My hastily sketched out platform:
- Limited government, but not anti-government. Trust in good governance and transparency rather than demonizing all things ‘statist’.
- Support for a simplified, but still progressive tax code.
- Non-interventionist militarily; globalist economically.
- Free trade with strong safety nets (like health care and unemployment assistance) to help people aversely effected by inherently chaotic (and thus functioning) markets.
- Support for more legal immigration of both low-skilled and high-skilled workers.
- A strong focus on civil liberties and social equality: end DADT, support for gay marriage, no more government authorized torture or assassination.
- A push toward more competitive federalism where possible to make government more responsive to people and less bureaucratic.
- A focus on ending subsidies in agriculture, fossil fuels, and other industries which distort trade, hurt the environment, and benefit big business.
- Strong, but fair, environmental protections.
- Support for workers rights, but not for too-big-to-fail government unions.
Of course in the platform of any party that I'd put my name on would be a retooling of the overall national transportation strategy. If government is to be in the business of designing and paying for transportation networks it shouldn't be actively building highways and enforcing zoning laws that encourage insubstantial(sprawly) municipalities, cities, whathaveyou. Great, dense, thriving cities are natural, efficient, beautiful, and are the engines of culture, innovation, and ideas. What great people and ideas never mingled or coalesced over the nasty stretches of highways and throwaway storefronts that pass for a towns or citys nowadays. It's just sad.
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