Platform

In the his announcement that he's running for Congress, Jay laid out a brief, five-point platform that serves as this campaign's basic, driving principles. To review:

• No more economic policies based on the fiction of Ayn Rand
  
• No more social policies based on the hypocrisy of Catholic bishops
  
• No more international relations policies based on the movie Red Dawn
  
• No more education policies based on phony "miracles," be they in Houston or in Chicago
  
• No more environmental policies based on the philosophy of C. Montgomery Burns

Now, obviously some of these sound a little silly, but these are principles that are very important in Jay's life and will guide his actions as your congressman until he dies, retires, or gets promoted up to, say, the cabinet (his disagreements with Arne Duncan are legendary ... maybe Barack Obama will look to Jay when Duncan needs replacing). It's time to elaborate a little bit on these principles. Over the course of the next few weeks, as the campaign starts to come together, each of these principles will have its own page on the campaign website. For now, here's some basic information.

No more economic policies based on the fiction of Ayn Rand
This is important. Paul Ryan, as you know, is Congress's most prominent Randian, believing that this country would be better off if we implemented an official government economic policy based on the fictional philosophy that a hack writer boldly made her one-dimensional characters espouse (and espouse and espouse and espouse ... I mean, seriously, have you tried reading that tripe?). This is dumb. It's just about as dumb as trying to base your tax policy on a wild guess sketched on a napkin.

(A wise man once wrote, "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.")

Instead, Jay believes in economic policies that have proven successful. In today's tough economic times, we need significantly greater investment in the American economy, with much more stimulus available for states, for small businesses, and across our crumbling infrastructure. President Obama's stimulus package began with the right idea, but he gave in and attempted to compromise with Republicans like Ryan by including tax cuts, which economists tell us have little stimulative value. In the end, Republicans didn't even vote for the compromise measure!

No more social policies based on the hypocrisy of Catholic bishops
It was really painful for a lot of us in the Democratic Party, including Jay, to watch the health care reform debate in the last year as fellow Democrats--Democrats!--sacrificed quality reform on the altar of a Catholic church that at the time was busy sweeping pandemic pedophilia under the rug. Who do they think they are to try to tell the American people what our public policy should be related to moral issues? Instead, Jay, as an avowed atheist, will take a strong no-church-in-government stance. Period.

No more international relations policies based on the movie Red Dawn
It has never ceased to amaze Jay that conservatives, when thinking and talking about international issues, seem to have no basis for their ideas other than that C. Thomas Howell classic. It, like the fiction of Rand, seems to fit their ideology perfectly, by which we mean, paranoia. They're all out to get us, they think, and they would much rather attack first, justified or not, and cost be damned. For all of Paul Ryan's supposed fiscal conservatism, Ryan voted to invade Iraq, and voted for supplemental bill after supplemental bill--hundreds of billions' worth--time after time. When pallets, literal pallets, full of our money disappeared in Iraq, Ryan didn't blink an eye. And yet, when it comes time to offer health care subsidies to hundreds of needy, out-of-work voters in his district, he can't bear the thought.

No more education policies based on phony "miracles," be they in Houston or in Chicago
No Child Left Behind became law of the land, and shortly thereafter we learned that the "Houston Miracle" it was based on--Houston's Superintendent Rod Paige was even brought to DC as Secretary of Education--was an utter fabrication. Now Arne Duncan, former mayor-appointed superintendent of Chicago's public schools, wants to update NCLB based on utterly fabricated "success" in Chicago. As one who has taught in public schools for his whole adult life, Jay believes that this needs to stop, as does the push toward national standards and the push toward holding only high schools accountable for school district success. We need reform of the nation's education law, but that reform must be based on making communities stronger, better preparing parents to support their children's education, and better training teachers to deal with the neediest of children early.

No more environmental policies based on the philosophy of C. Montgomery Burns
The dollar is not more valuable than a livable planet. Business interests have demonstrated time and time again that if left to their own devices, they will rape and pillage the environment to an unconscionable degree, leaving behind a devastated wasteland of poisoned water, dead soil, and choking air. Jay believes that sensible regulations can keep the earth clean and sustainable for generations to come, as well as slow global warming, without driving companies out of business. In fact, with the right incentives, businesses in the United States could easily become world leaders in green technology, clean mass transit, and environmental responsibility.