify strongly with my Irish Catholic heritage and have a special affection for the city of Boston, so I suppose that's where the Blue Pool begins. But if it stopped there, it could be seen as simply some sentimental affections, both cultural and historical. It doesn't stop there though, and there some practical political topics, firmly rooted in the present day, that broaden and deepen the Blue Pool.
All of the topics I'm about to discuss circle around the rights of labor and of the working class--a phrase that I'll define as people who work just below middle-class level. Enough income to get by, but where financial insecurity is rife, and not because they're trying to live a lifestyle beyond their means. These topics would be...
*Trade protectionism
*Health care
*Union rights
*Wage laws
The first of these topics was one I outlined in a recent post of issues that would form the heart of a presidential campaign undertaken by my ideal candidate. Protecting America's economy from floods of cheap imports--thereby undercutting domestic manufacturing and encouraging multi-national firms to relocate their plants abroad and ship good back to the American market without penalty--is the most important topic on the American agenda after we protect the rights of the unborn.
This is an idea that would find its strongest backing in the labor unions, who are undercut simply by management being able to threaten the relocation of jobs to cheap labor countries.
I also believe the government should guarantee that every American get access to basic medical care. I'm not saying it has to be a single-payer system or that it has to be ObamaCare. In fact, I would prefer to use a lot of the ideas brought up by conservatives--tax incentives to buy individual policies separate from the employer and being able to own your own coverage--and then coupling that with an expansion of Medicaid to ensure no one slips through the cracks. I support conservative means, but there is no denying that the end--medical care for everyone--is a liberal one.
In a recent post on the coming Senate campaign in Michigan next year, I discussed the rights of labor to organize and outlined why I believe so-called "right-to-work" laws subtly undercut that right. I'm not prepared to extend this beyond the private sector and into government employees. I know the latter includes cops, firefighters and teachers, but it's not about the nobility of the work, it's about the nature of the employer. A private sector union is negotiating against a monied corporation. A public sector union is negotiating against the taxpayers.
This was at the heart of the recent political blowup in Wisconsin, where I live, and Republican governor Scott Walker facing a recall election, which he won by a wider margin than his original election. I backed Walker and the conservatives when the topic was public sector unions. I don't when it comes to the private sector and that creates a definite stream of blue flowing into the pool.
Finally , we come to the question of wages. In my most recent post I discussed how raising the minimum wage is not only a worthwhile idea, but one that can be strongly argued based on conservative principles (at least conservatives who aren't knee-deep in libertarian ideology). There are a few sticking points on the details that I want to see worked out, but in principle I agree with a higher minimum wage.
All of the issues outlined require some level of government intervention in the workings of a market economy, a strong labor union, or at the very least, the threat of a strong labor union to negotiate on behalf of its members. And they all form what amounts to the Blue Pool in an otherwise Red political life.
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